Evolution of Indian education system:
The pursuit of knowledge {Gyan}, wisdom {Pragya} and truth {Satya} were always an integral part of Indian philosophy as the highest achievement of human life.
India is home to earliest education system, the Vedic system that relied on gurukuls fostering a guru shishya bond. The worlds earliest universities at Taxila, Nalanda were established that set highest standards of multi-disciplinary teaching hosting scholars from diverse backgrounds and across the geographical borders. This education system of gurukuls and Pir-Murshid system of Sufism centred around religion initially.
But the advent of Europeans laid foundation of modern education system. Leaders like Raja ram Mohan Roy, Jyothi Phule worked for the cause of education. The British rule laid 2 major milestones in Indian education system’s progress namely ‘The Macaulay’s minute” and ‘The woods dispatch”, rightly called the Magna carta of English education in India that changed the face of Indian education system. Indian struggle for independence also had education as an intricate part of its nation building ideology with leaders like Mahatma Gandhi endorsing “Buniyaadi shiksha”.
Post Independent India saw major changes with formation of several commissions like Radhakrishna commission, Kothari commission and Mudaliar commission. The last 2 decades however have seen a major shift in Indian education system with the advent of rights-based approach via RTE act making education a fundamental right along with other constitutional provisions. Emphasis shifted from literacy and basic education towards secondary and higher forms of education, technology and professional education.
Kasturi Rangan committee report, National educational policy of 2020 and the concept of universalisation of education have reshaped the entire structure of education in India.
Statistics:
The major problems of school education as indicated by recent surveys by NSSO include Low Gross enrolment ratios especially in government schools while the drop out rates have been rising.
The U-DISE report hints on lower enrolment ratios for disadvantaged social groups like SC, ST and differently abled.
Significant improvements were found with respect to Narrowing gender gap and expected years of schooling. However, the college density remains at 28 pr lakh population with prominent difference between urban and rural areas.
Quality of education also lags many international competitors with barely any of our institutions ranking in the top 50 global institutions.
Issues/ challenges associated with Indian education system:
India owns the largest educational system with diverse range of institutions catering to a huge population.
To being with, quality of education is a major concern. The issues associated with age old teaching techniques that schools implement making rot learning a routine, examination patterns that are not updated, low teacher training and regulation of teacher quality, low emphasis on value-based education that is important for personality development are worrisome.
Infrastructure inadequacy, lower teacher pupil ratios, lack of basic facilities like toilets and classrooms, safety and security concerns, crimes, physical and psychosocial abuse, lack of importance to physical education, lesser emphasis on creative and innovation dimension in education are of huge concern.
At the institutional level, there is a huge dearth in framing of appropriate curriculum that suits the needs of such diverse populations. Also lack of a strict regulatory policy over the educational institutions especially the mushroomed private institutions raise eyebrows over the departments attitudes.
The governments lack of a comprehensive educational policy, lower funding for education {much lower than global average}, not able to address the challenges associated such as lower enrolment ratios, higher dropouts, digital, gender and regional divide all point towards the need of educational reforms to help India propel forward
Solutions possible:
Urgent emphasis is required to help improve the quality of education by ensuring a proper curriculum and framework, efficient capacity building through recruitment and training of teachers, with promoting importance to value-based education along with innovation and creative thinking with a strong emphasis on mental health component in the wake of rising educational stress and student suicides.
Inclusive education is the need of the hour. It is required for the governments to make necessary policy changes that encompass and revisit several issues like adequate funding, focus on improving institutional regulations and strong focus on skill development along with digital integration of education without which our education system would not be able to equip the challenges that evolving world throws at us.
There is need of multi departmental and stakeholder level convergence to help address issues at the primary level of education like lower enrolment ratios and dropouts which have huge social and psychological implications on the individuals as well as society at large.
The introduction of National educational policy, rising emphasis to vocational education, skill development, strengthening online education in the wake of unprecedented epidemic of covid 19 through initiatives like Swayam Prabha DTS channels, e-patShala app, Pragyata guidelines are a welcome step in this direction.
To conclude,
India is home to the world’s youngest population in an ageing world and it is essential to leverage this demographic dividend to make India the Human capital of the world. It is most essential to ensure that the education is holistic and be considered as a most important capital investment to unleash the true potential of our country and steer it towards economic and social prosperity as India envisions to become a global leader.