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Indian Education System

Education plays an important role in the development of an individual and making him a knowledgeable citizen. It is the education that makes an individual self-reliant, helps to suppress the social evils and contribute towards the development of the society and nation as a whole. Education helps in unravelling the mystery of nature. It enables us to understand and improve the working of our society. It creates conditions for a better life. Education brings out the capabilities to fight injustice happening in society. Every individual has the right to education. 

Indian Education is one of the largest and complex education systems in the world along with China. India is committed to providing basic education to its citizens, the framework of which is defined in the National Policy of Education. Elementary education is now compulsory in India. At the time of Independence, only 14% of India’s population was literate. Now after so many decades since Independence, the number of literates has increased by fivefold.

History of Education System

The history of Indian education system comes from the times of Ramayana and Mahabharata. The historic Indian education system is also called the Gurukula system. There were gurus then who are now known as teachers and shishyas who are called students now. The gurus and the shishyas lived together under one roof in Gurukula until the completion of their education. The shishyas were expected to help the guru in all the daily chores as part of their learning. The children belonging to higher strata of the society were taught all the subjects from Sanskrit to Holy Scriptures and mathematics to metaphysics by the gurus. The Gurukulas during those times focused on the practical aspects of life. The students were taught in the open classroom in the surrounding area of nature. This early system of education in India continued for many years until the modern education system came into the picture in the nineteenth century.

In the early 19th century, during the British period, the modern education system was brought into our country by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay. The basic strength of this modernized education system was the examinations and a well-defined curriculum, which gave importance to subjects like science and mathematics and subjects like philosophy, metaphysics were given a back seat. The brick and mortar classrooms replaced the open classrooms in the Gurukulas. The essence of the guru shishya bond was taken over by a more formal relationship between the teacher and the student. To understand the progress of any student, examinations were conducted at frequent intervals. The focus of the education system shifted from learning to memorizing of the concepts to score good marks in the examinations.

Problems of Indian Education System

Over a period of time, it has been observed that there are many loopholes in the system of education in India. Instead of understanding the concepts, students started cramming and memorizing the lessons. Knowledge is given a backseat and scoring in high rankings takes importance. The modern parents have tuned their mindsets accordingly and their goal is to ensure that their children score good marks instead of acquiring knowledge right from the primary level. 

Private schools and colleges have been rapidly increasing in the country but the results produced by them are far beyond satisfactory. It has also been observed that the quality of teachers deteriorated with the passing of time. Our examination system is responsible for the wide skill gap. India is producing lakhs of engineers and professionals every year but only a fraction of this number is actually getting employed. This is because the Indian examination system focuses more on scoring good percentages rather than the actual continuous comprehensive evaluation. 

Research and development, which should be the cornerstone of our system, are given the least importance. The private schools and colleges focus on the admission of more students and are least interested in the quality of their education. This is the major reason why the faculties and the teachers lack skills and specialization. This is quite evident from the fact that a single professor is assigned to teach multiple subjects. 

How Can We Improve the Indian Education System?

First and most importantly we should improve the grading system. Rote learning should be discouraged completely. Teachers and faculties should focus more on the analytical skills of the students and grade them accordingly. There should be more focus on comprehensive evaluation instead of scoring only good marks. Workshops must be organized for teachers on a regular basis to keep them updated about the latest developments in the sector of education. At the same time, the curriculum should be reframed according to the present needs of education in India. 

The payroll structure of the teachers and the faculties especially in the government institutions should be improved. This step will help in motivating the teachers to develop their skills and they will take a keen interest in grooming or shaping up a student’s life and career. The government and other entities who are associated with the education sector, need to understand the importance of quality of education. Education should be a holistic process that must focus on the overall development of the physical, emotional, social and cognitive skills of a child. It needs to be a slow and cyclic process and must take place gradually to help the child develop into an autonomous, independent and knowledgeable individual.

Conclusion

An educated individual is an individual who should be able to contribute towards the betterment of the economic and social development of the society as well as the country. The true goal of education must exceed awarding the degrees and certificates to the students. Education is not a tool to earn livelihood but it is a way to liberate the mind and soul of an individual. 

INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

India, being a developing country, has a lot of work to do to improve its education system. Despite its progress, India’s education system still lacks some of the basic needs for the country’s development. Education is critical to a country’s development and to an individual’s success. Because a lack of sufficient education has already resulted in poverty and despair in India, it is critical to strengthen the country’s educational system.

In recent years, India’s education system has been plagued by a slew of challenges that have hampered students’ growth and development. The grading system is a curse to our system, which assesses pupils’ intelligence based on their academic exam results. This makes pupils feel insecure, even if they are talented in other areas. Every person has their own unique talents, and judging them solely on the basis of their grades is absurd. As a result, even if they don’t understand what they’re writing, children do their hardest to achieve good grades in the exam. They’ve turned into bookworms with no practical expertise.

In the pursuit of higher grades, they are unable to learn the subjects adequately. Many pupils have been rendered jobless and unfit of society due to a lack of practical expertise. They are unable to obtain employment based on their education and study.

What can we do to improve our education system?

Rote learning: We have improved over time, but we have not yet been able to break free from rote learning. While we recognize that IB schools are transforming education at the local level, we must also recognize that the population of students who attend IB schools is extremely small. The education system that they provide is not affordable to everyone. As a result, the government must seize the initiative and eliminate rote learning from all levels of education. Schools should be encouraged to implement conceptual learning, which prevents students from memorizing what they are taught. This will not only help students grasp the concepts better, but it will also help them retain and apply them more effectively.

System of evaluation: Grades remain the most crucial aspect in determining a child’s future, and this is generally viewed as a burdensome factor for pupils. Students commonly underperform due to the pressure of grades. Rather than relying on a three-hour exam, the focus of the evaluation should be on a student’s classroom involvement, projects, communication and leadership abilities, and extra-curricular activities. Only then will pupils do their very best and be evaluated accordingly.

All subjects should be treated equally: We are still surviving in an educational system where the science stream has overturned the stream hierarchy. Students are pressured to become a machine that solely studies high-profile topics, whereas disciplines such as languages, communications, and the arts are shunned. Instead of creating a distinction between disciplines, students should be encouraged to pursue the subject they enjoy.

Introduction of technology: As we all know, the fourth industrial revolution has begun. We are in the midst of a technological renaissance, and technology and education cannot be separated in this situation. Students must be taught about technology beginning in elementary school so that it does not seem alien to them later in life. Indian schools must embrace technology and education with an open mind and teach it to pupils since it is there that their future resides.

Teach them the aim of education: The qualities that colonial educators established into our educational system are still present. It is not always about becoming a huge, wealthy person through education. The focus should be on humanism. Students should also be taught about life’s morality and instilled with humanistic values. They should be educated that life is about so much more than money, and that success isn’t measured in dollars. We can reach the level of the best education system in the world if the Indian education system starts adopting these things seriously. It is critical that we, as a country, begin to elevate education beyond the subpar level with which we have become accustomed and begin to view education holistically.