Sample Materials of SSC CGL (Tier -3) Study Kit

Subject: Essay

Topic: Restructuring of Indian education system

WHEN India became a republic, unlike the Railways, posts and telegraphs and the three services, our Constitution makers placed education on the concurrent list. With fourteen officially recognised languages at the outset, the framework of the future of education was tacitly laid out so that while the Centre could adopt a pattern of education for all-India needs, the states were free to evolve their own systems of education to suit local conditions. The amended Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill 2008 has been cleared by both Houses of Parliament and the President too has signed it to be an Act. It is not clear as to how the central government will co-opt the state governments into implementing the Bill on a subject, which is on the concurrent list. In India, a large number of children have to work in homes, factories and shops to fill their stomach. Under the Act, all of them will be debarred from undertaking any form of employment. The number of affected children will run in crores and the new measure may lead to chaos when implemented.

Human capabilities, unfortunately, begin to decay beyond a certain age. Good institutions, on the other hand, can - like vintage wine - get better with age. Sadly, most institutions in India tend to mimic human mortality rather than the growing goodness of ageing wine. Amongst the exceptions is the Indian Institute of Science, the centenary celebrations of which were recently kicked-off by the prime minister. As noteworthy as the achievements of this venerable institution is the fact that it has sustained (and, in fact, taken further) its success over a period of ten decades, unlike some of our older and once-great universities. 

Meanwhile, the changing economic scenario has resulted in education - particularly at university level - having a positive and high “return on investment” at both individual and societal levels. At the same time, the substantial (though yet inadequate) expansion at the school level has led to a huge increase in the number of potential entrants to universities. These factors, along with the traditional desire for education, have led to vastly increased demand for higher education. Despite big increases in the education budget (the Eleventh Five-Year Plan has been called an Education Plan), government just does not have resources to fund expansion of the system rapidly enough to meet the growing demand, given other competing resource requirements. Even within the education sector, priority will be given - quite rightly - to primary and secondary education. Dependence on government funds will, therefore, exacerbate the quantitative mismatch between supply and demand for higher education. 

In the case of professional education, the supply gap is being met, to a large extent, by private institutions, mostly of poor quality, since the supply-demand mismatch means that there is little systemic pressure to improve quality. In non-professional courses, inadequate resources have affected quality. The system is also non-responsive to market needs, resulting in a curriculum that is of low relevance to employment needs. Yet, even while commercialization and privatization of education has proceeded apace, corporatization has been banned, stifling investments in formal university education. 
An overly centralized and highly regulated system has not only damped initiative, but created a “lowest common denominator” type of education, which is delivering neither access (in terms of numbers) nor quality or excellence. It has also given rise to rampant corruption, especially in technical education. 

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Centralization and bureaucratic standardization, combined with inadequate resources, have led to low salaries with no flexibility to pay more or really differentiate between performers and non-performers. In an increasingly materialistic society, low salaries have also meant a lower social status for teachers. As a result, teaching - particularly in professional areas - attracts mainly those who do not get other jobs. Non-professional courses are seen - both by parents and students - as a “pass-time” activity, with the goal being to only get a degree. The course itself is neither relevant to their lives, nor does it help in getting employment. Little wonder that where a degree can be bought, many do so, since the degree certifies little and is necessary only to cross the first hurdle of screening for jobs. 

Essential Restructuring in Indian Education System

The world is talking about the universal communicator so is India. But even though in and around we have to answer the question, Still why India is a developing country? We can found a lot of reasons for this, and one major factor is our educational practice. All the nations of the world are in the race track so as to get the supreme position and power over others.

In this race India is hindered by the dumping of illiterate citizen. The statistics shows about 59 million children under the age limit 6-14 are out of school and about 41 million people are registered in the different employment exchange across the country. The unemployment is not because of there isn’t sufficient opportunity for the job seekers but the educational system made them inapt for employment. This is an ever crucial scenario for the Indian society.

Indian Education

Hence it is imperative to guarantee the qualitative education system across the nation, which is not only permissible to the higher income group, but also to the lower divisions of the population. To make this happen Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya residential schools are came across the 517 rural areas of the nation. Unlike other system in the country, the core advantage of this unban model institution is it promote the real education, rather than focusing on conventional practice, by having a common syllabus and curriculum which has the same standard as any metropolitan practice. After all for employment and for the life skill the learning happen from each institution and everyday experience rather than what we gain from the paper degree. Therefore there is an urgent need of reconstructing the overall education system is come forward. The committees under the Union Ministry of Human Resource Department focusing on the curriculum which emphasis more on the development of skills like conflict resolution and problem solving than the base learning and memorizing part. India should come under the umbrella of common curriculum and subjects for the same class which is transparent to any group or division of the society like the children from the richest family and the children from the lower income group are opened to the same subjects, without any hindrance.

But similar to all other projects which will always have long life in the discussion phase, the proposals of the respective committee cause several type of debate among the experts and devotional educationist in the country. The opinions of the people differ widely and here is the some common accepted counsels.

Ease-up and De-regulate the Education System

The aim of this type of programs is to promote the upcoming schools, collages and other institutions of higher education and to seek new investment in this field. This is also indented to eliminate the capacity shortage in the education sector in its supply side, which still focuses on the conventional practice. Privatization of the sector will increase the competition and this will bring more and more people in the path of literacy.
De-License Higher Education

The available data throw light on the fact that only 6% of the country’s 18-23age group is exposed to higher education due to the limited capacity supply. The De-Licensing in the higher/professional education sector will answer this problem. These enable the institutional independence and centralize the syllabus structure. The Government should encourage the private initiatives and give freedom to take decision on the admission and fee structure. Similar the case of self-financing institution in India, the de-licensing should happen there also.

Central and State Governments Should Revolutionize Their Roles

It has now become mandatory that the Central and state Government should reframe there role in the education sector. In the present scenario the Government controlling all most all decision on this sector, starting from the academic curriculum to the working hour, this ultimately create a compulsion to follow the rule rather than focusing on education. Now the role should be revised as a facilitator and a supervisory body, so as the institution should give the power to test what is good for each organization. Here is the need of a new National Education Policy (NEP), that promote the idea of designing the curriculum from nursery to class 8th in a free-fall model and giving the power to the school examination board to design the syllabus to examine the skills of student in the areas like research, analysis, comprehension, expression and memory, rather than mere testing of memory and base learning.

Teacher Training, Infrastructure and Syllabus Instantly Requires Upgrading

The IT magnet Mr. Azim Premji said “Bring in contemporary understanding of how children learn and help teachers experience this understanding”. He was among those 100 million children who were under-served by the poor quality of the teachers across the country, but make the difference by bring his competency by himself. This is one of the worst facts of the Indian education system that our teachers are not up to the benchmark of the international standard.Since the quality of the service by the teachers is poor no wonder in the statement, Indian graduates and school pass out are not good in employment. So the importance of teacher training and investment in the infrastructure same as that of syllabus and curriculum need urgent attention. Even if we have a sound syllabus, curriculum and also the facilities, if the service delivery is meager the whole effort is of no use. But we have an advantage that many private investors are there to capitalize in the sector like Azim Premji Foundation and Wipro put about Rs.5crore in the teacher training programmes annually.

Central and State Governments should Work Together to Formulate a Common School System

The inequality line in the Indian education system is clear in the schooling practices of the poor children and those of middle class and upper class together. The children belonging to the higher income group enjoys the well standardized syllabus under the Central Government named CISCE and CBSE, generally termed as the high-end English Medium schools. But those of lower income class are forced to serve by the state syllabus, called the Government schools, were not only the curriculum is poor but also the facilities and the learning environment is pitiable.

Studies shows that the state owned schools are characterized by the poor management, high teacher absenteeism, unavailability of text books, and not able to satisfy the basic requirement of drinking water and toiletries. But even though, around 90% of the schools in India are identified in the Government schools.

Hence the central and state government should acts like one and enrolls the education system under a common umbrella. Both Government should facilitate and supervise the system and welcome the new changes. Governments take the initiative in capitalizing on the infrastructure and built-up a special committee to enhance the policies and the budget should address this need of strengthening and expansion.

Compulsory English Medium of Instruction in Indian Education

Due to Globalization English become the global language and medium of communication in almost every sector. Hence for any job and the mobility in the career it is required to have a good fluency in the language. But almost every state Government owned schools strictly follows the mother tongue as the medium and gave lesser importance to the global language. But this is not the case of the central Government owned system, so the difference in the standard of the students in the class division is huge. Therefore to ensure the quality education atleast the medium of the education sector should change from the mother tongue to English. This will inturn boost up our future employee marketplace and will create a minimum uniqueness across the sector.

Critical Need to Update Syllabuses and Curriculums in Tertiary Education

One of the major priorities need to take care in this sector is the modernization of the syllabus in the higher education programs, especially in the Government-run colleges of arts, science and commerce. It have been a long time ago the last commission is made in the syllabus. The syllabus teaches the same for the last 50 years but the world around is researching on the minute part of the nanotechnology. That is a reason why the student opting for higher studies preferring institutions from US and Britain and eventually finds their career in the foreign countries itself.

The growth of hi-tech technology and the IT booming need the professionals having the good amount of exposure in the respective field. But our syllabus is still talking about the electrodes and the basic circuits. It never moves forward to EIT, FinFET Tec. etc. Hence there is a call for the latest information communication technologies into the education system occurred. The knowledge and exposure to this kind of technology will provide a base for finding opportunities to utilize them in the employee marketplace and also invest in the national development. For this reason this kind of learning should happen in the school and college level.

The above are some of the points need urgent investigation and action plan for the future and development of the nation. All we know, development should happens from the lower level, education sector is the primary stage need the overall revision. Understanding the fact that the changes never happen at a while, we can move toward the common goal of developed country, in a step by step approach.

The infrastructure necessary for implementing the Bill is still non-existent. Cost sharing on 50:50 basis with states will no doubt reduce the financial burden of states, but earmarking 25 per cent seats in all schools, which are already educating much larger number of students than their designed capacity, will result in overcrowding of these schools. Some schools are already working in two shifts at their full capacity. Without additional teachers and buildings, these schools will add to the chaos. The new amendment will no doubt make middle-class education compulsory for all children in 6-14 age group, but this may not suit our country where many children are still without a roof. If any system is to succeed, basic needs of survival must be ensured. Therefore, the children should be made to learn skills which could go on concurrently with literacy programmes.

The Kothari Commission (1964-1966) too had visualised inculcation of ethics, values, morals and character through education in our children, but the same has remained illusive. Rampant corruption and murder of values is the order of the day. So, if we wish to make education more meaningful, the education system should take care of development of skills and building up character qualities in our children.

On the one hand, the HRD Ministry wishes to de-stress education with a view to make teaching-learning a pleasure and childhood enjoyable by scrapping Class X Board examination; on the other, it is also considering the institution of a new board to conduct an all-India examination for admission to higher institutions of learning. Obviously, the measure, if taken, will postpone stress and not remove it.

Thus, the scrapping of Class X Board examination may prove to be a retrograde step as no other suitable system of evaluation has been found so far. The creation of a new all-India Board at the 10+2 level may give rise to a conflict between the Centre and the states as the CBSE and ICSE can adapt themselves to the new system, the state boards which cover almost 90 per cent schools with majority rural population will find it extremely difficult to adopt the new system. Since regional languages are now encouraged as medium of attempting IAS/IPS and allied services examinations, the liberty of holding board exams by state boards in regional languages should not be interfered with.

Assessment and accreditation of schools and colleges should be resorted to with a view to improve quality of education as envisaged by the National Policy on Education 1986. College education should get a fillip, which presently is neither related to practical life nor benefited from universities. College education can improve tremendously if university teachers give them the exposure of university education. Thus, college education should be made relevant to the national needs, which it lacks presently. Our universities too need serious reforms. Over the years, they have lost their luster of autonomy, and have been reduced to the status of running education departments and examining bodies. This can be attributed to many reasons: political, governmental and bureaucratic interference, mushrooming of research institutions, which are out of the ambit of universities, emergence of institutions like UGC, AICTE, NCTE, councils of medical, dental pharmacy, nursing and law, etc., which impinge directly on the basic functions of universities.

The system of awarding UGC grants to universities also requires a review. The HRD Ministry should create an organisation to restore the autonomy of universities. Universities themselves should undergo an assessment and accreditation process and only those universities/deemed universities, which could be resuscitated to attain desired standards, should be allowed to survive. Education reforms are long awaited and the need to revamp and rejuvenate the education system is a national necessity. These above-mentioned suggestions should be implemented with prudence and care lest we mess up our education system.

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