Essays for IBPS PO VII : Education System in India

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Education System in India

Overview

• History of Indian education system. 
• Modern education system of 19th century. 
• The difference between ancient and modern education system. 
• Modern education system consists of different boards for school level education.
• NCERT and its significant role.
• The role of Ministry of HRD in higher studies.
• Role of private sector in educational system. 
• The drawbacks of higher studies in India. 
• As a holistic process, education must focus on overall development of a child.

The highest education is that which does not merely give us information, but makes our life in harmony with all existence.

Rabindranath Tagore 

The history of Indian education system dates back to the times of Ramayana and Mahabharata. The historic Indian education system is synonymous with the Gurukula system. There were gurus (teachers) and shishyas (students) who used to live together under one roof in Gurukula. The shishya was expected to help the guru in all the daily chores as a part of one's learning. The children were taught all the subjects from Sanskrit to holy scriptures and mathematics to metaphysics by the gurus. The Gurukula system focused on the practical aspects of life. The students were taught in the open classroom in the vicinity of nature. This system of education continued for years until the modern education system came into the picture.

The modern education system was brought in our country by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay in the early 19th century. The foundation pillars of this education system were the examinations and a well defined curriculum which gave importance to subjects like science and mathematics and subjects such as philosophy, metaphysics were given a back seat. The open classrooms in the Gurukula were replaced by the brick and mortar classrooms. The essence of the guru shishya bond was lost to a more formal relation between the teacher and the student. Examinations were conducted at frequent intervals in order to check the learning and understanding of the student. The focus of education system shifted from learning to memorising of the concepts in order to score good marks in the examinations.


Instead of understanding the concepts, students started cramming the things. Under the aegis of the modern education system, there were different boards set up in the country, The Uttar Pradesh Board of High School and Intermediate Education was the first board to be set up in India. Later, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) were established. Besides the aforementioned national level boards, there are state boards in each state. The schools which are affiliated to these boards need to follow the guidelines of the respective boards. Also, there is National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) which is a board for distance education and falls under the Union Government of India.


It offers a number of vocational, life-enrichment and community-oriented courses besides the academic and general courses. At present the secondary education is based on CCE (Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation) pattern. There are government, private and semi-government schools all over the country. The Right To Education (RTE) Act entitles a child to free and compulsory primary education in our country. The school education in India falls under the control of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) which assists Central and State Governments on academic matters. It provides support and technical assistance to the different schools and looks into the matters related to the education policy.

It drafts, publishes and recommends school textbooks and involved in research, development, training, dissemination, exchange programmes. The institutes of higher education in India are universities, deemed universities, private colleges, state and open universities and colleges. The higher education is regulated by University Grants Commission (UGC) which has an important role in overlooking the higher education, allocation of funds and recognition of universities. The National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) is the assessing and ranking authority for the universities and colleges. Besides, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) was established to look into the different aspects of technical and professional education.

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has begun to conduct a common admission test for MBA. The Ministry of HRD has begun a single all-India entrance examination for admission to UG programmes in engineering to avoid multiplicity of examination and reduce the stress level among students. The Medical Council of India (MCI) has taken all-India level examination and also a Common Teachers' Eligibility Test has been introduced. The private schools and colleges have been mushrooming in the country rampantly but the results produced by them are far beyond satisfactory. The modern education system is based more on cramming, memorising rather than learning and understanding of concepts. Knowledge is given a back seat. Right from the primary level, the goal of most of the children is to score good marks instead of good knowledge.

India's education sector has grown by leaps and bounds in the past two decades. The entry of private sector players into this segment has brought in a boom of investments in terms of money as well as infrastructure. With this, the scenario of education has completely revolutionised and the education has become more commercialised these days. The private players in the segment justify their existence to fulfil and match the global standards of education. The sky high fees of the schools and colleges have forced the parents and the students to go in for bank loans in order to complete the studies. On the level of higher education, the market experts claim that the calibre of the Indian professionals is quite low in comparison to their counterparts from the developed nations. The above statement is backed by the fact that none of the Indian university could find a place in the list of the top 200 universities globally. Such facts definitely hint towards some major flaws in our education system which needs to be rectified. In India, the education system to teach the teacher is beyond satisfaction. Workshops must be organised for teachers on a regular basis to keep them updated about the latest developments in the sector of education. India is minting engineers and professionals in lakhs every year but only a fraction of this number is actually employable. There is a wide skill gap and it is our examination system which is responsible for this wide skill gap. The examination system focuses more on scoring good marks rather than the actual continuous comprehensive evaluation.

Research and development which must be the cornerstone of our system are given the least importance. The private colleges and universities' focus is to get more students and they are least interested in the quality of their education. The lack of qualified and specialised faculty is evident from the fact that a single professor is assigned to teach multiple subjects. Most of these institutes are flouting norms of the regulatory bodies such as AICTE, UGC etc. With the IITs, IIMs, AIIMS making their presence globally felt, it is high time for the other educational institutes to walk on their steps. The government, as well as all the other people and entities associated with the education sector, need to understand the importance of quality education in the development of our country as a whole. Education is a holistic process that must focus on the overall physical, emotional, social and cognitive development of a child. It needs to be a slow and cyclic process and must take place gradually to help the child to develop into an autonomous, independent and knowledgeable individual.

An educated individual is the one who must be able to contribute to the economic and the social development of the society as well as the country. The true goal of education transcends much beyond awarding the degrees and certificates to the students. Education is not a tool to earn the livelihood but it is a way to liberate the mind and soul of an individual.

Difficult Words with Meanings :

• Scriptures - the sacred writing of religion
• Metaphysics - the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of existence truth and knowledge
• Vicinity - the area around or near a particular place
• Cramming - study intensively over a short period of time just before an examination
• Aforementioned - mentioned before
• Leaps and Bounds - rapidly or in fast progress
• Segment - each of the parts into which something is or may be divided
• Infrastructure - the basic systems and services that are necessary for a country or organisation to run smoothly
• Flouting - to break or ignore (a law, rule) without hiding what you are doing or showing fear or shame
• Holistic - considering a whole thing or being to be more than a collection of parts
• Autonomous - having the freedom to govern itself or control its own affairs
• Transcends - to rise above or go beyond the normal limits of (something).

shared by Nisheeta Mirchandani

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