Recently, we held a symposium at our learning centre. The subject was our Education System and the changes that are urgently required. A number of participants gave their views and the subject was discussed at length.
I have chosen one of the essays submitted on the occasion by Mr. Niraj Kushawa – one of the participants. I find it very interesting and thought provoking; so I thought of sharing the essay with you.
Education system in India – by Niraj Kushawa
Indian education system is one of the oldest education system in the world. In ancient times, India had the Gurukula system of education. In Gurukula system anyone who wished to study went to a teacher’s (Guru) house and requested to be taught. If accepted as a student by the guru, he would then stay at the guru’s place and help in all activities at home. This not only created a strong tie between the teacher and the student, but also taught the student everything about running a house. The guru taught everything the child wanted to learn, from Sanskrit to Mathematics. The student stayed as long as he/she wished or until the guru felt that he had taught everything he could teach. All learning was closely linked to nature and to life, and not confined to memorizing some information.
The modern school system was brought to India, including the English language, originally by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay in the 1830s. The curriculum was confined to “modern” subjects such as science and mathematics, and subjects like metaphysics and philosophy were considered unnecessary. Teaching was confined to classrooms and the link with nature was broken, as also the close relationship between the teacher and the student.
The Uttar Pradesh (a state in India) Board of High School and Intermediate Education was the first Board set up in India in the year 1921 with jurisdiction over Rajputana, Central India and Gwalior. In 1929, the Board of High School and Intermediate Education, Rajputana, was established. Later, boards were established in some of the states. But eventually, in 1952, the constitution of the board was amended and it was renamed Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
Reason Behind Sharp Decline in Quality in Education System:
(1) Privatisation of Education: The government cannot afford to provide higher education to all the people in the country. It is too costly for the government to do so. The central government spends about 4% of budget expenditure on education, compared to 40% on defence. There are crooks, money launderers and politicians opening “private” educational institutions which extract money from the educational institution through creative structuring. The focus is on marketing rather than innovation or providing great educational service.
(2) Education System Needs Reform: Our education system is still a colonial education system generating babus and pen-pushers. We may have the most number of engineering graduates in the world, but that certainly has not translated into much technological innovation here. Rather, we are busy running the call centres of the rest of the world – that is where our engineering skills end. The goal of our new education system should be to create entrepreneurs, innovators, artists, scientists, thinkers and writers who can establish the foundation of a knowledge based economy rather than the low-quality service provider nation that we are turning into.
(3) Reservation in Education System : We have reservation in education today because education is not available universally. Education has to be rationed. Reservation has badly ruined the moral of the bright students those who do not fall in reservation criteria. Even though, if a bright student got good marks in entrance examination, he did not get admission due to reservation system. Further it is pertinent to mentioned that its affects the quality of teaching and subsequently education system as a whole.
(4) No Common Syllabus and Markings: India is comprises of 29 states and 7 union tarritoties. Practically we have more number of board than number of states. Various board have their own syllabus and their own grading system. When a student come out from a state and start participating in national level competition then he realise the disadvantages of such type of system. Not even at the state level but also the central government has different syllabus for different exams based on same educational qualification. For example: GATE and Indian Engineering Services has different syllabus.
(5) Imbalance of Infrastructure and Resources: There is an imbalance in education system region-wise namely rural and urban region. On the other hand sector-wise namely government and private colleges. In cities situation is satisfactory and all the facility is available but when you look towards actual India that is rural part of it, situation is even worst Entrepreneur construct building and got approval by offering bribes. In such institution no lab facility is available. Such institutes lacks of basic teaching aids, even qualified teachers.
Thanks for reading.
