Education system in India

On the one side Indians are considered as the proudalternative education to approximately 3.5 million
owner of glorious education system in the past and onchildren. Significant improvement in staffing and
the other side we the same Indian are considered asenrollment of girls has been made as a part of this
one of the nations with poorest education structure inscheme. In spite of all these efforts overall primary
the world -with millions of illiterates in the country- evenschool conditions in India as a whole continued to
poorer than the countries those stands nowhere nearremain lag behind internationally due to understaffing
us in the development in the last few years. On thecoupled with lack of developed infrastructure and
other hand various other countries are amazed by thesufficient financing.
quality of the human resources that the IndianSecondary education
education system has produced. There was a timeThe National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986, has
when India's education system was considered as theprovided for environment awareness, science and
best in the world and followed and adored bytechnology education, and introduction of traditional
renowned scholars from every part of the world. Butelements such as meditation and yoga into the Indian
with the time this glorious system lost its luster and asecondary school system. Another feature of India's
time came when it hit its lowest ebb. There may besecondary school system is its emphasis on
varied reasons behind this continued and long decline inprofession based vocational training to help students
the quality of education system in India. One of theattain skills for finding a vocation of his/her choosing.
prominent reasons was the social structure of theA special Integrated Education for Disabled Children
Indian society. Like Women and people of lower(IEDC) programme was started in 1974. The Kendriya
castes were not considered good enough to beVidyalaya project was started for the benefits of the
educated thus denied the right to educate themselveschildren of the employees of the central government
and this continued for centuries altogether till eighteenthof India, who are distributed throughout the country.
century. It was only in the middle of the eighteenthTertiary education
century with the spread of Jainism, Buddhism, BhaktiWell organized main governing body at the tertiary
and Sufi movements did some liberating effects on thelevel is the University Grants Commission (India)
condition of the women and lower caste people- Third largest in the world
known as sudra started to appears. But in the real- 20 central universities
sense it was the English language and the reformation- 215 state universities
movements of the 19th century that had the most- 100 deemed universities
liberating effect in pre-independent India. Although there- 5 institutions established and functioning under the
was no real change in the education system or levelState Act
of education in the India but certainly there started a- 16000 colleges, including 1800 exclusive women's
thought process to check this menace of illiteracy. Socolleges
it is the Britishers that can be credited for bringing a- 1200 engineering colleges
revolution in the Indian education system.- with an estimated 30000 graduates employed in the
Education scenario in the post independence IndiaUnited States as of 2006
According to the constitution of Indian Republic- 7 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), have been
Education falls under the control of both the centralglobally acclaimed for their standard of education.
government and the states, with some responsibilitiesThis number will soon inflate as the setting up of 30
lying with the centre and the state having autonomymore central universities, 8 new IITs, 7 IIMs and 5 new
for other.At the time of independence the GovernmentIndian Institutes of Science are now proposed.
of India was dealing with so many critical issues likeAbove data is just the one side of the coin showing
union of states to mother land, peace in the troubledonly the rosy picture of the state of affairs in the
area, poverty and increasing population and shatteredtertiary education system of India but the truth lies in
economic condition. In all this chaos government ofthe fact that our university system is still in the state of
India give priority to the development of the educationdespair as more then 90 percent of our higher
as this was seen as one of the main cause of theeducational institutions are considered to be below par
some other evils of the society. Main impediment in thison the quality scale. The internal system of the
was considered to be indiscrimination in the society onuniversities system is marred with the political, caste
the basis of caste and creed. So to remove this eviland communal considerations on the cost of education
strict laws were made and implemented. Specialof the students. And this truth is applicable on all the
emphasis was started to be given to girl childreninstitution baring a few like IIT's and IIM's who are able
education. So many schemes were started so thatto sustain their sanctity and established them self on
there will not be any discrimination as far as impartingthe world map as one of the best. But the overall
education to the girl child is concerned.scenario cannot be considered rosy as it appears
With the 86th constitutional amendment Indianfrom the numbers given above.
Government has made elementary education a
fundamental right for the children of the age group- 6Education for the Marginalized in India:
to 14.In order to reduce the gap caused by the earlier
According to the 2001 census, the total literacy rate insocio-economic condition prevailing in the Indian society
India is 65.38%. The female literacy rate is only 54.16%.the government of India took some measures. These
The gap between rural and urban literacy rate is alsomeasures are being taken to just reduce the disparities
very significant in India. This is evident from the factin the various sections of the Indian society so that we
that only 59% of rural population is literate as againstcan progress as a whole rather then different factions
80% (approx) urban population according to the 2001of the same society. This is being done as education is
census.considered to be a means for bringing socio-
Present Scenario of Education in Indiaeconomic transformation in a society, various
Education is being given utmost priority by both themeasures are being taken to enhance the access of
state and Centre government of the country in theeducation to the marginalized sections of the society.
present past. Every effort is being done to organizeOne such measure is the introduction of the
the education system in India to tackle all ready grownreservation system in the institutes of higher education.
up illiteracy rate of the Indian population for this theUnder the present law, 7.5% seats in the higher
central government of India formulated the Nationaleducational institutes are reserved for the scheduled
Policy in Education (NPE) in 1986 and also re-enforcedtribes, 15% for scheduled castes and 27% for the non
the Programme of Action (POA) in 1986. The centralcreamy layers of the Other Backward Classes
government initiated several measures like setting up(OBCs). Under the Indian constitution, various minority
of Navodaya Vidyalaya selective schools in everygroups can also set up their own educational institutes.
district, advances in female education, inter-disciplinaryEfforts are also being taken to improve the access to
research and establishment of open universities. India'shigher education among the women of India by setting
NPE also contains the National System of Education,up various educational institutes exclusively for them or
which ensures some uniformity while taking intoreserving seats in the already existing institutes. The
account regional education needs. The NPE alsogrowing acceptance of distance learning courses and
stresses on higher spending on education, envisaging aexpansion of the Open University system is also
budget of more than 6% of the overall national budget.contributing a lot in the democratization of higher
The present educational system in India is mainlyeducation in India.
divided into the following few categories according toConclusion:
the level of the education.Taking other co-related social problems in view like
1. Primary education, -Eight years of the elementarypoverty, the ever increasing population, old traditional
educationvalues etc to find any conclusion on the progress of
2. Secondary education –Two years of educationthe Independent India on the education front as a hole
3. Senior secondary education-Two years ofappears to be a mounting task. But if we take the
educationprogress on this front of other countries like china
4. Higher education - Depending upon the streamhaving similar problems and hurdles as we are facing
starting from 3 can extend upto 5 yrs.we can conclude that despite all the efforts to develop
Primary educationthe education system in India, access, quality of
This is the first step of the ladder of education in theeducation in India continue to haunt the policy makers till
education system of India. The Indian government laysthis date. This may mainly been due to the widespread
much emphasis on the foundation of education ie.poverty and various prejudices. But this is not the only
Primary education up to the age of fourteen years.cause of the shamble in the education system after
Besides putting a ban on child labor in order to ensureso many efforts. This mystery has to be unrevealed
that the children do not enter unsafe workingby the policy makers by their sincere efforts to
conditions. To universalize primary education Districtachieve this goal of education for all. However, the
Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was launchedrenewed emphasis in the education sector in the 11th
in 1994 founded by central and state governments infive year plan and increased expenditure in both
85% -15%of The DPEP with the support of UNICEFprimary and higher education can act as a catalyst for
has opened approx 1,60,000 new schools deliveringthe Indian education system.