Question 8: Choose the correct answer for blank (3).

Fill in the blanks with correct expressions of numbers/values/quantity and answer the given subquestions.
Recent growth is much (1)________ in professional colleges (especially engineering, management and medicine), as well as in private vocational training courses catering especially to the IT sector. In the Indian system, higher (tertiary) education starts after the 10+2 Stage (i.e. ten years of primary and secondary education followed by two years of senior secondary education). Student enrollment has grown (2)__________ five percent annually over the past two decades. This growth is about two-and-a-half (3)___________ the population growth, and results from both a population bulge in lower age cohorts as well as increased demand for higher education overall. Yet (4)_________ ten percent of the age cohort is enrolled today, a number (5)_________ than developing country averages, but lower than the Asian average (11 percent) and much lower than developed countries which average 40 percent. Enrollment ratios vary across Indian States, with the Southern and Western States having higher numbers than their Eastern counterparts.

Choose the correct answer for blank (3).