Education system; Qualities

Literacy

According to the Census of 2011, "every person above the age of 7 years who can read and write with understanding in any language is said to be literate". According to this criterion, the 2011 survey holds the National Literacy Rate to be around 74.07%. The youth literacy rate, measured within the age group of 15 to 24, is 81.1% (84.4% among males and 74.4% among females), while 86% of boys and 72% are literate in the 10-19 age group.

Within the Indian states, Kerala has shown the highest literacy rates of 93% whereas Bihar averaged 63.8% literacy. The 2001 statistics also indicated that the total number of 'absolute non-literates' in the country was 304 million.

Attainment

As of 2011, enrollment rates are 58% for pre-primary, 93% for primary, 69% for secondary, and 25% for tertiary education.

Despite the high overall enrollment rate for primary education, among rural children of age 10, half could not read at a basic level, over 60% were unable to do division, and half dropped out by the age 14.

In 2009, two states in India, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh, participated in the international PISA exams which is administered once every three years to 15 year olds. Both states ranked at the bottom of the table, beating out only Kyrgyzstan in score, and falling 200 points (two standard deviations) below the average for OECD countries. While in the immediate aftermath there was a short-lived controversy over the quality of primary education in India, ultimately India decided to not participate in PISA for 2012,and again not to for 2015.

While the quality of free, public education is in crisis, a majority of the urban poor have turned to private schools. In some urban cities, it is estimated as high as two-thirds of all students attend private institutions,many of which charge a modest US$2 per month. There has not been any standardized assessment of how private schools perform, but it is generally accepted that they outperform public schools.

Public school workforce

Officially, the pupil to teacher ratio within the public school system for primary education is 35 : 1. However, teacher absenteeism in India is exorbitant, with 25% never showing up for work.[79] The World Bank estimates the cost in salaries alone paid to such teachers who have never attended work is US$2 billion per year.

A study on teachers by Kremer etc. found out that 25% of public sector teachers and 40% of public sector medical workers were absent during the survey. Among teachers who were paid to teach, absence rates ranged from 15% in Maharashtra to 30% in Bihar. Only 1 in nearly 3000 public school head teachers had ever dismissed a teacher for repeated absence. The same study found "only about half were teaching, during unannounced visits to a nationally representative sample of government primary schools in India."

Higher education

As per Report of the Higher education in India, Issues Related to Expansion, Inclusiveness, Quality and Finance,[82] the access to higher education measured in term of gross enrollment ratio increased from 0.7% in 1950/51 to 1.4% in 1960–61. By 2006/7 the GER increased to about 11 percent. Notably, by 2012, it had crossed 20% (as mentioned in an earlier section).

Vocational

An optimistic estimate is that only one in five job-seekers in India has ever had any sort of vocational training.[83] However, this figure is likely to be much higher in 2013.