India - Poland: Education goes first!

18 December 2018, 9 pm

India - Poland: Education goes first!, power - chat, Pradeep Kumar, PhD, President, Indo-European Education Foundation

"Education increases capabilities of individual’s assets, and transform them into well-beings and well-doing abilities. Education is not only informative but also helping capacity building for new challenges", Dr Pradeep Kuma,  President, Indo-European Education Foundation mentioned in his talk during "Warsaw Economic Hub (WEH)" where he had Power chat with Mr. Juliusz Klosowski, Publisher & CEO, 'The Warsaw Voice' on 14th December 2018 at Novotel Warsaw Centrum, Poland.

Education as business sector has not been considered yet as potential area of cooperation between Poland and India. But it’s education creating unlimited opportunities for both the countries in many sectors by sharing knowledge and increasing interest. 

Today, when Polish educational system is going through transition process and universities as well as educational institutions are struggling to survive due to demographic changes - many private universities and schools are already closed, and many of them are on the way to be closed due to lack of financial support by not getting enough number of students to pay their tuition fees, and insufficient number of applicants applying to get admissions. As a result, day-by-day number of applications are increasing from polish universities to the Ministry of Higher Education and Sciences, Govt. of Poland for liquidation process, which means Poland is loosing millions of dollars every year and loosing business opportunities in education sector.

In other hand, India with over 32 per cent of the 1.35 billion people under age group of 0- 14, and over 600 million people below the age of 25 years, is under tremendous pressure to expand educational sector. India’s young population has a huge appetite for education and as the growth in the size of the middle classes escalates, millions are increasingly able to pay for better education. The numbers of people in India needing primary and secondary education alone exceeds the entire population of the USA. By 2020, India will have the largest tertiary-age population in the world and will have the second largest graduate talent pipeline globally following China and ahead of the USA. As per today India has 26 million students enrolled in territory education, by illustration, it would need another 800 universities and over 40000 colleges in the next eight years to provide the planned additional 14 million places. By 2023 India needs 40 million university places and by 2025 India needs 500 million skilled workers. 

Recent data shows that Indian youth started to take interest for Polish education system and willing to complete various degrees program from Polish universities. In 2014, total number of Indian students were studying in Poland was 227, in 2018 it has been increased dramatically up to 5500, and expected to cross 10 000 by 2025.

Therefore, it is applicable for both the nations in order to create a bridge for fulfilling the gap left from decades through academia-Industry interlinked model of business cooperation by addressing each-other’s needs based on educational demands. Education as a business sector has not been yet considered as potential area of cooperation between India and Poland. But it’s a sector which will open unlimited opportunities for both the countries by playing wider role to increase business ties and trade flows based on supply and demand equation.