In a shocking revelation, the ASSOCHAM Business
Barometer (ABB) Survey revealed that a majority of teachers of the numerous
B-schools in the country (except top 30 B-schools) are not aware of the
basic facts about the national and the global economy such as GDP growth rate of
India, the amount of exports & imports and the possible recession in the US.
The ASSOCHAM Study on “Faculty Awareness”
surveying 258 faculty members of various institutes imparting Masters in
Business Administration (MBA) across the country revealed that as many as 89 per
cent of the teachers were unable to tell the GDP growth rate scaled by the
Indian economy in the financial year 2006-07.
The survey further divulged that hardly 6 per cent
of the lecturers surveyed read any business newspaper on regular basis.
Moreover, persistent readers of business magazines were negligible.
“As the teachers themselves are ill-informed, even
the students remain unaware of the of the real world developments keeping their
degrees devoid of the real value as also aggravating the problem of talent
crunch”, remarked Mr. Venugopal N Dhoot, President, ASSOCHAM.
A little less than 5 per cent of the teachers could
estimate the saving and investment rate recorded during the same fiscal. The
proportion of teachers who knew the amount of exports and imports made during
2007-08 was almost nil.
Almost 92 per cent of the lecturers were not
conscious of the fact that the foreign exchange reserves of the country have
surpassed the USD 300 billion-mark. Most of them could only recall that the
forex reserves have had crossed the USD 100 billion-mark.
As Indian economy is increasingly getting
integrated with the rest of the world, the relevance of “International Trade” as
a subject has grown manifolds, added Mr. Dhoot. Nonetheless, the survey found
that the faculty of the subject remains uninformed about the recent happenings
in the global economy.
Not even 10 per cent of the teachers were aware of
the existence of financial turmoil in the USA. Out of those who were aware, only
one-fifth were able to define it. Furthermore, almost an equal proportion (10
per cent) of them were not conscious of the possible recession in the world’s
largest economy that of the United States of America.
When asked about the central bank of the US, close
to 79 per cent of the teachers went blank about it. While the approximate
exchange rate of Rupee vis-à-vis USD was known to almost 67 per cent of the
faculty members, just about 13 per cent and 17 per cent of them knew Pound and
Euro rates respectively.
Most of the case studies or examples discussed in
the class are outdated, as the books referred by lecturers are old editions
stored in the library. A mere 11 per cent of the teachers did ever discuss the
recent merger & acquisition deals in the class.
The books recommended for many of the subjects are
written by foreign authors, whose text comprises of examples of their respective
countries. However, a majority of the teachers of these subjects do not relate
the content with the Indian context.
As many as 91 per cent of the lecturers teaching
Business Environment did not know how to read budget papers. In fact, only 5 per
cent of the respondents could tell the fiscal and revenue deficits of 2007-08.
Week-on-week inflation rate on the other hand were
known to a majority of the teachers. Almost 93 per cent of them were able to
recall the latest inflation figures though an approximate number (truncating the
decimal part).
Only a handful number of teachers comprising about
one-tenth of the lecturers were cognizant of the present key rates (Repo Rate,
Reverse Repo Rate and Bank Rate). Since the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) has
remained unchanged at 25 per cent for a relatively longer period of time, the
response to SLR was far better. Almost 93 per cent of the lecturers could tell
the ratio correctly.
“While the top B-schools of India are increasingly
getting recognized internationally, the remaining thousands of management
institutes in the country have dismal standards of education and faculty”, said
the President.
The survey was done by the team of ASSOCHAM
Research Bureau to ascertain the practical subject-knowledge and general
awareness of the faculty of the various b-schools across the country. The top 30
B-schools were not included.
