Indian Education system should be changed or not

First View

Every established system in the country always attracts severe criticism. The Indian Education system especially has been the target of many allegations from students, parents and teachers. Students think they are overburdened, teachers think they are not paid enough and parents want their children to get 99.99 percentage. Where does the buck stop?

Yes, in recent times there have been some steps taken on education reforms, but it needs lot more than that

Top 5 things about the Indian education system that we hope changes sooner rather than later!

Contents [hide]

• 1 Rote learning
• 2 Marking System
• 3 Respect for all streams
• 4 Variety in education streams
• 5 The system of tuition classes

Rote learning

Yes, we do know that many IB schools across India are trying to bring in interactive education and we laud that immensely. But the evil of rote learning is yet to be wiped out from a majority of Indian schools. Owing to the fixated style of question papers that have been doing the rounds in board exams from time immemorial, rote learning has continued.

We’re very sure that most students won’t be clear about many of the basic foundation concepts taught in school even after they’ve graduated. Ever heard of students mugging up balanced equations? This is one fundamental change that needs to come about in our Indian Education System!

Marking System

All the other evils of the Indian education system ultimately come down to the method in which students are marked.

Is it justified that a student is evaluated only on the basis of his/her performance for the duration of three hours of the exam? If the axis of grading and marking is shifted to classroom participation, project work, communication and leadership skills and extracurricular performance, only then will a genuine student shine out.

This might sound like a utopian proposition but the Indian education system badly needs to bring about this change.

Respect for all streams

“Oh has she done a MA in English? She’ll end up becoming a teacher”

“What good is a diploma in hospitality management? It ultimately means doing a job in a hotel as a cook right?”

If you’ve heard these lines time and again from you elders, don’t you think it’s time you stop them?

How long are we going to look down upon vocational streams and look up to medicine, engineering, the IIT’s and the IIM’s? Students at the school level need to be educated through career counseling regarding the kind of streams that exist and what importance each of them plays to make an economy diverse.

Variety in education streams

Why do we always see students being envious of their counterparts in the USA?

It’s because there are just three options that student have after Class 10 – they’re stuck with Science, Arts or Commerce. If they’re not good enough for either of these, they jet set straight into diplomas and certificate courses. Don’t you think the Indian education system needs to introduce combination courses in which students can opt for a major and a minor subject? If students in America can pursue Physiotherapy with Art History and Biological Science with Photography, why not in India?

The system of tuition classes

Commenting on this subject is like plunging one’s hand into a vicious cycle which seems to have no beginning or end. Reasons for tuition classes mushrooming are because students say that the teaching in schools is lax and not good enough for them to clear exams. Whereas teachers say that students jump ahead many chapters in the tuition classes before they are even taught in school.

This makes them loose all motivation and steam to attend school in the first place. Forget all of this, what about the poor parent who’s hard earned money gets drained in school and tuition fees alone?

Although the picture does seem dismal, there is hope because some of these changes are slowly being made by select education providers. But how quickly will these changes percolate down to common man in India, only time will tell.

Let us know what you feel?

Second View

India ranks second in the world with an estimated population of 1.267 billion people (July 2014) out of which the more than 430 million on people are between the ages of 15-34 years of age which is about 35% of the population of the country. The median age of the country population is currently 26.6 years which makes the country the highest youth population in the world. This is the boon for the country where as it is the best time for us to tap this opportunity which can help the country in transforming the future of the country. It is the best potential chance for us to make an impressive economic and social progress by meeting the needs and aspirations of the youth by defining a better future in form of job and other income possibilities. This not only cohorts India’s future for socio-economic progress but also the experience can act as a bridge to gap the differences between the target that the country needs to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and work for the future UN framework on MDGs which is intended to be launched next year 2016.

Today due to changing power in world dynamics, there is a chance that that the voice of the Indian youth will be counted on the world platform. This increasing youth population makes a statement that the impact of them will not only be in India but also in the world in different ways. But, there should be a proper vision by the top brass of the civil society and the government to not only the increasing youth population as the expanding workforce for increasing the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the country. If viewed in this sense it will be a short sightedness and it will miss the irony of the growing unemployment of the country.

To empower the youth the first and foremost thing that the country needs to pay heed is the change in the education system of the country. India is the home and birthplace of many of the inventions which shaped the world and is proud of holding many experts from various fields bringing laurel to the country. Education plays important roles is shaping the future and support the experts from where they grow to begin the adventure of their life. In this technological era our education system looks like an assembly line of the factory preparing the assembly workers. The National Policy on Education (NPE) formulated by the Government of India is the policy which covers the education right starting from elementary school to the higher learning institution of the country. The policy first came into existence in the year 1968 by the government of Indira Gandhi and was then revised in the year 1986 by Rajiv Gandhi. Since, then there has been no major reform in the policy for the last three decades which is resulting in the growing frustration of the students in the higher learning institution.

There is an immediate need to look into it and bring a holistic change in the education system of the country. There should be a way of bringing the industry and academia to create skilled and employable graduates from the colleges. The education in the country should be made intellectually challenging and should questions assumptions rather than based on the rote memorization technique and orthodoxy. Though there are a lot of flaws in the education system, it is time to take bold and visionary steps. The biggest flaw in the education system is that it incentivizes memory over the originality of the student. The goal and policy of the new education system should be on creating entrepreneurs, artists, scientists, thinkers and writers to create knowledge based economy rather the prevailing low quality service provider country in the world we are turning to be. The number of youth unemployment, skill mismatch and suicides due to academic/parental pressure/peer need not be reiterated because they are well known to us. Every years the churns out millions of graduates in the market who do not have the proper skill sets required by the country. India is the home of maximum number of engineering colleges in the world, but it has not been able to translate into much technological innovation.

Probable Solutions

Updated topics to read:

The only concern with the syllabus is that the lessons get outdated while the years go forward since the inventions are enduring and by this time you read this post, someone would have devised something new to the world in his/her interest of subject. The Tech is booming and many advanced programming is evolving in India. Still the primary syllabus of the academic system brings less impact and tranquil.

Skill Development:

Some school and colleges in the country focus on the extracurricular activities to develop the student capabilities in terms of problem solving, writing skills, verbal skills, communication enhancement, physical fitness and more. Here again the skill development are realized and accepted uneven if checked across the country. These activities should be made available to each student in the country irrespective of the state and region.

Technological Driven Teaching:

The hindrance to technology driven classrooms prevails and is incompletely exploited in the nation. Proper measures should be undertaken to widely make aware of the benefits in adding technology to the classroomand bring in a significant change in student’s perception of subjects. The usual brick and mortar concept has reached its peak and the modern technological classroom should be welcomed as it can help us bring in a new effective learning atmosphere and teaching methodology.

Practical vs. Theory:

Classroom lectures sometimes become too boring encouraging only a little student involvement or creativity and going through such lessons students find the proper justification in bunking the classes. But, if the teacher brings practical and exciting analogies to teach the classroom becomes more interesting and lessons become easy to understand. Many can question that every subject does not need practical guidance and theoretical knowledge is the base of the subject, but the visual experience and practical guidance can help in avoiding the boredom. Many successful entrepreneurs have not got the theoretical knowledge because their success stands on the experience they have gained. This is the philosophy what that needs to be imparted from the school days of the students.