Education System in India

    Being a final year now, talks of future plans are in the air. To my surprise, most of my friends seemed inclined towards MS in US and sounded skeptic about Indian Education System. This trend clearly gives an indication and makes us think; Does Indian Education System lack somewhere? What education is really meant for?

   Education – the gathering of knowledge and understanding- enables one to make meaningful contribution in spheres of human activity and is crucial for development in humans, and humanity at large. As stated by Nelson Mandela “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

   Education is most meaningful when it is able to recognize the inherent and basic capabilities in people and help them build their own areas of proficiency and expertise, where they would be most effective and valuable in their contribution to human activity. Education system needs to be designed while keeping in mind that the individuals differ from each other in what they inherently have and what they develop.

   However, this is where our educational system lacks. Life being difficult and competitive in country like ours, only aim in the minds of most parents and educators is that children gain comfortable occupation or employment. Only few world class organizations and very less seats availability adds to the competition. Students writing CAT were 2 Lacks for less than 3,000 seats, 12 Lack people appeared GATE for seats less than 500 in prestigious IITs! Here ‘comfortable employment’ is only defined by package and security. Not much thought is given to what ‘comfortable’ is. They seek to provide this by equipping children with the kind of standard learning that bulk employers need- not accounting for individual inclinations and strengths. As a result creativity gets sidelined and blunted, and children end up doing what the ‘herd’ does, doomed to the rat-race and a life of mediocrity.

   We need to look at the roots of educational system in order to eradicate the issues it has, Education is delivered and received in both formal and informal ways. Informal way is nothing but what the child learns in family, parental instructions, knowledge sharing through personal and situational relationships, and so on. Formal systems such as institutions of different types, planned curriculums, organized testing methods and defined parameters of proficiency. Both of them have similar objectives- the promotion of proficiency and capability in individuals.

   Government plays key role in our education system. Government organizations such as UGC, AICTE, DTE look after most of our educational systems. Teacher- student ratio, balance between academics and extra-curricular activities, rote based teaching, skill development are the areas they need to work on. Education field is marred with issues like fees and funding, private participation and degree of control, limited job opportunities. Only 7% students completed graduation and of them 75% technical graduates are unemployable and 85% general graduates are unemployable.
   Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Right to Education, Mid-day Meal are some of the policies government has launched to promote education. With the literacy rate of 74%, India falls below average literacy rate of 84% of the world. The government has spent lot of money on literacy but to not much avail. The policies are misdirected- Education- not literacy should be target. The government has main focus on literacy and employment. Quality of education is far a neglected concept by government. It is said that – “In first place God made idiots, that was for practice. Then he made school boards” – Mark Twain. Government is required to also improve quality of education. Also the policies mentioned above are all famous for corruption and controversies. MGNREG is famous for corruption and mid-day meal scheme was in the light recently for its pesticide contaminated meal tragedy that killed 23 students in Bihar!  

   Government needs to take serious actions on our education system as it forms the basis of the nation. At the same time informal means of educational system needs to be transformed. The ‘comfortable’ should actually mean a sense of belonging, competence and achievement. This can be gained only when children have the choice to follow their creative inclinations with pride, and develop related proficiencies in the confidence that contributions through these are valuable too. Parents, society, and educators need to recognize this truth, and systems need to incorporate such choices, so that inspiration, energy and dynamism- the three traits that have brought humankind this far- are not lost in the next generation of our country.