Experts across the board who have cut their teeth imparting knowledge to students are feeling irked by falling standards of education in India. There is broad consensus that its high time for changing gear from rote learning to skill-based education.
When asked, a majority of students at Lucknow’s colleges said that they mostly forget what they memorise after the semester exam is over.
Students routinely score 90% marks these days, so even those with a 90+ percentile feel the heat. Experts believe a large number of students study only to score marks in exams, and sometimes to crack exams like IIT JEE, AIIMS or CLAT.
Despite establishing IITs, IIMs, law schools and other institutions of excellence, the rote method of learning and entrance examinations has shifted focus away from learning fundamentals of these subjects, which are so essential for professional careers in future.
A veteran photojournalist and a senior professor of photojournalism, Trilochan S Kalra says, “Indian education system is like a hole; whatever you throw inside the hole, it comes out of the other side. Students nowadays do not take education seriously as they think they will get the degree and that’s enough. But the degree won’t give you knowledge. How much one works on his or her skills matters.”
The budget allocations for education increased from Rs 81,869 crore( revised ) to Rs 85,010 crore, an increase of Rs 3,141 crore or a paltry 3.84%.
Recently, the Economic Survey reflected that the government does not have much fiscal space to spend big on social sectors including education.
As a word of caution, Satyadev Shukla (Retired English Professor-BHU) adds, “Education system in India is failing because of many reasons, for example, the teachers of government schools; they are highly qualified, but because of sloppy norms they do not want to work. There are faults in the system that do not let our educational standards change.”
There are now growing calls for Indian education to be skill-based and for overhauling the entire system so that only those who meet the minimum requirements are allowed to operate colleges or academic institutions. Few teachers, on the grounds of anonymity, adding that the quota system is doing more harm than good to the education system in the country. Around 70% of IIT dropouts are the ones who had joined through the reserved quota.
According to Pankaj Kulshreshtha, Professor at IIM Ahmedabad, Higher Education in India is worsening as plenty of private universities have sprung up, and they give low-quality education and mint money. To stop this, licenses are given only to colleges who meet the standard requirements.
In a country wherever folks square measure disbursal their parent’s life savings associated borrowed cash on education – and even then not obtaining normal education an overhaul may be a would like of the hour, shows recent studies.
While Skill India is just one effort in that direction, the education for all strata of society should be accessible and comprehensive, and there should be a complete ban on quota and donation culture say the learned.
Just as economic infrastructure is crucial for the commercial sector, the support of instructional establishments ought to be seen as the foundation for national development.
While the government takes baby steps to the ability the country, vexation conjointly lies on tutorial establishments to grant ability education its due.