A Review on "Education in India: Problems and their Solutions"

A Review on “Education in India: Problems and their Solutions”

Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include teaching, training, storytelling, discussion and directed research. Since the country's independence in 1947, the Indian government sponsored a variety of programmes to address the problems of illiteracy in both rural and urban India. India is a rapidly changing country in which inclusive, high-quality education is of utmost importance for its future prosperity. 

It is not that the solutions haven’t been offered before. There are various boards and committees set who kind of rule the education system of India. There is a lack of awareness amongst the students about how can they pursue more knowledge and less of cramming. There is a rat race amongst all of us and it started when the Britishers introduced this method of Education in India which had clerks and accountants working on a daily basis and then there was no change in the system.

In 1961, the Union government formed the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) as an autonomous organisation that would advise both the Union and state governments on formulating and implementing education policies.

As per the National Policy on Education (1968), the aim of education is “to promote national progress, a sense of common citizenship and culture and to strengthen national integration”. A proper and good education is very important for all of us. It facilitates quality learning all through the life among people of any age group, caste, creed, religion and region. It is the process of achieving knowledge, values, skills, beliefs, and moral habits.

Based on the report and recommendations of the Kothari Commission (1964–1966), the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced the first National Policy on Education in 1968, which called for a "radical restructuring" and equalise educational opportunities in order to achieve national integration and greater cultural and economic development. The policy called for fulfilling compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14, as stipulated by the Constitution of India, and the better training and qualification of teachers.

Having announced that a new policy was in development in January 1985, the government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi introduced a new National Policy on Education in May, 1986. The new policy called for "special emphasis on the removal of disparities and to equalise educational opportunity," especially for Indian women, Scheduled Tribes (ST) and the Scheduled Caste (SC) communities. To achieve such a social integration, the policy called for expanding scholarships, adult education, recruiting more teachers from the SCs, incentives for poor families to send their children to school regularly, development of new institutions and providing housing and services.

The 1986 National Policy on Education was modified in 1992 by the P.V. Narasimha Rao government. In 2005, Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh adopted a new policy based on the "Common Minimum Programme" of his United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Programme of Action (PoA), 1992 under the National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 envisaged conduct of a common entrance examination on all India basis for admission to professional and technical programmes in the country. 

Student mobility trends in India are of great interest to university admissions personnel in the U.S., Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and increasingly in countries like Germany or China. India is currently the second-largest sending country of international students worldwide after China, and outbound student flows are surging. The number of Indian international students enrolled in degree programs abroad doubled from 134,880 students in 2004 to 278,383 in 2017, as per UNESCO.

In 2019, the Ministry of Human Resource Development released a Draft New Education Policy 2019, which was followed by a number of public consultations. The Draft NEP discusses reducing curriculum content to enhance essential learning, critical thinking and more holistic experiential, discussion-based and analysis-based learning. It also talks about a revision of the curriculum and pedagogical structure from a 10+2 system to a 5+3+3+4 system design in an effort to optimise learning for students based on the cognitive development of children.

The Draft National Education Policy, 2019 is out in the public domain.

Salient features of NEP 2019:

• The policy aims to universalize the pre-primary education by 2025 and provide foundational literacy/numeracy for all by 2025
• It proposes new Curricular and Pedagogical Structure, with 5+3+3+4 design covering the children in the age group 3-18 years. Under this, Pre-Primary & Grades 1-2 is considered as foundational Stage; Grades 3-5 as Preparatory Stage; Grades 6-8 as Middle Stage and Grades 9-12 as Secondary Stage. This is an academic restructuring only; there will be no physical restructuring of schools.
• Children learn languages, most quickly between 2-8 years, and multilingualism has great cognitive benefits for students. Therefore a three-language formula has been proposed
• It proposes the teaching of other classical languages and literature, including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Pali, Persian, and Prakrit in schools
• It aims to consolidate 800 universities & 40,000 colleges into around 15,000 large, multidisciplinary institutions
• The policy proposes three types of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs): Research Universities, Teaching Universities and Autonomous degree-granting colleges
• It aims to provide autonomy to all higher education institutions. Higher education institutions to be governed by Independent Boards with complete academic and administrative autonomy
• An autonomous body called the National Research Foundation (NRF) to be set up through an Act of Parliament
• Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog or the National Education Commission - apex body - to be constituted. It will be chaired by the Prime Minister and will comprise eminent educationists, researchers, Union Ministers, representation of Chief Ministers of States, eminent professionals from various fields
• MHRD to be re-designated as the Ministry of Education (MoE)

Education gives us a knowledge of the world around us and changes it into something better. It develops in us a perspective of looking at life. It helps us build opinions and have points of view on things in life. ... But then again, information cannot be converted into knowledge without education.

However, to our utter dismay, currently, the Indian education system faces a number of setbacks, the primary one being lack of standardisation in both school and university/college level. To understand the situation better, we should first enlist the problems that circumscribe the Education Sector in India.

The main aim of education is to make the people better and to let them develop the various skills that they need for their life. This process should be carried out by an educational system that is able to produce people who can handle in various aspects of life. Such jobs still continue and effect our thinking of getting settled in something where we might not be interested but are ready to work to secure ourselves and our families. The teaching method should also undergo a major change where the students are not pressurized but are taught the morals and practicality of life. The reservation system is also one of the major issues which need to be taken care of.

The lack of sufficient funds is the main problem in the development of education. The outlay for education in Five Year Plans has been decreasing. Due to insufficient funds, most educational institutions lack infrastructure, science equipment and libraries etc.

Many schools are still non-compliant with the Right to Education infrastructure criteria laid down and the problem is more serious in rural areas. Common amenities like safe drinking water, toilets need to be provided. Weak infrastructure in schools that are working on getting a bullet train is a bit ironic.

The Government of India is well aware of the problems in the Indian education system but has been slow in responding to them. School infrastructure is in a poor state and many school teachers are not properly qualified, with 31% of them not having a degree. ... Consequently, the state of learning is very poor

Various problems in the education system are as:

• Lack of infrastructure. …
• Teacher selection criteria …
• Shortage of training ….
• Poor global ranking of institutes. ...
• Gap between education provided and industry required education. ...
• Gender issues. …
• No emphasis on creativity…
• Costly higher education. ...
• Inadequate government Funding. ...
• Adoption of technology.

Teacher selection criteria– in most of our schools the teacher's selection & recruitment process is non-merit based. They are selected as per the choice of selectors. Lack of proper academic qualifications and competency in pedagogy is another challenge. Poor Teacher-student ratio – Huge no. While quantitatively India is inching closer to universal education, the quality of its education has been questioned particularly in its government-run school system. ... Some of the reasons for the poor quality include an absence of around 25% of teachers every day.

Education in Indian high school, and even college, broadly, is tougher than most places in the world. ... Also, if you are not familiar with the high school system in America, you can take the classes you want at the difficulty level you wish. India's improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to its economic development. ... At the primary and secondary level, India has a large private school system complementing the government-run schools, with 29% of students receiving private education in the 6 to 14 age group.

Lack of Motivation: Our education system has a terrible job of inspiring or motivating kids to learn. People are motivated in different ways, some want money, some want the position, some want comfort, some want stress free job, some want to become athletes. Teachers who not only teach but also inspire students to learn and fuel creativity in students are very rare. Similarly, most of the students lack the motivation to learn beyond the curriculum or are forced into the rat race in silent ways. The problem is further aggravated with parents who want nothing more than their child to get a safe and secure job

Inadequate, Improper distribution of Funds or Lack of it – Funds are the major reasons for the Education problem in India. If funds are available, they are not being used effectively. At times, the lack of funds hampers education and many times, the funds are just inadequate to solve the issue.

The sole emphasis in education is on getting high scores and clearing exams. In all this creativity and personality development takes a back seat. There is a serious lack of support for innovation which is shown in the absence of interest for research and students primarily look for getting a job. Character building is something most teachers are not even aware of and are neither prepared to put any effort in the direction.

Indian education system offers world-class education and provides students with knowledge of every subject. Indian Education system has helped to change the Indian society to a great extent. India education system does not provide practical knowledge, which is a demerit of any education system. The Indian education system is not the only one that needs change, but also the mentality of teachers, students and parents need a serious upgrade. To truly reform we need to take examples from countries which have established a mark in their education systems. One of the best advantageous points of the Indian education system is its inexpensiveness. Unlike other developed countries in the world, knowledge is clubbed with the economy here and any student willing to explore the abundantly spread resources of education in the country can do so without spending exorbitantly.