Thursday 3 July 2014

At 315mn, India has world's largest student population


Subodh Varmandia has the second largest I population in the world and so most population-related numbers are bound to be big, but even so recently released Census 2011 data throws up a startling statistic--the number of students is a gigantic 315 million. This is not only the largest student body in the world, but Indian students would make for the fourth biggest country in the world, nearly touching the US with a population of 318 million. For comparison, China's student population is about 252 million as per Unesco statistics.The student population of 315 million has a slightly bizarre component to it. Census da ta gives the ages of these students, and over 3.3 million of them are above 30 years of age. In fact, over 12 lakh are above 60 years and 1.2 lakh are above 80 years. This suggests either that there was something wrong in the way questions were posed or framed, or some people are talking about their dreams.
But this grey area is small--just over 1% of the total.
But what is more troubling is the number of `students' reported in the 0-4 age group --a jaw dropping 10.5 million.
Marginal workers, P 10 Undoubtedly, parents have been pushing their young kids to join play schools in an attempt to give them a head start in later competition. But the scale at which this is reported is incredible.
The total population of 0-4 years in India is 112 million. That means about 10% of them are in pre-nursery ‘schools’ and probably crèches. About 9.5 million students are ‘marginal workers’. That is, they are working on an irregular or part time basis, not more than six months a year. About 60% of them are male.
This reflects the pressure families face in making ends meet, and the high costs of education.

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