by Azhar-U-Din
“Indian Education Framework Needs to Change Completely”
~ DR. APJ ABDUL KALAM
Education is the process that prepares a person to face the day to day challenges of life. It is not only confined to the facts and knowledge which we gain from different sources but it incorporates the moral and ethical values through which an individual can modify his or her behavior. In other words, education is an instrument that develops the all-round personality of an individual which in turn becomes a pivotal cause for a prosperous and developed society. It is a common saying that destroying any nation does not require the use of large atom bombs or the use of long-range missiles but it only requires the lowering of the quality of education which in turn disrupts the socio-economic and political development of that nation or country. From this saying one can easily comprehend the need and importance of quality education.
After the United States and China, India has the third-largest education system in the world. No doubt the number of colleges and universities are increasing drastically since independence in India but still the quality of the Indian education system is at the bottom level. According to the report of All India Survey on Higher Education (2018-2019), the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) of India is 26.3% and the number of students is about 3.73 crore. There is a gender imbalance of GER in the country. It has been found that GER is highest among males than females in India. Every year India produces millions of graduates and many of them find their career blink and dark due to the frustration of unemployment. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2017, only 17 percent of Indians are capable of employment. The main reason for such an increasing wave of unemployment in India is the less focus of quality education in most of the colleges and universities Where a meager focus is given on the skill of a student and more emphasis is laid on theoretical portions and in most of the cases, the applicability of concepts is not shown in a better scientific manner. Thus, most of the graduates pass out only with degrees facing the problems of unemployment due to the lack of art and skill. Another loophole of this current education system is teaching through traditional aids and use of the modern technology and innovation in the classrooms is less or absent.
In countries like China, Germany, Turkey, and Russia the medium of language in the schools and colleges is mainly the regional or native language. In vernacular language, it is easy to comprehend any topic or concept and its applicability in a very lucid manner. In the case of India, the medium of language in higher education is mainly English. Thus, it becomes very difficult for those students who have done their 10th and 12th classes from the Hindi medium or Urdu medium schools. Some engineering and management colleges in India give the main focus on the prescribed syllabus while paying little attention to communication skills. Therefore, at the time of Job Interviews, the students of these colleges suffer the most due to the lack of communication skills and in many cases, it becomes a pivotal cause for their deselection.
Another flaw of the Indian education system is that classroom teaching is mainly the teacher-centered and utilitarian. The group discussions on the current issues and presentation of the students are very rare. In the class of one hour generally, the Teacher speaks and students hear like the statutes due to this the ideas and curiosity of students remain on the halt and it makes live classroom interaction between teacher and student absent. In this traditional system of education, the main emphasis is given on the marks and grades so the main focus of most of the teachers is on quantity while the stress on the quality of students is far away from their minds. Tuition in private coaching centers is becoming a new emerging trend in India. These private coaching centers hire well qualified and expert staff for every subject and who try to understand all the concepts and topics to students in a very lucid and simple way. No doubt these private coaching centers provide the means of livelihood for many unemployed educated youths but at the same, these coaching institutes charge huge fees which is an additional expense over the school fees and become a heavy burden for the poor parents.
The qualification of teachers is one of the important factors that affect the teaching process. If the teacher does not know teaching aptitude then how can he handle a class? Recently a shocking report which came from the Department of School Education and Literacy of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in a Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) had revealed that about 16,000 teachers are undergraduates in Jammu and Kashmir. This is an issue of grave concern which spoils the education system and indicates the level of corruption in the UT.
Another problem is that our traditional and pessimistic society only gives the main emphasis on Courses like MBBS and B.Tech. Almost every parent in India wants to make his son or daughter an engineer or doctor. Streams like Arts, Commerce, Management, and Law are not having much importance before them. Some parents even compel their wards to take medical or non-medical streams and not bother about what they want to do and what is their interests. Thus, in the long run, these students suffer the most in making their careers. Sometimes their depression level regarding their career increasing too much that they take the wrong steps like suicide or drug addiction.
To cope with all these flaws and improve the quality of the Indian education system the first and foremost step is to give the main focus on the applicability of the concepts rather than only to study the theoretical portion in the four walls of the classroom. Vocational and other new courses like Digital Marketing, coding, Website Designing, Social Media Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Online Reputation Management, Diploma in Multimedia and 3D Animation & Visual Effects, Diploma in Photography, etc. should also be included in the college and universities so that students can easily participate in them as their part-time courses. These courses make them less dependent on government jobs and make them capable to earn the means of livelihood. An increase in the Educational budget should be the topmost priority of the government so that colleges and universities can give quality education through modern equipment and techniques. The classroom environment should be both teacher and student-centered so that live interaction between the teacher and student will be possible and the flow of ideas and curiosity among the students will increase. A particular day in a week should be selected in which only the current problems like global warming, climate change, environmental pollution, acute and chronic diseases, dowry system, drug addiction, child labor, hunger, etc. should be discussed so that students will be aware of these problems and find their solution in their practical life. Finally, it is the responsibility of every person in society to give proper focus on quality education so that the main pillar of human development and prosperity can be made to be much stronger and vigorous.
About the Author:
The author hails from Kashmir Pahalgam and is a student of Geography at AMU.