Education
System
The education
system in India suffers from some serious lacunae. These include preference for
good marks/grades over being knowledgeable, lack of encouragement for thinking
out of the box (asking questions in the class is considered rude and seldom
encouraged; almost non-existent practice of extra reading; education restricted
to prescribed textbook and help/guide books, and that too limited to 24 hrs.
before the examination day!), rigid and outdated syllabi/curriculum, heavily
underpaid professors/teachers (bright minds stay away from this career;
professors don’t show much zeal for teaching, they just “go through” the
motions), only a few colleges with good quality of education where you have to
be in the top elite to gain admission besides there being a lack of passion for
education in the real sense (most students go for engineering/medicine on the
advice of “elders”!).
Now, for some
serious facts and stats regarding Indian education system vindicating the
aforementioned lacunae (note that these stats are based on those provided by
the government of India itself freely on the web):
•In India,
just 11% of the children finishing school joins a college whereas in the US,
this figure amounts to a whopping 83%.
As per the eleventh plan, to increase this enrolment level to
15%, India needs to invest approx. Rs. 22.5 billion but it has allotted only a
fourth of the total needed.
•According to
a study by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, 90% of the
colleges and 70% of the universities that the council graded were of middling
or poor quality. The standard of school education has stagnated too. In rural
India, there is no teaching activity on about 50% of the working days in the
primary schools.
•There is an
endemic shortage of teachers with even the IITs reporting a 20% to 30%
shortfall in faculty. Indian universities, if one goes by average, revise their
curricula only once in 5 to 10 years but by then they get defeated in both
letter and spirit.
•Corruption is
the by-word in higher education having become rampant and institutionalized due
to over-regulation by the government and multiplicity of education agencies
leading to what else but stagnation in this very vital sector of education.
•The lack of
good institutions has seen cut-off percentages for entry into good colleges
soar to almost impossible levels (at Delhi’s SRCC college, this percentage was
as high as 98.75). There is an undue pressure to do well in the secondary board
exams because of which the suicidal tendency has grown alarmingly.
•Owing to poor
quality of education at home, Indian students now spend no less than $7000
million to go abroad and study in foreign universities. Still the government is
adamant over its peculiar stance of not permitting foreign universities to set
up shop in India.
