The Education system in India faces a lot of challenges on a day to day basis. The problems it faces daily are very wide in range and cover a whole scope of challenges, varying from the price and costing of the schools to the types of curriculum involved in the school to the attendance rate. The problems even stretch to the indiscipline and bad behaviour in some schools.
These problems must be dealt with on a timely basis. India is a rapidly growing country and our youth play a very important role in the development of our nation. It is essential to educate the youth with not only the correct and appropriate knowledge, but to also fill them with the correct spirit and personality, to train to be responsible, kind and sympathetic people who want the best not only for India, but for every citizen of the world.
And I am not referring to acting for the “Greater Good”, while putting the lives of the minority in danger. No. What I mean is genuinely the spirit of having every person’s best interest at heart. To quote Martin Luther King Junior, “Intelligence plus character; that is the goal of true education.”
Types of Education Systems in India
There are two main types of education centres in India. When I say education centres, I am including all the various places and levels of education, beginning from play school and kindergarten right up to the high level universities and post-graduation degrees issuing colleges.
All these centres are divided into two types: private education and public education. The private educational centres are those centres which are owned and managed by an individual or a group of individuals, without any involvement of the government.
These schools follow their own customised curriculum and portion, although to graduate from the school, the students must give a standardised test that is set by that specific board which is common for all schools of that board. Private schools and universities have their advantages as well as their disadvantages.
They are expensive, to an unaffordable level. However, the quality of education and the qualifications of the teachers are at a higher level. In addition to this, the size of the classes are smaller and with more space, allowing the students more attention.
On the other hand, the public schools and universities are those which are controlled by the government. The portions and textbooks are fixed for all public schools in a state, and the graduation tests are usually common to. The advantage in a public school is the highly nominal fee rate.
But the inability of the teachers to manage the classes, the humongous classes with a lack of space, and the horrible quality of education are major downsides to all public schools.
The Problems with the Education Systems of India
India has the third largest education system in the world, only losing to the United States of America and to China. There are more than two point five million (2.5 million) youth graduates every year from the higher education universities. That sounds like a great figure indeed.
However, take into consideration that there are six hundred and eight five million (685 million) youth in India. That means that the percentage rate of graduates is less than even one percent (0.36% to be accurate) of the total youth in India. The figures do not seem so great now, do they?
Indian universities are more often in the spotlights for political experiences or news rather than academic excellence. In addition to this, our government is trying to administer its control over the universities in India. Because of this, those universities are not able to maintain their standard of teaching, their curriculum, their books, among many other things.
Another reason why most youth do not get educated in the private universities, in spite of all the grand qualities, is the expensive fees. This is not affordable especially to a country like India, and only the richest of the richest are able to afford a good education. This is an absolutely wrong, detestable system. Education should not be given on the basis of wealth, but rather on the basis of interest.
But the expenses do not excuse them from getting educated in public schools at the very least. Here too there are many disadvantages faced. Firstly, the quality of teachers are mostly quite bad. Teachers are not motivated to come to school. Seeing as they also have a very nominal salary, they have a lot of absences.
Due to this, students do not get a continuous education and they do not feel a sense of responsibility to educate themselves. Hence, they do not attend school either.
Secondly, the behaviour of students in most schools in inexcusable. The youth, if the correct values have been cultivated in, can turn out to be selfish, mean bullies. There are a lot of gang fights, violence, even so much so as alcohol and drug addictions in the schools and universities!
Last but not the least, parents find it more suitable and comfortable to send their children to work rather than to the schools. There are not many job opportunities in India. There is still a high percentage of unemployed educated youth.
Due to this, parents are not motivated to pay money so that the child can spend six hours in a school, and run the risk of not even getting a job. Instead, they send their children to factories or other sorts of labour work to collect money in those hours instead.
These are only some of the challenges faced in India by the education system.
The Ways to get past these problems
There are not many ways that we can get past these problems. However, there are still a few, and we must try them as much as we possibly can. Here are some of the methods that the government and the citizens of India can only employ so as to get rid of the challenges faced by the education system, so as to make our country a highly civilised, well-educated country.
- The government should set a maximum fee limit for every school. This is especially in the case of private schools. This limit should be set in such a way that it is affordable by at least fifty percent of the population of India. The fees can of course be less than the limit, but not more. This allows more people to sit for the classes and attend the lectures, hence facilitating easier access to knowledge.
- Secondly, there have to be more employment opportunities created somehow or the other. There is no point in getting a degree if that degree does not provide you with a method of putting food on your table. The lack of jobs is a major discouragement to most youth, and turns them away from their studies. Once there is the employment factor motivating them, the youth will also want to educate themselves.
- The quality of education must be most definitely worked upon. The books used have to be updated to the current ways of learning. Teachers should be selected carefully, only those who are self- motivated. Students should be tested not on the basis of their memory power but rather on their holistic development.
- There should be more and more scholarship programs set up as a motive to work hard and study well. Scholarships have always been considered as rewards, but they are not much respected if they are considered unattainable due to the scarcity of them. If there were more scholarships we could be applicable for, there would be a higher motivation to study and do well.
Conclusion
To conclude, there are a great many problems faced by the education system of India. And it is essential for us to deal with all those problems, one by one. We need to see to it that our country develops as further as it can go.
That can only be done by educating our youth with the true knowledge and spirit. As the famous quote by Nelson Mandela goes, “Education is the most powerful weapon that can be used to change the world.”