Higher education system in India grim, needs more investment

New Delhi: The situation of higher education in India is grim and needs to be reformed, a NITI Aayog official Monday said while emphasising on the need to grow human expertise in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Releasing a task force report on 'Emergence of STEM education in India', NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat said the country may have a large number of graduates, post graduates and PhDs but their quality is questionable due to the shortcomings of the higher education system.

"If we neglect higher education, we neglect growth of the nation as a whole because higher education contributes to the nation's growth. If we have to transform our demography, we have take a look at the higher education in a big way because if you take an overall view of it, the situation is grim and not a happy situation.

"People say a large number of graduates and PhDs are coming out but we know the quality of those products /graduates/PhDs," Saraswat said. The government official compared the investment in higher education in India to that in China and said the situation is very serious. "Four per cent of GDP has been spent by India on overall education while China is spending around 565 billion dollars, out of which 145 billion dollars is spent on higher education.