Roots · शिक्षा Education and skills

Learning, not only schooling.

India puts almost every child in school and too few of them learn to read by the time they leave primary. The degree has become a ticket that does not get you on the train. Skills, a tutor for every child and universities that do real research are the way out.

Seven positions, stated plainly.

The main building of IIT Bombay. Photograph: Shishirdasika, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Reading and maths by age eight.

Everything else is built on it. In 2024 fewer than one in four Class 3 children in government schools could read a Class 2 text.

Skills over degrees.

Apprenticeships, vocational training and paid internships. Only about 4% of working-age Indians have formal vocational training.

An AI tutor for every child.

Teachers become mentors and the tutor never tires. India already runs DIKSHA at a scale no one else does. The tutor is the next layer.

World-class research universities.

Three Indian institutions are in the QS top 200 and none in the THE top 200. India spends 0.64% of GDP on research.

Finish school before you skill.

Only 51.9% of students stay on to secondary level. Skilling built on an unfinished school is built on sand.

Pay for outcomes, not enrolments.

PMKVY’s dashboard claims 54% placement and the underlying data shows about 22%. When the internship stipend rose to ₹9,000 fewer interns quit. Pay for the job, not the certificate.

Use the moment students are staying home.

Students going abroad fell 31% in two years and 16 foreign universities are setting up in India. Fill the 28% of faculty posts vacant in central universities while the talent is here.

Education in nine numbers.

  • 24.7 cr Children in school: 2025-26.
  • 30 Higher education enrolment ratio: 23.7 in 2014-15.
  • 23.4% Class 3 in govt schools reading a Class 2 text: Rural, ASER 2024. Up from 16.3%.
  • 56.4% Graduates found employable: India Skills Report 2026.
  • 4.1% Working-age people with vocational training: PLFS 2023-24.
  • 6.3 lakh Students who went abroad in 2025: 9.1 lakh in 2023.
  • 3 Indian institutions in the QS top 200: None in the THE top 200.
  • 0.64% Of GDP spent on R&D: Business pays 41% of it.
  • 16,060 PM interns who joined, rounds 1 and 2: From 52,600 offers accepted.

Sources: UDISE+ 2025-26; AISHE 2023-24; ASER 2024; India Skills Report 2026; PLFS 2023-24; Rajya Sabha; QS 2027; Economic Survey 2025-26; ThePrint.

The pieces