India and the Three ‘R’s

India has more young people than anywhere in the world. It is a statistic that at once represents potential and peril. A large population of young people is economically valuable in theory, but India will struggle to generate jobs for the millions entering the workforce every year. If job creation is proving a huge challenge, of even greater concern is India’s failure to provide a reasonable quality of primary education. Are young Indians being armed with the means to succeed?

252 MILLION

Indian children from 6 to 15 years old, says ministry of human resource development

1.03 BILLION

India’s working age population in 2030, according to the UN

96.9%

Children up to 14 enrolled in school in 2016, according to NGO Pratham’s

Annual Status of Education Report

9.9%

Of girls in UP from 11 to 14 are not in school. Other poor performers include Rajasthan (9.7%) and Madhya Pradesh (8.5%)

73.1%

Of students in Standard VIII can read at least a Standard II level text in 2016, down from 74.7% in 2014

27.7%

Of Standard III students can do two-digit subtraction sums. A very low number, albeit up from 25.4% in 2014

#92

India’s education rank in 2015, out of 145 countries, according to private investment firm Legatum’s well-regarded Prosperity Index. Iceland was #1

2.9%

Of India’s GDP spent on education in 2016-2017, according to the Economic Survey. Over 50 years ago, the Kothari Commission recommended 6%. Iceland spends 7.8%