Education Scenario in India

Education Scenario in India - Part III

The new Education Policy introduced in 1987, took initiatives for rural areas such as massive expansion of educational facilities including hostels for needy students.

CJ: Vinod Anand

Tue, Jun 23, 2009 13:17:37 IST

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Education in India :

THE SUBJECT of education in India has long been an issue handled by each state. However, with the introduction of the New Education Policy (NEP) in 1987, Central Government intervention has increased, and, with the initiation of liberalization in 1991, the private sector has also been taking major initiatives.

Though regarded as a major instrument for improving the socio-economic conditions of the people, education is not well-linked with poverty eradication objectives. A few major initiatives have, however, been taken from time-to-time, to integrate poverty issues with education. Some of these initiatives are:

Massive expansion of educational facilities including the setting-up of educational institutions in rural and remote areas with emphasis on regional language/mother tongue as the medium of instruction to eradicate rural-urban disparity in the access to education;
Hostels for poor students belonging especially to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes, and residential schools for the poor tribals;
Mid-day meals, merit-cum-means scholarships, and book-loan programmes for poor school children so that education does not come at the cost of livelihood;
Vocationalisation of education at all levels to provide skills to the poorer sections;
Non-formal methodology of education (including schemes like ‘Earn While you Learn’, ‘Action Research Project’ on universal primary education, and UNICEF-assisted projects) that permit students to learn a course of their interest through a method most suited to them, at their place and over a period which is convenient to them;
Distant education and use of mass media;
Adult education;

There are two basic points that require the attention of concerned authorities in this sphere. As said above, India has a large number of institutions of all kinds all over the country, but no attention is paid to the quality of education, as was the case in earlier decades. Most of the teachers are not updated about what they teach and how they teach.

The authorities have no control over all this. In fact, there has to be a strict code of conduct, Students Assessment of Staff (SAS), Self- Assessment by teachers (like SWOT exercise), and credit reports by the administration. It is unfortunate that most of India's once-respected universities have lost their earlier flavour. For example, the age-old Allahabad University that was at one time known as ‘Oxford of the East’ is now nothing more that a ‘University of the East’.

There is a mushrooming of coaching institutes all over. It is akin to the concept of a ‘parallel economy’, as variously defined by Feige, Schneider and Enste, Bhattacharaya, Smith, Tanzi, Mofelsky, and Gunttman. As nothing much is imparted in the various institutions, students have to go for tuitions at these coaching institutes.

Both these facts are really alarming. Let us hope that the Government will focus on these issues, and rectify the various lacunae that afflict these institutions, especially the issue of poor quality of teaching.

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