Over the course of over seven decades, the education system of India has evolved gradually yet phenomenally. From a literacy rate of 18% in 1951, we have moved up to 73% as of 2011. Currently, the education system in India is the strongest and largest in the world hosting more than 315 million students.
The modern education system was introduced to India in 1830 during the British rule by Lord Thomas Babington, who brought English language syllabus to the country. The syllabus was then limited to common subjects like language, science and maths. Classroom teaching became prominent and the relation between a teacher and student evolved.
In the following years, the education system started getting influenced by various institutions. During the late nineteenth century, the Theosophical Society of India and Rama Krishna Mission started to merge the western ideals of education with the Indian roots to inspire the students and make them accepted universally. Intellectuals of various nationalities came together and helped shape the education system.
Post India gained its independence from the British colonial rule, the Indian education system, previously accessible only to the elite, became available for the entire society. The government’s Central Advisory Board established two committees – one for higher education and one for secondary education – to address the challenges of education, formulate comprehensive education policies and improve the overall education landscape of the country. Currently, Indian School System consists of four levels – pre-primary, primary, secondary and higher secondary.
As of 2019, India has the most number of students in a country. Compared to the tragic situation of 1947 when the country had merely 400 schools, 19 universities with a little over 5000 students, we have come a long way. Currently, India boasts of 1.5 million plus schools, 751 universities and 35 thousand plus colleges.
The Modern Learning Approach
To modernise the knowledge delivery ways according to the needs of the 21st century generation, schools and universities are adopting various unique practices. These methodologies and innovative pedagogies enable educational institutions to develop the skills of the learners in such a manner that they are able to become self-dependent and ambitious achievers. Some of these new age methods are:
– Experiential Learning: As it is evident by the name, experiential learning is the process of learning through doing or experience, and is more specifically defined as “learning through reflection on doing. Learning only produces good results when learners have the desire to absorb the knowledge. Therefore, experiential learning comprises a hands-on approach to education that goes beyond the theoretical aspect and a classroom and strives to bring a more involved way of learning.
– Peer Learning: Peer learning has become a part of an active learning strategy in a lot of Universities and B-Schools. This form of pedagogy encourages students to interact with their classmates/peers and learn from each other beyond classroom without any supervising authority. This creates an environment of open communication which is highly crucial for learning. Research has shown that students, who engage in an environment of free communication, perform better academically.
– The Rise of Ed-Tech: Starting from the past decade, the new generation of learner is looking for courses which are experiential and interactive in nature and facilitate authentic skill development. This is where the Edtech is making its mark. According to a report by Google & KPMG, Online education has the potential to touch $1.96 billion by 2021 as everyone, from school going students to MBA aspirants to CXOs of multinational corporations and entrepreneurs, is a potential learner.
Challenges facing the education system
The successes listed above are not only numerical but point to the narrowness of the base of beneficiaries in India. Of the 27 crore people who have registered on the e-Shram portal, 94% mention that they earn less than Rs 10,000 per month. The desperation among youngsters can be gauged when a person having a PhD, MTech and MCom degree applies for a peon’s job in Uttar Pradesh. No doubt a government job is preferable but one does not do an MTech to become a peon.
Clearly, a large number of people don’t get a job appropriate to their degree or skill acquired. It is reported that substance abuse has grown among youngsters and so has violence within families. Suicides by daily workers and self-employed have increased while they are still high among farmers. This reflects hopelessness.
While the number of educational institutions has increased, facilities by and large are inadequate due to a shortage of funds and corruption. This is mostly true of the private institutions also because of the managements’ desire to maximise their profits. No wonder, ASER reports since 2005 show that 50% of children in Class 5 in rural schools cannot read or write or do arithmetic of Class 2 level. So, effectively they have not acquired the basic skills, and drop out. Worse, they can only get menial jobs that pay little, and they will remain poor during their lifetime.
A degree has become a passport to a scarce job. So, the emphasis has shifted from learning to getting marks to get admissions and jobs. Cheating is the easiest way for this and it has become rampant in our public examinations. Fake degrees are another device to get this passport. It has also spawned the culture of coaching and tuition, which is narrowly focused on imparting the skill to do well by beating the system. Regular classroom teaching is mostly indifferent, so students are forced to opt for tuition. More importantly, this kills students’ interest in learning.
There is also growing commercialisation and privatisation of education on the ground of failure of the public systems and that is increasing the divide between the well-off and the poor. The democratising influence of education is on the wane. Consequently, the insensitivity towards the marginalised sections or the differently abled has aggravated.
In order to attract students, many private institutions promote malpractices – question paper leakage, fake degrees, etc. It has fostered paying courses in public institutions and children gravitating to applied courses away from the basic courses. The downgrading of the basic courses in educational institutions will pose challenges for research in the coming years. With education becoming a mass market and weakening teacher-student relationship, testing in public examinations is largely based on multiple choice questions (MCQ). CUET introduced for Central University entrance is a recent example. Not only does MCQ not test the child’s capacity to express and logically formulate answers, but it also lends itself to cheating and coaching.