India’s economic advisor to PM, Raghuram Rajan has said that India's formal education system is failing as the government is falling short in delivering its responsibilities. He said that the country needs more organisational training in the field of education. He was speaking at Pratham gala fundraiser held at the Meadows Club in Chicago, US. "India's formal education system is failing and government school system is failing - government is not delivering the goods," Rajan said.
Emphasizing on the need to give good incentives to the talented and efficient faculty, he said, "Here in the United States, superstar teachers are paid more. India needs to give incentives to its good teachers to raise the level of education across schools and universities.”
Speaking on the importance of elementary education, he said, "I think it's of critical importance. For a long time we have focused on higher education, but in the last decade we have shifted our focus to primary and secondary education. We need every child in school.In Indian primary schools, half of the students are not in class. Average schools are better in United States and dropout rate is more in India although students are more hungry for education," he added.
Rajan who is a professor of finance at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, opined "Education is a leveller, a game changer."
He said China always emphasised education much more than India and as a result its average literacy rate is better than India's. "Education is a problem not only for India but world over because of increase in free trade, communications, unemployment rates and low skilled jobs," said Rajan.
Raghuram Govind Rajan is currently the Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. He is also economic adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the current President of the American Finance Association. He previously was the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and headed a committee appointed by the Planning Commission on financial reforms in India. Rajan is also a visiting professor at the Indian Finance Ministry, World Bank, Federal Reserve Board, and Swedish Parliamentary Commission.
Born and brought up in Bhopal, he graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; he completed the Master of Business Administration at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad in 1987. He received his PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has authored books and has numerous articles in top-tier finance and economics journals to his credit.
[Source: Economic Times]
