The Educated Are An Asset, Not A Liability

So the dire warning of an educational emergency in South Asia, contained in a report on Human Development in South Asia, 1998 (Oxford University Press) co-authored by Pakistans development guru, Mahbub-ul- Haq and his intellectual and personal companion, Khadija Haq, is not really news. However, it is useful to be reminded that: South Asia has now emerged as the most illiterate region in the world, with about 400 million illiterate adults, nearly one-half of the world total. Over three out of every five illiterate adults have a womans face. There are 50 million children not attending primary school, over two-fifths of the world total. Another 60 million children drop out of primary school every year. If all children have to be placed in primary schools in the next five years, it involves an additional number exceeding the total population of the United Kingdom today.

As always, the Haqs are direct, candid and convincing. The adult literacy rate for South Asia, as of 1995, was 62 per cent (66 per cent for India) and compares with 80 per cent for the developing world as a whole (excluding South Asia), 80.9 per cent for China and 98.5 per cent for the developed industrial countries. All the newly industrialising economies of East and Southeast Asia also have a literacy rate of between 80 per cent and 95 per cent. Given this overwhelming evidence in support of the hypothesis that high literacy is a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for modern industrial development, how can India hope to win the development race without a concerted effort to push up literacy?

Moreover, it is not just basic literacy which is a challenge. The standard and quality of the education that is now being imparted is also woefully inadequate to meet the demands of a modern economy. There is yet another cause for alarm, say the Haqs, the schools in South Asia have failed to teach the basic skills needed for a productive and useful life to even those children who do enroll. The evidence assembled in the report indicates that many of South Asias multi-lingual, multi-age, multi-grade classrooms are nothing short of a multiple disaster zone. The quality of education has, in fact, declined over the years with public policy focussing on quantity.

That enough research has been done across South Asia in identifying the policy agenda comes through clearly from this report. India has had scores of committees at the national and state level examining what needs to be done. There are international reports as well. The detailed policy prescriptions the Haqs have put together shows that there is no paucity of thinking on the subject. The real challenge is in ensuring the follow-up. There is no political will and the report says as much. This, however, is a result of the feudal attitude of our political elite who see an educated people more as a threat than an opportunity. As a political liability than an economic asset.

Contrast the worrying scenario that Mahbub and Khadija paint with the standard policy response one gets in the region. At a recent workshop on the South-East Asian development experience organised by the Mussoorie-based IAS Academy in New Delhi for senior members of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), an officer from a major Hindi-speaking state argued that by investing in education the government was only making the problem of educated unemployment worse! The team of nearly 20 joint secretary level IAS officers was preparing to travel through Southeast Asia to study how these countries tackled social challenges like poverty and illiteracy. This disturbing response from the IAS officer came in response to a statement I had made in my presentation that despite the recent crisis in East and Southeast Asia, these countries were better equipped to recover from the crisis because they had created the social and economic base for modern industrial development. India, with its high illiteracy and low skill

development, had still a long way to go before we can afford to be smug about the crisis enveloping Asia to our east.

The report of the Haqs should help clear many cobwebs from our policymakers minds. The report admittedly focuses only on primary and technical education. There is very little discussion of the challenge in higher education. The fashionable view on higher education these days is that it should be privatised. The Haqs report also seems to hold this view. While there is nothing wrong in allowing more private investment in higher education and encouraging universities to mobilise a part of their funds from the market, the real challenge in higher education in South Asia is the decline in the quality of teaching and of students. Populism has destroyed the meritocracy. Not a fashionable formulation but the harsh reality.

The Haq report correctly identifies human capital as an asset for South Asia and sees increased investment in literacy, education and technical skill creation as a spur to economic growth. However, in urging public policy to focus more on the literacy and skill development agenda, attention should not be denied to the increasing challenge of improving quality and rewarding merit in higher education.