The Cobweb that is Indian Education System
Indian Education System finds a place very often in news, mostly for all the wrong reasons. As India traces its path to development and economic growth, the massive demographic dividend that it carries lies on the borderline of becoming a demographic disaster.
Among all the factors of production, the most valuable and cherished, in this era of globalization, is unarguably human capital. Humans are the most productive resources if invested well with education. Unfortunately, our education system lacks awfully in all aspects - coverage, quality, and content.
The GER at Secondary Level is 80% which drops drastically to 56% at Senior Secondary Level (Class XII) [3]. Only 22.1% of the students are enrolled in Higher Education. [4]
While Right to Education has been able to send kids to school, the commensurate efforts are lacking in keeping them in. While this has several causes, it is perhaps also because our education policies have funded schools, not schooling.
Dilapidated Infrastructure: Schools are meant to be the temples of learning and it's only fair to have huge expectations from the temples of New India.
The infrastructure woes don't surprise when one evaluates the spending on education as a share of the central government's total budgeted expenditure, which is 3.71% [10]. This is a far cry from what Kothari Commission recommended in 1966 - 6% of the GDP. It's no surprise that those with resources, including government employees and in fact public school teachers as well, prefer to send their kids to private schools. [11]
The Quality of Teaching: Out of a total number of 66.41 lakh teachers at the elementary level, 11.00 lakh are still untrained. This is when the Right to Education Act, 2009 made it mandatory for all government school teachers to possess minimum qualifications laid down by National Council of Teacher Education. Those who weren’t qualified had time until March 31, 2015, to complete the training. The deadline has now been extended to March'19. [12]
This is only scratching the surface though. In the Central Teacher Eligibility Test 2015, a "record" 13.53% of the candidates qualified the test as compared to previous results. [13]
As a solace, absenteeism isn't as bad a problem as it is vilified. People easily talk of absenteeism ranging from 25- 50%, but a study finds the rate of absenteeism between 2.5-5%. [14] This puts the problem in a different perspective and highlights the lack of training than motivation.
Among all the factors of production, the most valuable and cherished, in this era of globalization, is unarguably human capital. Humans are the most productive resources if invested well with education. Unfortunately, our education system lacks awfully in all aspects - coverage, quality, and content.
Persistent Problems
Enrollment Woes: The Lower primary education or play school lags in its coverage. As of 2011, the enrollment rate for pre-primary schools is 58%. [1] The Gross Enrollment Ratio stands at 99.21% for Primary schools and 92.81% for Upper Primary Schools. [2] While this looks good, a cursory glance at its counterpart - Net Enrollment Ratio - highlights the issue of education system’s coverage and internal efficiency (87.3% and 74.7% respectively).The GER at Secondary Level is 80% which drops drastically to 56% at Senior Secondary Level (Class XII) [3]. Only 22.1% of the students are enrolled in Higher Education. [4]
While Right to Education has been able to send kids to school, the commensurate efforts are lacking in keeping them in. While this has several causes, it is perhaps also because our education policies have funded schools, not schooling.
Dilapidated Infrastructure: Schools are meant to be the temples of learning and it's only fair to have huge expectations from the temples of New India.
- Our education system devotes perhaps a disproportionate share to primary schools. There are five times more primary schools than there are secondary schools.[5] Whether this is a result of lower enrollment numbers, or is it that enrollment numbers are low for this reason? In both cases, our vision shows the empirical reality or implicit assumption about students dropping out.
- Only 57% of the schools of access to electricity. [6]
- The number of schools with toilet facilities stands at 97.5%, a reflection of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. [7]
- Drinking water is available in 74% of the schools. [8]
- Only 20% of the schools have computers and 75.5% have libraries. [9]
There are improvements, but a lot remains to be achieved. Learning Outcomes are a result also of good infrastructure. Above mentioned infrastructural facilities are very basic and are must for any school or rather, any building to function. What differentiates a good school from a bad school is features like well-lit classrooms, playground, and aids to interactive teaching.
The infrastructure woes don't surprise when one evaluates the spending on education as a share of the central government's total budgeted expenditure, which is 3.71% [10]. This is a far cry from what Kothari Commission recommended in 1966 - 6% of the GDP. It's no surprise that those with resources, including government employees and in fact public school teachers as well, prefer to send their kids to private schools. [11]
The Quality of Teaching: Out of a total number of 66.41 lakh teachers at the elementary level, 11.00 lakh are still untrained. This is when the Right to Education Act, 2009 made it mandatory for all government school teachers to possess minimum qualifications laid down by National Council of Teacher Education. Those who weren’t qualified had time until March 31, 2015, to complete the training. The deadline has now been extended to March'19. [12]
This is only scratching the surface though. In the Central Teacher Eligibility Test 2015, a "record" 13.53% of the candidates qualified the test as compared to previous results. [13]
As a solace, absenteeism isn't as bad a problem as it is vilified. People easily talk of absenteeism ranging from 25- 50%, but a study finds the rate of absenteeism between 2.5-5%. [14] This puts the problem in a different perspective and highlights the lack of training than motivation.
Poor Learning Outcomes: Not surprisingly, Indian students struggle when it comes to producing results. The stated numbers are from Annual Status of Education Report, 2016. [15]
After somehow putting students in schools, where they survive with poor infrastructure and teaching quality, it is only poetic justice that products of these schools aren't employable.
Testing Recalling Ability: The dreaded Board exams are infamous in India for their focus lies on testing the ability of the students to recall and reproduce facts in the form of answers. The understanding of the concepts drowns in the sea of memory techniques.
Stunted Higher Education: The problem of funds has been discussed in the earlier parts and to give a perspective on how the lack of funds is glaring at us, one needs to know that the total S&T budget of the Department of Science and Technology is less than that of Stanford University. [18]
The other problem in Indian Universities is their politicisation. The appointments to the positions of Vice Chancellors and even Professors, student politics and everyday mundane activities of colleges are seen through the lens of politics and very often are a result of it. To what extent should student politics go to, is perhaps a matter of wider debate but that academics should remain the priority of students is no arguable gospel. Autonomy of Universities is another non-negotiable need.
Apart from this, educational institutions in India aren't market-oriented i.e the courses that are offered don't reflect the requirements at jobs. Indian firms have to hire engineers and make employees out of them. A study by online analytics training institute Edvancer says that as many as 50,000 jobs are available in this sector and the number is likely to rise to 1,00,000 by 2018. [19] These vacancies will be filled by Engineers who will then be trained appropriately. Same goes for most service sectors - IT, Banking, Consulting etc.
Choosing between Science, Arts, and Commerce: This is perhaps the most cliched of all, but in India, we have three broad choices in School - Arts, Science, and Commerce. Your marks will automatically choose the discipline for you and if you come from a school not situated in cities (no, not towns), your school won't have a choice to offer.
As per the data of MHRD, almost 88% of the students in Undergraduate programs across the country belong to the mentioned subjects.
The Engineering Colleges, which sprung up like mushrooms post IT boom, are closing down. In 2015, AICTE mulled over reducing the number of seats in engineering colleges by over 600,000. [20]. Colleges have been reducing seats by themselves and each year hundreds apply to close down. [21]
The solution ultimately lies in the will of each stakeholder - teachers, students, their parents, and above all, the state. The pertinent question is - Do we dare?
- The proportion of children in Std III who are able to read at least Std I level text stood at 42.5%.
- 75% of children enrolled in Std VIII can read at least Std II level.
- 27.7% of Std III children could do a 2-digit subtraction.
- The proportion of Std VIII students who could correctly do a 3-digit by 1-digit division problem was 43.3%
- 32% children in Std III could read simple words in English.
- 45.2% of children in Std VIII could read simple sentences in English.
The problem persists in Higher education. Studies by a New Delhi-based employment solutions company, Aspiring Minds found that barely 7% of the engineering students were suitable for a core engineering job [16] and less than 10% of the MBA graduates were employable. [17]
After somehow putting students in schools, where they survive with poor infrastructure and teaching quality, it is only poetic justice that products of these schools aren't employable.
Testing Recalling Ability: The dreaded Board exams are infamous in India for their focus lies on testing the ability of the students to recall and reproduce facts in the form of answers. The understanding of the concepts drowns in the sea of memory techniques.
Stunted Higher Education: The problem of funds has been discussed in the earlier parts and to give a perspective on how the lack of funds is glaring at us, one needs to know that the total S&T budget of the Department of Science and Technology is less than that of Stanford University. [18]
The other problem in Indian Universities is their politicisation. The appointments to the positions of Vice Chancellors and even Professors, student politics and everyday mundane activities of colleges are seen through the lens of politics and very often are a result of it. To what extent should student politics go to, is perhaps a matter of wider debate but that academics should remain the priority of students is no arguable gospel. Autonomy of Universities is another non-negotiable need.
Apart from this, educational institutions in India aren't market-oriented i.e the courses that are offered don't reflect the requirements at jobs. Indian firms have to hire engineers and make employees out of them. A study by online analytics training institute Edvancer says that as many as 50,000 jobs are available in this sector and the number is likely to rise to 1,00,000 by 2018. [19] These vacancies will be filled by Engineers who will then be trained appropriately. Same goes for most service sectors - IT, Banking, Consulting etc.
Choosing between Science, Arts, and Commerce: This is perhaps the most cliched of all, but in India, we have three broad choices in School - Arts, Science, and Commerce. Your marks will automatically choose the discipline for you and if you come from a school not situated in cities (no, not towns), your school won't have a choice to offer.
The Engineering Colleges, which sprung up like mushrooms post IT boom, are closing down. In 2015, AICTE mulled over reducing the number of seats in engineering colleges by over 600,000. [20]. Colleges have been reducing seats by themselves and each year hundreds apply to close down. [21]
Future Outlook - Taming the rogue bull
Clearly, the status quo isn't working, or if it is, it is a tad bit slower than a snail. Several solutions have been proposed. Commissions have been established, Policies have been formulated. But the results don't do justice to all the rhetoric that happens in the upper echelons of policy makers.The solution ultimately lies in the will of each stakeholder - teachers, students, their parents, and above all, the state. The pertinent question is - Do we dare?
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