The Indian education system -What’s at stake?

The Indian education system -What’s at stake?

A topic needs no introduction in itself when mere mentioning of it raises eyebrows all across the country. People frequently crib about the poor state of our education structure but nothing can be done about it is their solution in the end. Till the time theoretical knowledge would keep on winning the majority of the chunk of subject curriculum, plight of education would keep getting degraded. More than 80% students in today’s scenario know about the formulae for finding the demand elasticity or even price elasticity but few of them only can tell the impact of this on the market or even on their own daily needs. Without using more technical terms in this article/blog I would want to turn all your attention towards the pity state of education in India.

Gone are the days when education was measured in terms of the understanding of the subject and the relation between the “Guru” and his pupil encompassed by the Gurukul mode of schooling. As we know change is the only constant thing and thus education system has evolved over time keeping most of the things traditional and constant. The only important thing that they haven’t been able to keep the same is the motive and purpose behind the same. Education has now become more of a business and students are its so called “customers”. Customers are attracted via various marketing and promotional techniques and are treated as cash generating machines.

The main problem with the present education system is that it is more focused towards the score and less towards the knowledge. Mugging up of the subjects has been one such consequence of poor planning in terms of education. Why students mug up rather than understanding? One reason other than the popular culture of the 11th hour study is the pattern on which questions are set. Students know that they can easily write what they have studied the earlier night as questions are generally straight forward. Mugging up is not an option when you have either application based or conceptual questions but who’ll take the pain of formulating those questions when you’ll get the same salary for doing either of the two.

Google the words hilarious Indian answers in exams and you’ll come across papers that have been checked and given full marks. The papers are funny both in terms of language and content. Creative thinking is rarely encouraged and everything is measured in terms of marks obtained and not practical knowledge. There is a need for transformation to the existing structure which would help in establishing a solid base for the future. 

Other than good results which increases the brand value of a school which later helps them fetch more customers every year, they are least worried about what career students choose after 12th.How many schools provide facilitates like carrier counselling and mental conditioning workshops? How many schools and colleges are worried about what value has student gained after passing out from that particular so called “knowledge house”. 

Many times the brighter students are given more attention and preference over the weaker ones which is the major cause of under confidence among children. Many schools are not concentrating on extracurricular activities. This may lead to the false assumption in children that only education is important in life. Some teachers are giving marks based on the no. of papers rather than the content. Thereby students will try to fill papers instead of focusing on to write the actual answer. There are some cases in which students are giving up their lives as they are unable to cope up with too much pressure laid on them by private schools and colleges and even parents. Non performers are treated as dolts and ostracized by parents and society. According to “THE TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION” only two institutions in India are among the top 200 universities. They are IIT-Delhi at 154th rank and IIT-Bombay at 174th rank. No other universities from India, whereas in United States, there are 58 universities in that list and Harvard University at the top most. In UK, there are 29 universities, in china there are 8 and in Japan there are 9 universities.

Govt. must concentrate on modifying the education system to give provide a better afterlife for students. There is a role of educational institutions too to improve the method of teaching. A good education system leads to a good society. The answer to the above topic is the future itself which is at stake and when the youth itself is made to wander in the dark endless tunnel then everything would look grim and evil at last.