Science and Technology Education in India

India is fast emerging as a Knowledge Economy. Its spectacular performance in the IT sector has helped the country's offshoring sector emerge as the world's largest and fastest growing. McKinsey Quarterly predicts that by 2007-08 the BPO industry workforce will consist of 1.45 million to 1.55 million people and the industry will account for 7 per cent of India's GDP. But there is cause for concern as well. According to research by the McKinsey Global Institute, 'India's vast supply of graduates is smaller than it seems once their suitability for employment by multinational companies is considered.' The report stresses that the government must 'adjust the country's educational policy to ward off the looming squeeze on talent'. McKinsey estimates that India has 14 million young university graduates (those with seven years or less of work experience). This pool is 1.5 times the size of China's and almost twice that of the United States. Every year 2.5 million new graduates are added to this pool. While the numbers seem encouraging at first glance, a closer look reveals that India is likely to face a talent crunch in the coming years.

Lack of reliable and updated data on the status of activities in the science and technology arena is a major constraint towards policy making in this crucial sector. Given this context, the first India Science Report (ISR), released by the Delhi-based National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in 2005 is a step in the right direction. The report, which concentrates on the three major issues - status of science and engineering education, utilisation pattern of human resource and public attitude towards S&T - is the first of its kind. The findings are based on the National Science Survey conducted by NCAER in 2004. The rural sample was selected from a representative number of districts from across the country while the urban sample took into consideration big metro cities to small towns with population of less than 5,000. Nearly 347,000 individuals (115,000 rural and 232,000 urban) were listed covering 553 villages in 152 districts  as rural and 1128 urban blocks in 213 towns as urban. Over 30,000 individuals were selected from the listed individuals to collect detailed information through a questionnaire involving face to face interviews. A separate set of questionnaires for students (6,722) and teachers (1,681) were canvassed during the survey. ICFDC.com presents some of the key highlights of the report.


Graduate-Plus Population: India has 48.7 million graduates and above (excluding diploma holders) and about a fourth of these have a background in science education. There are 39.2 million graduates in all (22.3 per cent of whom are from the science stream), 9.3 million post-graduates (19.4 per cent of whom are from the science stream), and 0.3 million doctorates (one-third from the science stream). The number of graduate-plus individuals has increased from 20.5 million recorded in the 1991 Census to 31.6 million (as enumerated in the larger sample by NSS in 2000-01). While 2.4 per cent of the population had at least a graduate degree in 1991, this figure went up to around 4.5 per cent as per NCAER's Science Survey 2004. In addition another half per cent or so of the population has a diploma.

India is Producing more Engineers: It is heartening to note that engineering education has witnessed the highest growth - from 8.2 per cent per annum in 1995-2000 to 21.9 per cent in 2000-04.  In comparison, enrolments for the arts grew from 4 per cent to 6.2 per cent annually and overall growth for all subjects actually fell. The number of students doing their post-graduation has also risen 2.5 times between 1995-96 and 2003-04, from 0.7 million to 1.7 million. Among post-graduates, those enrolled in the science stream rose by around 2.7 times and those in engineering more than 10 times. However, with a pool of just about 1 million engineers, it is imperative that growth in engineering education takes a quantum leap.


Enrolment in Higher Education (Graduate+) by Level of Education (Per Cent) 2003-04

Fields of Study	Graduate	Postgraduate	Total Enrolment
Science	33.1	41.4	34.6
Natural Science	20.3	11.5	18.7
Engineering	7.9	26.4	11.3
Medicine	4.1	2.3	3.8
Agriculture-Veterinary	0.9	1.1	0.9
Arts	49.9	44.3	48.9
Commerce	14.2	5.7	12.6
Others	2.7	8.6	3.8
Total	100	100	100
Number (Million)	7.76	1.73	9.49

Of the 31 per cent students enrolled in science subjects at the graduate-plus level in 2000-01 and 34.6 per cent in 2004, the number of those who are going in for further research is relatively small. In 2000-01 of the total of 8.44 million students enrolled at the graduate-post-graduate level, only a little over 1 per cent enrolled for Ph.D. So while the increased proportion of students opting for science courses at the graduate level is good news, the lower follow through to higher levels, particularly doctorates, is a matter of concern.

Profile of the Employed:  Among science graduates, around 34 per cent are employed in 'professional and technical' jobs and only 7 per cent are employed in administrative, executives and managerial jobs. A higher percentage (51.9 per cent) of postgraduates are employed in professional and technical jobs. In contrast only 17.7 per cent non-science graduates and 35.5 per cent postgraduates hold professional and technical jobs.

Profile of the Unemployed: The estimated population of the unemployed is around 40 million. As of 2004, of this  population, 58.3 per cent have studied only upto less than  class 12, 13 per cent are illiterate, 15.8 per cent have studied till Class 12, 8.1 per cent are graduates and 3.9 per cent are postgraduates. Of the graduates who are unemployed, 22.3 per cent have studied science. The share of postgraduates with a science background is significantly higher (62.8 per cent). This is a matter of great concern and could perhaps be one of the key reasons for students not opting for science courses at the higher level or changing their stream after the 12th and graduation to pursue technical education or management courses.

In the case of housewives, a majority is either illiterate (36.9 per cent) or has studied only upto Class 12 (52.6 per cent). Of the remainder 1.5 per cent have studied science as against 9 per cent who have studied either arts or commerce. In terms of graduate and postgraduate housewives, there are only 9.3 per cent with a science background.

Government Expenditure on Education: The proportion of government expenditure has increased marginally over the last decade, from 3.6 per cent of the GDP in 1995-96 to 3.9 per cent in 2002-03. Over 40 per cent of the total expenditure by the government goes towards elementary education, a fourth to secondary schooling and just a tenth or so to university and higher education. Within this, the states tend to spend a lot more than the central government (almost 85 per cent of total government spending is by the states). Around 42-43 per cent of the states' budget is allocated for elementary education, 28 per cent for secondary education and a tenth for university education. Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have the highest spending among the states and account for 10.4 per cent and 7.5 per cent of all government spending in the country, respectively. However, if looked at per capita education spends Uttar Pradesh ranks as the lowest with just Rs 387 per person per annum as compared to West Bengal which tops the list with a government per capita spend of Rs 1750 per annum. Maharashtra is No. 2 with a per capita spend of Rs 1070. The other significant states in this respect are Kerala (Rs 902) and Punjab (Rs 845). In Bihar, not surprisingly, where the government spent only Rs 44 per person in 2000-01, the average citizen spent Rs 168 in 2001-02 on education.

Regional Profile of the Educated: Delhi has the best qualified population and 16 per cent of all Delhi-ites have at least a graduate degree. At an all-India level, six per cent of the country's population (above the age of 10) is at least graduate and above and another 12 per cent has passed Class 12 and-or has a diploma. Though Karnataka is considered to be the country's Knowledge Capital, it is Andhra Pradesh that has the highest proportion of science graduates in the country. Of the 12.1 million science graduates and diploma holders in the country, 14 per cent are to be found in Andhra Pradesh, 11.9 per cent in Tamil Nadu, 11.1 per cent in Maharashtra, 10.2 per cent in Uttar Pradesh and 7.5 per cent in Karnataka.

Attitudes towards Science: With more students enrolling for science education - 28 per cent of all enrolments at the graduate-plus level were in the science field in 1995-96 and this went up to 31 per cent in 2004 - things seem to be hunky dory for science education in the country. However the cause for worry lies in the fact that students seem less inclined in pursuing pure science when it comes to a higher degree, whether graduation or postgraduation. At the class six to eight levels, 22 per cent say they would like to study pure science. Yet, this percentage drops to 13.4 per cent among students in class 11 and 12 who want to pursue pure science at a higher level.

Preferred Profession: While at school, the highest number of students want to become teachers (32 per cent in rural areas and 20 per cent in urban areas) but this desire declines over the years. In classes six to eight, for instance, 30 per cent students say they wish to become teachers and this falls to 23 per cent among students in class 11 and 12. The proportion that want to become doctors remain more or less the same at all classes in school (around 20 per cent) while the proportion that wants to become engineers rises marginally (to 23 per cent).

Impact of Amenities on Education: There seems to be a direct correlation between access to amenities and higher education. While 61 per cent of illiterate people have access to electricity, 95 per cent of postgraduates have access to power. Fewer than five per cent of all illiterates have refrigerators at home compared to around 50 per cent in the case of graduates.

India's HRST Population: According to the National Science Survey 2004, India has a workforce of 376 million of which 40.2 million (11 per cent) could be classified as Human Resource in Science and Technology (HRST) because of their qualification (HRSTE) and 26.8 million (7.3 per cent) because of their occupation (HRSTO). The  overlap between these two categories is called core HRST, which amounts to 14.2 million (3.9 per cent) of the workforce. In 2004, a third (35.2 per cent) of the total HRSTE were pursuing an occupation that could be considered to be core HRST. That, close to two-thirds HRSTE were not utilised properly. Looking at it in another way, around 53 per cent of those holding HRST jobs were educationally qualified, and the rest had only a 12th class degree or less. In terms of state-wise distribution of HRST population, UP leads with a population of 2.1 million core HRST workers accounting for over 15 per cent of the country's core HRST. Maharashtra follows in the second place with 14 per cent of the country's core HRST population. In terms of the core HRST workers as a percentage of the state workforce and state population above 10 years of age, Delhi, Kerala, Haryana, West Bengal and Maharashtra, in that order, emerge on top of the list.

Excerpted from the India Science Report, Science Education, Human Resources and Public Attitude towards Science and Technology