When degrees are just pieces of paper.

"The state of India's higher education is much worse than the state of India's school education," wrote A Behar, CEO of Azim Premji Foundation. There are over 740 universities and 40,000 colleges in the country. Every year his foundation conducts written tests among those with masters degrees in physical and social sciences, humanities and math, and the pass rate among students who qualified from the better universities has been between 5-20%. Which means that about 80% have learnt nothing. Why this state of affairs? "it is quite simple: Students don't want to learn, they only want a degree. At the same time, institutions and teachers are happy to dish out degrees, and not make any effort at education." Students come to college after passing school. "Of the 18-year-olds enrolled in colleges and schools, 60 per cent can read English, though one-fifth cannot tell you what they read," wrote Prof K Basu. This is from the 2017 report by Annual Status of Education Report, or ASER. 57% of children between 14 and 18 years of age cannot divide 999 by 3. According to the government, India has about 800,000 doctors, giving an average of one doctor for every 1,668 people. Of these about 791,000 are available for active service. Of those that claim to be doctors of allopathic medicine, 57% do not have any medical qualification and 31% are educated up to secondary school level, said a report by the WHO. In rural areas only 18.8% of allopathic doctors have medical degrees. It is not surprising considering the state of our school and college education. While it is possible for an illiterate graduate to get a government job and spend a lifetime doing nothing that is not possible in the health service because sick people must be treated. So what is the solution? Create Licentiate Medical Practitioners after training for 3-3.5 years, wrote Dr SD Bhaduri. These people can serve in primary health centers in rural areas. But what if these people resign their jobs after a few years and migrate to cities to set up their own practices? Already India is full of quacks, no one knows how many. Apparently, the High Court in Tamil Nadu has ruled that these people should be called Unregistered Medical Practitioners and not quacks, which is a derogatory term. How is that possible when the Supreme Court defined quacks as those who do not have knowledge of medicine? However, it is not just the rural poor who are deprived of healthcare. Except for the rich, politicians and civil servants healthcare has become too expensive for most people. Just as there are many scholarships for higher studies abroad, but not for the people. Why blame students for wanting a degree without learning when it is official policy?