Education in India needs reforms, particularly to improve quality in private provision, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) President Naushad Forbes said on Tuesday."Education is a sector which has not been reformed in 25 years of economic reforms. It needs to be," he said."There is a huge potential in school as well as higher education. The central government is looking at it. The benefits will be noticed not in the short run but in the long run," Forbes said.
Thirty years ago, the government sector accounted for 85 per cent of engineering seats, he said, as compared to now when private colleges account for 90 per cent of the seats."This shift is due to a massive growth in private education in many states, but some private colleges also lack qualified faculty and quality facilities," he said.
As a result of persisting quality problems, engineering seats across states go abegging, Forbes said.The oversupply of engineering seats, however, will also force colleges to improve their quality to provide better teachers and facilities, he said. "One way to address the quality problem is through active institute-industry engagement," he said.Forbes also said West Bengal has struggled to catch up with high rate of growth of Information Technology sector in other states because of its 'no English policy' in (primary) school education. Later, the West bengal government did realise its mistake and introduced English, which was good, he added.