In honour of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a great freedom
fighter, eminent educationalist and first education minister of Independent
India, his birthday, Nov 11th has been declared as National
Education Day. He has been instrumental in the establishment of Indian
Institutions of Technology (IIT) and laid foundation for University Grants
Commission (UGC) to supervise and promote higher education in the country. He
worked for the establishment of national educational system with free primary
education and modern institutes for higher education. It is pertinent at this
juncture to understand the current status of our education system. It is
strongly believed that “Education is basic to the creation of an atmosphere in
which human beings can meet one another on a plane of friendship and equality”.
This year National education day celebrations are marked by the inauguration of
40th Jawaharlal Nehru National Science, Mathematics and Environment
Exhibition by the President Pranab
Mukherjee in Gangtok.
In Andhra Pradesh this day is celebrated as a Minorities
Welfare Day and the state government has decided to felicitate various
personalities who have contributed to the development of Urdu language and
development. Maulana Azad shares his birthday with Acharya Kripalani, a
prominent freedom fighter.
Our rural education system was evaluated by a NGO Pratham
working in collaboration with UNESCO and UNICEF in rural areas of five states-
Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Assam and Himachal Pradesh and has submitted
Annual Status Education Report (ASER) for the year 2012. The report raised
serious doubts about the progress made by Right to Education Act (RTE), 2009.
The main objective of RTE is to ensure quality elementary education to the
children of age group 6-14 throughout the country. A sample survey conducted in five states
indicate that learning levels of rural children have come down and just five
out of 10 people of Class V were able to solve a simple arithmetic problem.
There is sharp decline in the reading abilities of the children especially in
the government schools and more people are sending their wards to private
schools. To sum up even though there has been a massive improvement in the
enrolment rates the quality of education imparted is not commensurate with the
amount of money spent. ASER has made
some valuable recommendations to improve the learning standards which include
teaching in mother tongue, urgent revisions of the syllabi, proper teacher
recruitment policies and imparting child-friendly education.
India over period of six decades of independence has been
successful in obtaining an enrolment level of 97% in the primary schools of
which hardly 30% of them reach 12th class. As the ASER report
indicates, our existing system of learning is abysmal. It needs a total revamp.
The core ingredients of our basic education are marked by the glaring absence
of emphasis on building the core skills of learning. Our education system fails
to arouse curiosity in children, moreover poor dissemination of information
fail to evoke interest and the urge to question. Proper emphasis and importance
hasn’t been laid on vocational training and skills. Thus our current education
system has failed to empower the child after nearly 15 years of education to
choose their choice of profession either academic or vocational. Moreover, the
age old curriculum is hardly revised to reflect the changing power of analysis
and abilities of children to confront the challenges of globalised and increasingly
information driven world.
The standards of our education system were scrutinized on an
International platform in 2009 when children from Himachal Pradesh and
Tamilnadu were selected to represent India for a test known as PISA (Programme
for International Student Assessment). India fared 73rd position out
of participating 74 nations, trailing ahead of Kyrgyzstan which was at the
bottom of the table. This World Wide assessment test was conducted by
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for 15 year old
children to assess their abilities in mathematics, science and reading. India
has withdrawn from the PISA test in 2012. In contrast our compatriot China topped
the test and their children from Shangai excelled in all the three aspects of
the test displaying an outstanding performance. Till 1990’s India and China had
almost similar infrastructure but soon China made rapid strides in education
with its dedicated political commitment. It has reformed its education system
in stages and the results are brilliant.
Even our statistics in elite education are not so encouraging. In 2002 India had 11,974 PhD’s as against
China’s 14,706 and US had a total of 40,024. Within tune of 5 years, India had
20,131 doctorates while China had
nearly double the number of PhD’s 41, 464 and was inching closer to US that had
48,117. By 2010 China outnumbered US in producing the record number of
doctorates. India ranks 12th in the field of science and technology
in terms of publication and has 119 researchers in field of research and
development per million as against 715 in China and 468 in US.
India is producing nearly 50 lakh graduates every year and a
small fraction of them pursue research. In other words the number of people
actively engaged in research and innovation driven projects are abysmally low.
From the huge chunk of freshly churned graduates nearly 47% are unemployable
indicating the deplorable state of present education system. Education has
failed to empower the degree-holders as they lack the innovative spirit, out of
box kind of thinking and entrepreneurship. Hence again millions of rupees have
to be invested in their training for imparting employment skills. This muddled
situation has a massive impact on the long term development and sustainable
growth of the country. It is showing signs of economic and social strain across
the country even. Another disconcerting feature is lack of formal linkage
between the industry and academia which could ensure a regular flow of inputs
from experts on the course curriculum and research. Further, there is a serious
shortage of qualified and professional faculty thus creating an impediment for
passionate learning.
The falling standards of Indian education system became
apparent with the publication of Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University
rankings which ranks 800 Universities from 76 countries. QS Rankings are made
on the basis of four criteria - research, teaching, employability and
internationalisation and sadly for India, its elite IIT’s are ranked at 222nd
position. Even in the Times Higher Ranking no single Indian University figured
in the top 200. As a consolation, few Indian Universities could find place in
the top 50 for some subjects.
Quality higher education is an enabling factor that can
ensure a growth rate of 9%. Urgent steps must be taken to improve quality of
technical education and faculty development. Curriculum has to be reformed and
efforts are to be directed to bring about all round development in a child.
Standard assessment practices must be in place instead of a system ridden of
stress of examination. Professional training of teachers and teacher promotions
should be based on the student performance.
The basic focus of education should change from the concept
of making student mere repositories of information to set high standards in
education for educational progress and innovation with a view to develop
capability. India’s biggest advantage is its demographic divide and it has to
fully utilise this opportunity to bring out the best in the nation where nearly
half the population is less than 25 years old.
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