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T W E N T Y
N I N E
P
rivate
computer
training
institutes
are mushrooming all over India, much like fast food restaurants. Every second
day, a private training institute gets born, announcing its arrival through a
flashy advertisement in the newspapers. Existing and established institutes
are embarking upon the marathon task of expansion by opening branches all over
the country while some others are busy franchising their operations to smaller units in
satellite towns.
Not to be undermined, many schools and colleges are opening in-house training
centers with the help of private training institutes. Also, private coaching classes,
till now content with teaching commerce and science, have now begun teaching
computer courses. All this has put together a completely new line of business, not
known in India 10 years ago.
The result is that, today, we have a series of private training institutes in the
market, catering to the needs of an even larger number of students. This should
make the officers in the Planning Commission very happy as they had estimated
that by the end of the Eighth Plan, there could be a shortage of about 200,000
computer professionals in the country. Under no circumstances could such trained
manpower have been created from conventional resources like the IITs, IIMs
and RECs. Therefore, private training institutes were the inevitable option. But,
ironically, the ultimate result is very different from what was envisaged. There is
no doubt that private training institutes are churning out trained manpower, but
the quality is nowhere near expectations.
Computer software is a sunrise industry for Indian exports and it has already shown
substantial strength in this area. Exports have grown at a CAGR of around 38
percent over the last decade in dollar terms and at a higher rate in rupee terms. The
net foreign exchange earnings average over 50 percent, surely one of the highest of
any Indian exports. Moreover, the industry has established an extremely high
reputation internationally for the quality and professionalism of its services.
The Observer October 12, 1993
Impart Quality To Private Education
