The leaders, ever since independence, have expressed their opinions on the importance of education of Indians. While the rest of the leading developed countries alongside our colonisers, the British had a functioning and well established system, the system in India was the total opposite. The British, while setting up various universities and institutions, did not take into account the diversity, the size or the needs of the population they wanted to teach. An educated population was also mostly a threat to their colonial rule.
Coming to the present day scenario, there are plenty of school, colleges and universities that a person can seek education from and in most cases, the age gap is not an encumbering factor. This has helped the system to educate the masses in a much better way as government schools, colleges and universities are affordable to the masses.
However, while the current education system has helped us to pursue the goal of education for the masses. The effectiveness and the methods used to pursue this goal is still to be questioned as the best. The following can be considered the lacunae, loopholes of gaps in the Indian education system:
- Outdated methods of teaching: The methods used to teach students in most institutions still consist of following the old practices used in the 1900s. While some of them are still effective, it does not mean that newer methods aren’t to be used. The use of digital means to help the students visualize and assess a certain piece of information goes a long way in helping them to think out of the box and retain that piece of information longer.
- Outdated system of learning: The system of learning has pretty much remained the same since the pre-independence era. The system of learning a set of subjects every semester, memorizing the answers to a question and then distributing the same on a final piece of paper that assesses whether or not the student has passed or failed is outrageously flawed because it puts too much importance in one certain event rather than the overall time-period of learning. Rote learning does not facilitate innovative and creative thinking and since children are taught from their early years that rote learning is the solution to overcoming the barrier of examination, it is embedded in them throughout their schooling life, or perhaps even through their whole education process.
- Ineffective evaluation system: An effective evaluation system must take into consideration all the aspects of the particular student. Studies, extra-curricular activities, achievements in other fields etc. must all be considered as they all contribute to the overall development of students. The current system acknowledges these various factors but still places maximum importance on the final examinations and not on the other various achievements that the student has practically achieved.
- Lack of practical learning: No matter how good a student can learn or by-heart certain information, it is of no use unless he/she can use that information somewhere in their real lives. In professional courses, only the theory aspects of all the procedures and steps to be followed are provided. In reality however, things are much different. The procedures of management, courts and governments vary from those being taught in colleges and this leads to less confidence and lack of actual knowledge required for the student to achieve his/her goals.
- Lack of evaluation structure in universities: A major problem faced by students in universities is that different universities provide them with different grading criterions. While it might be very easy to score marks in a written exam in University A, it might be that much difficult to score the same in University B. Now this shift in grading criteria causes the average marks of that department to be lower of higher in comparison to other departments in other universities. When graduates apply for a job or want to pursue higher education however, these shifts in marks are not considered since the employer or the higher education university has no idea about the structure in place and will always consider that a person with better marks has done better in college than a person with lower marks when reality couldn’t be far from it. This affects the future prospects of a student drastically and is a major drawback of the education system.
- Different standards and costs: The whole nation, without a doubt knows, that education provided in government schools is of lesser quality than that of private ones. Private schools are preferred by parents who can afford it. Concerned parents from poor families, even if not able to afford such costly education sometimes send their children to private schools by sacrificing majority of their time working overtime to get more pay. Private schools charge an exorbitant amount of money and run the education system as their own business to earn greater profits at the peril of the students and their parents.
Hence, these are some of the gaps in the education system. While some of them have been addressed in the New Education Policy 2020, these policies are yet to be implemented effectively and until then, the old system is still in function. The Governments and the Education boards must take charge of these disparities so that at least some of the major issues and flaws in our education system can be addressed effectively.
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.
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