SJ Desk
he backbone of any country’s progressing economy is the education being provided in that particular country. The feebler this backbone, the weaker its economy is.
From the Gurukul System where there existed a close connection between the trainer (Guru) and the student (Shishya), to a more classroom-based system followed since the Colonial Era of the British in India, educational systems have increasingly witnessed a lot of ramifications over time.
But were these ramifications in line with what an ideal educational system actually should have been?
Let us see a few following facts, which tell us a lot about where our Indian Educational systems lacked and what caused the real problems and what actions are being planned to overcome these problems?
The Guru
The connection with the Gurus has been completely lost as it used to be in Gurukul systems, where a teacher would know the in and out of every student which led to the student’s holistic growth and development. But in the current scenario, India has truly witnessed a dearth of the possible good teachers. Teaching as a profession has not yet been taken seriously, either with the teachers being underpaid or under qualified.
The Education Providers
Schools and colleges are certainly the pillars bolstering any individual’s life. A huge responsibility of shaping the future of our generations has been bestowed upon such institutions regarding them as the flag bearers of knowledge in the best possible way.
But what if they don’t provide knowledge as to how it is should be?
Rote Process
Considering the majority of Indian schools and colleges, according to a research, about 80% of the principals of these institutions mentioned rote learning to be one of the most critical factors involved in the learning process and a few of them also blamed the poor quality of educational syllabus throughout the learning process of a kid.
The focus is significantly put on grades, marks, board exams, entrance exams, etc. And thus the students are prepared only to compete in some or the other form, by hook or by crook.
With long hours of studying-teaching in the schools, with students attending the classes only for the sake of it without any concentration, with teachers overlooking the concentration span of students, the process gets really boring and hence the learning activity becomes a mere rote process.
Infrastructure
Even the infrastructure in most of these institutions is not at par with what is expected with the dynamically changing scenarios as regards the technological advancement in the world.
With technically and digitally advanced times, our schools and colleges lack the basic infrastructure to provide the students with the latest learning techniques which could help them out to think out of the box, that is, pretty much creatively.
Quality Programs
Even though India has some really great and best institutions like the IIMs and IITs, the contribution of Indian students in terms of innovation and creativity is almost none. This results from the fact that the syllabus taught in our schools and colleges, majorly emphasize on a few good subjects like science, Engineering, Medical, Mathematics, etc.
And again begins the process of preparing for the entrance exams for paving their ways through these fields.
India is known for producing good talent majorly in subjects like Engineering and Medical.
Bereft of ample opportunities, many students are left jobless in our own country or underpaid.
Future Career Scenario
A very important and long-lasting trend that has been followed in India is of producing Engineers to be further trained to become MBA grads. And all this to just to land up in some or the other job in a particular MNC.
Or if not an MBA, most of them want to go abroad for their further studies and settle there, leaving India devoid of the talent pool it would otherwise have.
Considering the number of students graduating every year and passing out with flying colours, (which is immense), the number of jobs are currently not sufficient in these fields.
Unfortunately, students, who would have completed their education for an institution other than the IITs, and IIMs are either left jobless or have to take up jobs paying them less than 1.5 lakhs salary packages annually on an average. Such is the plight of the nation.
Call for Reforms
Considering all of the above-mentioned situations, it is imperative for our Indian schools and colleges to prioritize the reforms in the existing educational systems. Their focus should rather be on the skills-based activities and not just helping students comprehend the age-old subjects.
Apart from Engineering and Medical, other topics, which will help them make the right decision and choice for their future, should be encouraged.
India needs more entrepreneurs, writers, digital marketers, artists, scientists, musicians, etc. and not just mere engineers and medical students.
Government Initiatives and Reforms
According to The Economic Times, the Indian Education System is about to see a wave of new-age technology usage such as cloud computing, Virtual reality enabled labs and classrooms, etc.
Using technology and the increased use of digitalization, reaching out to the remotest possible individuals has been made a reality through MOOC Platforms (Massive open online courses), which are absolutely affordable and accessible to everyone.
MOOC platforms such as SWAYAM developed in collaboration with Microsoft, providing online training for teaching faculties, and the Diksha platform, which has helped teachers with digitalized and technically advanced teaching solutions, have really given an impetus to the revamp in the teaching methodologies.
Even technology-enabled platforms like NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning) are said to be applied to school students as well, which are currently in use only for the higher technical educational sectors.
The Indian Government has also allocated an expenditure of 1 lakh crore for reform schemes such as the Revitalizing Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE).
Thus it is evident that there has been some kind of development to create an innovative and creative infrastructure in the educational arena.
But is it just the whole and sole responsibility of the government to implement these reforms?
We as responsible citizens should be equally involved in this process, trying to provide our Gen – X the much-needed environment of the convergence of digitalized and technologically advanced ways of teaching and learning at the same time.
Already the Government has employed ways to foster digital ways of learning. But taking it to another level is the call for the future of our generation next.