Indians trust the classroom, see better opportunities abroad: Global survey

Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani. Not because the Ipsos Education Monitor survey mirrors the plot of the Shah Rukh Khan-Juhi Chawla film, but because the title neatly captures the contradiction in its India findings. Indians may believe better opportunities for growth and prosperity lie offshore, yet they remain remarkably bullish about their education system, their degrees and, above all, the future of their youth.More than half of Indian respondents rate the country’s education system as good. Three-fourths believe youth will have a better life than their parents. Nearly two-thirds think even young people from lesser privileged backgrounds have a bright future. And Indians remain strikingly convinced that a university degree still has value. However, ironically, 76% of Indian respondents say young people would have better opportunities by moving abroad.For some parameters, TOI looked at the subset of India’s position among the 16 individual G20 member countries included in the 31-country Ipsos survey. China, Russia and Saudi Arabia were not surveyed. The survey covered 23,537 online adults across the 31 countries between June and July 2026, with about 1,000 respondents in India. Ipsos in its methodology has cautioned that its India sample is more urban, educated and/or affluent than the general population and should be interpreted as reflecting the views of the country’s more “connected” segment.The 31-country average is an unweighted average of country results; it is not adjusted for the population size of each country.The robust belief in education, with a rider The first question was straightforward. How do people rate the overall quality of their country’s education system? In India, 51% called it good. Among the G20 countries covered by the survey, only Australia was higher, at 53%. The 31-country average was 33%. But that 51% is a number in retreat. India was at 65% in 2025, 69% in 2024 and 55% in 2023. The 14-point fall from 2025 is the steepest year-on-year decline among countries with comparable 2025 data.The contrast with several richer economies is sharp. Britain was at 43%, the US and Brazil at 32%, Italy at 29%, Japan at 24%, while France and Germany were both at 17%. That does not mean India has a better-performing education system than advanced economies. This is a matter of perception. And on that measure, Indians appear unusually confident. Just less than before.Optimism about Yuva ShaktiThe gap becomes even more striking when the question shifts from institutions to the people coming out of them. Asked whether young people in their country have a bright future, 72% of Indian respondents agreed. That was not merely the highest figure among the G20 countries covered. It was the highest among all 31 countries surveyed. The 31-country average was 45%.Within the surveyed G20 set, Australia and South Africa were next at 54%, followed by Mexico at 52% and Canada at 50%. France was at 22%. It is perhaps one of the strongest votes of confidence in the survey. Indians appear to have placed enormous hope in their youth to put the country on the right track and take it forward.The Indian dream remains intergenerationalOne of the hallmarks of an aspirational society like India is the belief in accumulating wealth and opportunity across generations. People believe that the hard work of one generation will make the lives of those that follow smoother. That belief gets backed in this survey. Three-fourths of Indian respondents, 75%, believe young people today will have a better life than their parents. The 31-country average is 48%.Indians are also optimistic about people escaping the poverty trap. 64% believe young people from poorer backgrounds have a bright future, compared with a 31-country average of 40%. India is the highest among the G20 countries covered on both measures. And 69% of Indian respondents believe the education system contributes to reducing social inequalities, again the highest among the surveyed G20 countries. That figure is also below earlier readings, 72% in 2024 and 79% in 2023.Together, these numbers suggest that Indian respondents continue to see education as a vehicle for upward social mobility. That belief becomes even clearer when the survey turns to higher education.In India, the college degree has not lost its promiseNITI Aayog’s recent Reimagining Skilling for Viksit Bharat@2047 report also points to the continuing pull of degree programmes, noting that vocational pathways are often not seen as credible, growth-oriented alternatives and that degrees can become the safer choice amid limited counselling, social bias and low trust in existing skill systems. The Ipsos survey, albeit with a more urban and connected Indian sample, points in a similar direction. 75% of Indian respondents say a college or university degree is very important to succeed in life. 78% believe it helps people go further in their careers. And 70% say degrees in their country offer good value for money.On the first measure, India is the highest among the G20 countries surveyed. On both the other measures, it ranks second. The contrast with several advanced economies is large. On whether a degree is good value for money, India’s 70% compares with 38% in the US, 41% in Germany, 30% in Japan and 28% in Britain. Ipsos itself finds a strong positive relationship across countries between believing that a degree helps a career and believing that it offers value for money.India trusts the curriculum, yet worries about the jobs connectionHere again, the Ipsos study broadly aligns with a concern flagged in NITI Aayog’s skilling report that education and credentials do not automatically translate into the skills and pathways that the labour market demands. The Ipsos survey shows a deep-seated faith in formal education and yet a growing realisation that job-market demands are at times different from what is being taught in the classroom.Asked whether the school curriculum adequately prepares students for future careers, 67% of Indians agree, the highest share among the G20 countries covered by the survey. Even here, the direction has been downward: 74% agreed in 2024, 72% in 2025 and 67% now.Yet in another question on the greatest challenges facing young people, 36% of Indian respondents select “education and training systems not matching labour market demands”. That too is the highest among the G20 countries in the survey.A bright future. Somewhere else?India again falls on one extreme of a scatter plot for its two seemingly contradictory sets of beliefs. On one hand, 72% say young people have a bright future. On the other hand, 76% say young people would have better opportunities by moving abroad. The 31-country average on that question is 62%.Indonesia and South Africa are even more likely to say opportunities are better overseas, at 87% and 80% respectively. Italy is at 79%. Romania matches India at 76%. But none combines that level of outward-looking aspiration with India’s exceptional optimism about the future of its young.This is perhaps the central finding of the entire report for India. Respondents may be optimistic about India’s young people precisely because they believe those young people possess education and skills that give them more options, including the option of leaving. The optimism may be about the people. The doubt may be about the location of opportunity.Social media? Restrict it. AI? Not necessarilyThe dichotomy in the approach of Indians extends to technology too. 78% support banning social media for children under 14, both inside and outside school. The 31-country average is 73%.Support has climbed 10 points in a year. India was at 68% in 2025 and 73% in 2024.On smartphones, 57% of Indian respondents favour a ban in schools, exactly matching the 31-country average. That is up from 50% last year and 52% in 2024. But attitudes to AI are different.Only 26% of Indian respondents say AI, including ChatGPT, should be banned in schools, compared with 39% across the 31 countries. Indian opinion on AI has moved sharply over the four editions of the survey. 39% wanted AI banned in schools in both 2025 and 2024, compared with just 16% in 2023. The 13-point drop from 2025 to 2026 is the largest year-on-year fall among countries with comparable 2025 data. Britain, the US and Poland moved in the other direction, rising to 52%, 56% and 46%, respectively.To sum up, India’s ‘connected’ population has not lost faith in education. Quite the opposite. It remains unusually convinced that education matters, degrees pay, children can surpass their parents and those from poorer homes can climb. What appears less certain is where that promise will ultimately be realised.Karmabhoomi and janmabhoomi may finally be different. That is the sobering realisation one can derive from this survey.Get the latest India News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.