India’s education system has expanded dramatically, bringing millions more children into schools and universities. But The Economist argues that the country’s deeper problem is not access alone: it is a system that produces degrees at scale while leaving too many students without basic skills or a clear path to employment.
The issue has gained renewed attention following youth protests that toppled India’s education minister. The protests were sparked by an exam leak, but The Economist says the anger reflects broader frustration with a system that Yamini Aiyar of Brown University describes as a “misery machine”.
Almost 300 million Indians are now enrolled in schools, colleges and universities. The fatal collapse of a student hostel in Delhi on September 6 further highlighted concerns over poor conditions, while the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which led the protests, has encouraged supporters to document problems in schools nationwide.
The Economist says India’s education expansion has not been matched by improvements in quality. In 1990, almost a quarter of Indian children did not attend primary school. Today, the figure is about 2%. Yet a 2022 survey of rural schools found that three in five children in year five could not read a year-two text.
Secondary education faces another problem: teacher accountability. Rural secondary-school teachers were absent on one in every eight days in 2024, according to The Economist. India has participated in the international PISA assessment only once, in 2009, when its schools ranked among the bottom three of 74 countries and regions in reading, mathematics and science.
Parents are increasingly turning to private education. Nearly 100 million Indian children attend fee-paying schools, representing 39% of pupils, compared with 32% in 2015. The Economist notes that while some private schools are excellent, many are low-cost institutions serving families with limited means and are themselves poorly regulated.
Higher education has expanded in similar fashion. Around 30% of Indian children now continue their education beyond school, up from 20% a decade ago. Much of this growth has come through privately run “affiliated colleges” operating under universities. More than 10,000 such colleges have emerged over the past decade.
The Economist visited one such institution in south Delhi, where students said they were paying 40,000 rupees ($420) a year despite coming from families for whom the cost represented a significant investment. Many had failed to secure places at cheaper public universities.
The publication identifies three broader problems. First, India has developed a mass education system without abandoning its historical emphasis on elite institutions. “We never designed a system focused on the median child,” says Amit Basole of Azim Premji University.
Second, The Economist argues that education has increasingly become a commercial enterprise. Private schools and coaching centres generate billions of dollars, while some families spend heavily on degrees that offer limited employment prospects.
Finally, the system suffers from misallocation. Degrees can serve as social-status symbols, improve marriage prospects and become prerequisites even for jobs that do not require them.
The CJP has succeeded in making education a major political issue, The Economist says. But the publication concludes that India’s educational shortcomings are systemic—and cannot be solved as easily as repairing a leaking classroom roof.
By Sabina Mammadli