China Marches Ahead Of India In Higher Education
It is well known that China is far ahead of India in primary education with literacy rates more than 85% compared to Indias less than 65%. However, an analysis of statistics tends to prove that China has acquired a considerable lead over India even in higher education. Another interesting aspect about China is that it is well ahead in professional education. India, on the other hand, still leads in the non-professional education.
When one compares the number of graduates in India in 04 with China in 03, the figures are revealing. India graduated 24.6 lakh students ahead of China at 18.8 lakh. India also has 11.5 lakh arts graduates compared to China which lags at just 5 lakh. Science graduates in India at 5.4 lakh are far more than Chinas very meagre 1.73 lakh.
But China is far ahead of India in professional education. For instance, China churned out 6.44 lakh engineering graduates compared to just 1.55 lakh graduates from India. Medicine presents an even starker contrast. China churned out 1.1 lakh medical graduates compared to a mere 25,000 from India. And, very interestingly, the nominally Communist China turns out 2.8 lakh management graduates compared to 64,000 from India.
China has been working at its educational statistics for the past decade and more. For instance, the funding for education has increased by almost eight times since 1991. India has several lessons to learn from China in the way it has handled higher education, especially its focus on professional education.
India could do with more institutes for professional education. A recent ETIG analysis had concluded that India has a severe scarcity of doctors, especially in northern states.
The fact that China annually generates more than four times the doctors that India does only strengthens the view that India needs to work at increasing the output from its professional educational institutions, especially medicine
