The Irony of India's Education System
This article critically analyzes the Indian education system, arguing that despite its large and well-defined structure, it falls short in providing quality education that truly prepares students for the professional world. The author highlights several key flaws:
Rote Learning Over Understanding: The system rewards students who memorize facts over those who genuinely understand concepts, as exemplified by a scene from the movie "3 Idiots."
Outdated Curriculum: The syllabus is slow to be updated, resulting in students learning obsolete information that is no longer relevant in today's world.
Flawed Evaluation: The examination system primarily tests a student's ability to recall information rather than their analytical and problem-solving skills, leading to a generation of "qualified" but unemployed youth.
Call for Change: The author concludes that while systemic changes are needed, teachers and students can make a difference by prioritizing understanding and application of concepts over simple memorization.
In ancient times in India, students used to go to gurukuls, where they stayed with their teachers (gurus) and studied. The teacher gave them lessons and practice work. There was no concept of homework. Students did not need to write something in their text books; rather, they had to understand and memorize the concept. We can find countless references in our holy books and sacred literature which say that students stayed with the teacher for the duration of education. With the passage of time, our education system evolved, and the gurukuls converted into vidyalayas (schools), mahavidyalayas (colleges), and vishwavidyalayas (universities)..
Schools were started to give basic education, where a teacher is appointed to teach. A group of teachers is headed by a headmaster or principal. The principal or schools get directions from Block Education Officers appointed by the government, who regulate the education system in his block. Each school has to follow the curriculum of some education board. While searching for some information, I found the list of 42 Boards in India that govern the basic education system. All educational boards have to follow the guidelines of NCERT, i.e., National Council for Education Research and Training. This is one part of the education system. Another part is higher education. Students are required to enroll in a university to continue their education after they complete the first 12 years of education from some education board. They go to college to study and appear for university examinations and collect their graduate, then post-graduate degrees. Those who still want to continue their study enroll for a doctorate degree, and some even go for a Post-Doctoral. There are 568 universities in India delivering higher education to students in India. There are about 18 accreditation bodies in India that govern the higher education system. Not only this, we have a dedicated ministry known as the education ministry, headed by the Education Minister at the centre, and a similar structure in every state. In brief, we have a well-defined education system to give quality education to all the students of the country.
Isn't it unfortunate that despite such a huge education system, students prefer to study abroad? After analyzing it, it is found that students who study abroad or in some premium institutes in India undoubtedly have better knowledge. Why is it so? Is it due to the intelligence level of students who get admission to such institutes? Or is there something in such institutes that is given to its students? I personally have seen the way students are taught in such institutes. If you ask me, the staff are putting in much more effort in other institutes, but the output is still the same. I, myself, being a teacher, have seen that a student who is comfortable in mugging up concepts scores more marks as compared to one who understands. This typically reminds me of a scene from a Bollywood movie, “3 Idiots,” where a teacher asks a student to define “Machine.” In my view, it is not the teachers who are not teaching or teaching wrong, neither is it students who are not learning or learning wrong, but it is the irony of our education system. Teachers are forced to teach the facts of history. The syllabus is not updated regularly because the updation of the syllabus is a very long and tedious process which may take up to 5 years. Now suppose if today I suggest some change in the syllabus, it will reflect after 5 years, and by that time, the importance of the concept is lost in history. We are still teaching, “How to connect to the internet using PSTN?” Where everyone knows that today we have a lot of mobile connectivity options available. Unfortunately, this is not available in any university's curriculum.
Secondly, our evaluation system is wonderful. The university appoints a few professionals (who have been teaching for a pretty long time) to create a question paper, print and seal those papers in envelopes, send them to examination centers. Now, on the day of the examination, the sealed envelopes are opened in tight security, secretly transferred over to the invigilator, who distributes them among students, and now students put their head as well as pen down for the next 3 hours, without realizing the importance of the concept asked in the paper. They answer what they mugged up in classes. And most importantly, there are very few (almost negligible) questions asked in such papers that evaluate the analytical and understanding skills of the students. It's all what they practiced in the classroom. And the output is our today's generation. Millions of qualified youth are unemployed, and our educationists are planning to increase the duration of studies so that the growing graph of unemployed graduates can be delayed.
Now, view the next phase. A student has successfully graduated. Now he expects a wonderful job, but whenever there is a vacancy, he has to go through a selection test. This is another problem. Now, again, he needs training (a lot of coaching institutes have mushroomed up to give training for such tests). Isn't it the irony of our education system that after studying for more than 15 years, one has to take special training to get hired by some respectable organization on a respectable post?
We desperately need to review our education system. We can't expect our educationists to change the system overnight, but our teachers have a big role to play. Our teachers must take the initiative to improve the understanding and analytical skills of the students rather than finishing up the syllabus for university examinations, and motivate students in this domain. Students also must take guidance from their seniors and teachers and practice the application of the concepts rather than mugging up or cramming the concepts without understanding them. This is the only way out to improve the quality of education and build a better citizen for tomorrow.
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