Global Comparison: State of Education in India and China
Dr. Harpreet Kaur Dhir
Abstract
Keywords: primary education, global south, social justice, global education, equity, economic growth, developing nation, higher education
Global Comparison: State of Education in India and China
As the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) were set by the United Nations Millennium Summit consisting of 193 countries, the second out of the total eight goals was in attention to the right to education on a global level (Hinzen, 2013). Education for All (EFA) initiative was developed to promote the right to education goal of MDG. The six EFA goals were established by 1500 international participating members during the World Education Forum held in Dakar (Hinzen, 2013).
The EFA goals focused on the educational development ranging from primary to tertiary levels, on gender equality in education, and on improving the overall quality of education. The EFA goals were proposed to be met by the year 2015, but Hinzen (2013) reported that countries of the global south had not achieved the EFA goals. The comparative analysis examined the educational progress of India and China as the two developing nations competing with one another for economic powers of the global south.
Objective of the Paper
Crossley and Sprague (2012) lamented the economic and political issues gaining prioritized status over the issues pertaining to education on an international level. The objective of the comparative study, therefore, focused on demonstrating how the current educational state of the two countries, India and China, might influence the future economic status of the two competing powers in the global south. The connection of education to economic growth would make it difficult to avoid the focus on educational issues.
Education, according to St. George (2006), drove the Asian economies. On a global level, the preference offered to the economic issues was contrasted in the “Asian Model” where educational issues were linked to the economic growth at the national policy level. Asian Model, as explained by St. George (2006), included the regulations and incentives provided by the Asian governments to increase the graduation rates in the fields such as science and technology which could develop the local industries to ensure economic growth.
Methodology of the Study
Focus Areas
To accomplish the objective of the study, the following areas were examined:
· The researcher examined the existing state of education in the EFA focused areas of primary to tertiary education, gender equality, and the quality of education in India and China.
· The researcher compared the areas of strength and the areas needing improvement in both countries and how the focused areas compared to the overall international averages reported by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Data Sources
The OECD, as the data source, included the educational statistics on a variety of age groups from both India and China, but the focus of this study was mainly on the age group of 25-34 years of age (Chisalta & Cretu, 2014). The group within 25-34 years of age was of interest since the range provided data associated with the recent graduates forming the work force which was still far from the retirement age.
The data on women’s education and the class environment were also compared from the two nations. Gender parity was an important point of comparison to gain information of educational equality. Classroom environment data provided a view of class sizes and the ratio of students to teachers and a view into the quality of education provided to students in India and China.
Analysis of the OECD Comparisons: Primary to Tertiary Education, Gender Equality, Quality of Education
China and India had various areas of strengths and weaknesses in efforts to educate all. In the age category of 25-34 years of age, the primary to tertiary education data illuminated differences and similarities. In China, 17.9% of this age group was attaining the tertiary education compared to 13.9% of the Indian citizens in the same group. Both countries were below the OECD average of 42.9%.
The attainment of bachelor’s degrees ranged from China having 22.2% and India with 31.6% of the graduates compared to the OECD average of 37.8%. This showed a wide gap of the rates of the bachelor level of degree holders in India and China with India being closer to the OECD average. The above listed data showed the tertiary education as being higher in China with a difference of four percentage points. The reason, the researcher believed, that China showed higher level of tertiary education attainment than India despite India having a higher number of degree holders was that China had 24% of the students receiving short tertiary education. The researcher assumed short tertiary education might mean diplomas rather than a completed degree. The data for India did not include the short tertiary education. This may impact the overall data for India if the diploma holders were accounted.
The upper secondary education was the same with China at 35.5% and India at 36.1%, but below the OECD global average of 84%. In both data points of tertiary and secondary education, at least 40 percentage points of difference existed between the two countries and the OECD averages which raises concerns for the future economic growth of the two countries. Globally, it appeared from the data that one-third of the population in general completed bachelor’s degree with 17% completing the master’s degree, and 1% of the population with a doctorate degree. The researcher, a doctoral candidate, was surprised to see how rare it was to find people around the world who earned a doctorate degree.
Comparing the Gender Equality in Education
In China and India, women were below the global levels of female graduates. The first-time tertiary level female graduates in China were 51.1% compared to India with 49.4%. It was below the 57.4% of global levels of women earning higher education levels. The statistics revealed 48.2% out of the 49.4% of the female Indian graduates were in the science and technology related fields. The data relating to Chinese graduates did not have any statistics with regards to the fields of science and technology specifically and neither did the OECD.
Indian graduates have contributed significantly to the field of science and technology and developing the country’s economy attributing significance to the OECD data on Indian women graduates. Sabharwal and Varma (2017) provided data on the Asian Indian population’s role in science and engineering fields from 4% in 1973 to 16% in 2010. 19% of the foreign-born professors and researchers in science and engineering in the United States migrated from India. With this focus on science and engineering, India has the potential to become an economic leader in the global south.
Quality of Education
The OECD classroom environment data was employed to assess an aspect of the quality of education. At the lower secondary level, the class size in China consisted of 49 students in one class compared to 22 students in India. India remained below the OECD level of 23 students in a class. The ratio of students to teachers in China at the secondary level was 13.82 with India’s ratio at 31.60, and OECD at 13.19.
In Chinese classrooms at the primary levels, 37 students composed a class on average with student to teacher ratio being at 16.29. In India, 24 students in the classroom was significantly a smaller class size than the classes in China. However, the students to teacher ratio was much higher in India with 29.06. At the global level, the class size on average was 21 students with a ratio of students to teachers at the 15.23 mark. It appeared that China had hired more teachers and India needed to hire more educators at the primary level as well. China needed to lower the class sizes whereas India’s class sizes were comparable to the global levels. The class sizes and the student to teacher ratios provided the initial levels of comparison in assessing the quality of education.
Discussion
The objective of the comparative study was to demonstrate that examining the state of education was important for the economic well-being of the country. The analysis of the data from the OECD studied the three areas including the levels of educational attainment, the gender equality, and the quality of education in India and in China. It was clear that both countries had not met the OECD averages in all three areas examined providing further evidence of the claim that the global south had not achieved the EFA goals post 2015 (Hinzen, 2013).
According to Crosco (2013), education is considered a human right which facilitates the fulfillment of the right to economic well-being of individuals and societies. Crosco (2013) offered solutions to the countries whose educational goals remained unmet. The solution is complex requiring restructuring of various areas including social, political, and environmental justice which could lead to economic growth. Additionally, according to Crosco (2013), the education system needed to be universal, free, and compulsory inclusive of all ages from young children to adult learners.
The backdrop of the unique histories of India and China provided a view into the ethnic, cultural, and religious conflicts. The historic discrimination against the marginalized groups causing social and economic inequities in the present is an area needing reform and points to the need for establishing socially just policies and practices (Crosco, 2013). Inclusion of the marginalized groups in the social and political agenda was considered a social justice concern at the national and global levels (Mukherjee, 2017).
The focus on social justice, in efforts to meet educational goals, would lead to an inclusive education (Mukherjee, 2017). The researcher believed that by emphasizing inclusive practices combined with compatible governmental policies could be the initial supportive step to reform education in India and China instead of the focus on economic needs driving educational policies. The questions concerning why India and China had not met the EFA goals could be answered by confronting the realities of students facing exclusion relating to their socio-economic levels, caste, tribe, religion, disability, and gender. Exclusionary practices could be the reason for the two of the most populated nations in the world standing 40 points below the global average in attaining tertiary education. The reasons for this discrepancy of achievement can be found in the social and political structures of India and China.
In the Asian Model of education, as mentioned above, the funding and incentive policies of the government were designed to produce graduates who fulfilled the economic needs of the country. The economy drove the educational policies (St. George, 2006). The model could not be considered effective since two Asian economic powers, India and China, have not been able to achieve the educational goals. In association with OECD, the World Bank has proposed a diverse system where education has taken the role of a market force or an economic institution. The World Bank promoted the universities to compete in the marketplace to receive financial support from the private and public entities (St. George, 2006). Education is now treated as a force containing economic benefits for institutions and consumers.
The researcher believed that The World Bank model of diverse system might be beneficial in developing educational opportunities in India and China. A public university in California charges an average of $60,000 for post-graduate degree programs. With a competing market of universities, the researcher found a private university costing $50,000 and another private online college costing less than the private brick and mortar university making it possible to enroll in a doctoral program for an adult learner who is financially burdened with other family obligations. The competitive market force of education developed through the combination of online private colleges in the United States could produce more graduates in India and China if a similar model were to be applied. Increased number of graduates would prepare the countries to compete globally leading to economic growth.
The competitive marketing of educational programs contributed to bringing the equity and social justice in the lives of learners whose experience includes economic disadvantages common to the first-generation college graduates. Kasapoglu (2014) listed five policy pillars to create equity and high-quality practice in education. The pillars included a clear strategy, consistent and rigorous standards, improving the capacity of teachers and students, distribution of resources in an equitable manner, and proactive instruction of at-risk students. The five pillars might offer a framework for the competing universities in offering overall educational packages of degree programs, increasing recruitment, and building programs to retain the students. The competition to attract students would bring more people to higher education programs.
Nations, such as India and China, have difficult challenges to overcome. Economic powers of the world, such as United States, are continuously confronting disparities existing in population revealing a reality that challenges faced by the developing nations are expected. Despite the current policies of equitable access to education in the United States, the students performed on an average level in reading and below average in math. Twenty percent of the country’s 15-year-olds were designated as low performing students. Disadvantaged students were 2.5 times more likely to be considered low achieving students (Kasapoglu, 2014). The information revealed the struggles of the students at the national level. Considering the effects of inequities caused by personal and institution-based disadvantages in education in a wealthy nation such as the United States, the lack of immunity from the issues of inequity could be expected in the developing nations such as India and China. As one of the eight Millennium Development Goal, the right to education was necessary for creating equity for the global citizens.
Conclusion
Educating all ages is necessary for a nation’s economic growth. According to Das (2017), privatization of education must occur as the governments of the developing nations have limited resources to offer education for all. Online and private education could be the solution to increasing the number of tertiary level graduates in the global south providing high quality yet affordable options for financially disadvantaged adult learners. Das (2017) stressed the privatization of education as a method to achieve the economic goals. The efforts to privatize education are essential to disallow the national economic goals to decide the educational policies as had been the traditional practice in the Asian countries. The Asian countries, including India and China, needed to abandon the old Asian Model of subsidizing education based on national economic goals. Instead, these nations needed to adopt the diverse model of The World Bank where educational institutions compete in the market to recruit and retain students cutting across the boundaries of age, race, economics, gender, nations, and other barriers obstructing the global agenda of educating all.
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