Quality of Population
- Importance of education
- Steps taken by government
- Enrolment in higher education
Literacy rate, health and skills determine the quality of a population. Illiterate and unhealthy population can be a liability for the economy. Literate and healthy population can be made into an asset for the economy. Literate and healthy population contributes towards GDP of a country.
Education
Education enhances the literacy level and skill level of a person. It also helps in enriching the culture of the society. Presence of educated persons in the society indirectly benefits the illiterate persons as well.
Steps taken by government
Government has taken various steps to spread education among the people. Government strives to provide universal access to education. It also makes various plans to increase the retention of students. Special emphasis is given on girl’s education.
The plan outlay on education in the first plan was Rs. 151 crore. It has increased to Rs. 43,825 crore in the tenth plan. This amount was raised to Rs. 3767 crore in the eleventh plan. The expenditure on education was 0.64% of the GDP in 1950-51 and has increased to 3.98% of the GDP in 2002-03. It became 3% in 2015-16 and became 2.7% in 2017-18
Due to constant efforts, the literacy rate has grown from 18% in 1951 to more than 70% in 2011. Literacy rate is higher among males compared to among females. Kerala is a state with more than 90% literacy, while some states have a very low literacy level.
Government has recently launched Sarva Siksha Abhiyan to spread education to remotest parts of the country. Under this programme, all children under 6 to 14 years of age are given elementary education.
Government also provides Mid-Day Meal in government schools so that children of poor people can attend the school. Mid-day Meal has helped many children from the poor family to attend school.
Enrolment in higher education
The Tenth Plan has focused on increasing the enrolment in higher education from 6% to 9%. The strategy is to increase access, quality and adoption of state-specific curriculum to motivate enrolment in higher education. Vocational courses are also offered and use of Information Technology is being maximized to attain the goal. The Tenth Plan also focuses on distant education, convergence of formal, non-formal and IT education.
| Institutions of Higher Education, Enrolment and Faculty | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | No. of colleges | No. of universities | No. of students | No. of teachers |
| 1950-51 | 750 | 30 | 263,000 | 24,000 |
| 1990-91 | 7,346 | 177 | 4,925,000 | 272,000 |
| 1998-99 | 11,089 | 238 | 7,417,000 | 342,000 |
| 2010-11 | 33023 | 523 | 18,670,050 | 816,966 |
| 2016-17 | 42,338 | 795 | 29,427,158 | 1,470,190 |
| 2017-18 | 41,012 | 851 | 36,642,378 | 1,284,957 |
| 2018-19 | 39,931 | 993 | 37,399,388 | 1,416,299 |
| 2019-20 | 44,374 | 1,236 | 38,275,207 | 1,204,207 |
SOURCE: UGC annual report 2019-20