INDIA: Students and the strangulating state

Indian students waited eagerly last week for the results of entrance exams to the most sought-after engineering schools, among them the famed Indian Institutes of Technology. More than 450,000 students competed for some 9,500 seats in what is perhaps the most competitive exam in the world, writes Barun S Mitra, director of the independent think tank the Liberty Institute, for The Wall Street Journal.

This year's success stories included a home-schooled 14-year-boy in Delhi and poor students from rural areas in Bihar state. They are even more remarkable because they triumphed over the state's strangulating embrace of the education sector.

With one of the youngest workforces in the world, India's economic potential is widely acknowledged. But the transition to a knowledge-intensive economy requires more skilled and competent employees. Barely 5% to 7% of the current workforce has had any formal training in a skill, and 70% may not even have completed primary schooling. According to estimates, only 10% to 15% of graduates are employable. India's biggest challenge is not unemployment, but unemployability.
Full report on The Wall Street Journal site