Changes That Must Be Introduced in Our Education System

When a country introduces its educational plan it must see that it supplies and caters to the local needs and aspirations of the country at large. In India, the tragic appearance of education is clear because it does not really mean to our local needs.

The Education system that we are following today is the same system the English framed for Indians in the 19th century. They had planned it for us from their point of view as they needed a lot of babus for their offices in India. They never wanted to give Indians the education that would make them something higher than the babu. Now, from their point of view, the system was correct and viable. However, the tragedy is that even after 50 years of independence, we still continue to follow the system of education framed by the English for us. We have never bothered to study the application and utility of the education we are imparting to our children.

After independence, there has been a mushroom growth of schools and colleges but education remained at the level of 50% of the population. Then the moot point now is what has been the utility of these myriads of education homes that have grown in the last 50 years? The growth of these institutions has also been sporadic. Most cities and towns have seen growth in the number of schools and colleges but the rural areas which consist of 70-80% of India’s population could not share with this growth.

This has resulted in the present precarious scenario. The cities and towns are producing millions of graduates and postgraduates and even literacy is a matter of the future in our villages. What a huge gap in the progress of urban and rural areas. Besides this, what the towns are producing are also graduates and postgraduates good for nothing. Why because even after 5 years, a postgraduate comes out of Institution he does not get employment.

It appears as if we have never studied the requirements of our country when we planned and changed our education system. We have never cared to understand what are we trying to produce? We are only producing an unemployable, disgruntled, unhappy generation. In a way, I would say their disillusionment after education is quite understandable when, after 5 years of work and spending a lot of money they come out of college and stand at the crossroads not knowing what to do next We could not understand what we plan to give children by way of education?

Our education system needs a thorough overhaul which would relate to the requirement of our own country and not of the other countries. The first and foremost objective of education is to get decent employment, if this is also not available then what have we done? We must instead of opening colleges for graduation open more institutions for vocational training. This, I suggest could very well take its birth at the school stage only. Instead of first memorizing subjects, more stress should be laid on extracurricular activities, which will automatically generate interest in the children for the fun they like. This fun of the school will further bloom into a vocation when they enter a college of vocation or general studies as they like.

General studies should be compulsory till standard XII and after that, I feel vocation should be the training ground to prepare the children for jobs and assignments of employment.

Besides this, it is more important to lay greater stress on school education rather than on higher education. This is because; it is at the school level the child learns all his human behaviors which last him a lifetime. Higher education must be limited to those who are really interested in higher studies and who like to go to the teaching profession; all others should be diverted to centers of vocational training. This would help them in their profession after they complete their education.

The engineering and medical colleges should be only for meritorious students who can work and gain name and fame for themselves and do India proud.

So much for education in urban areas, let us not forget our rural areas because India lives in villages. Unless we spread the fruits of progress to our villages the progress will be lop-sided and incomplete. In rural areas, literacy should be the target though at the same time. Encouragement should be given to some brilliant children there also to enter the mainstream of urban development. In this way, we will spread progress to villages instead of bringing villages to urban areas.

Thus, education, as it stands today is cumbersome and tiring for the children and then frustrating and suicidal when they develop into adults. The world stands in front of them as a vacuum with nothing to offer. If we adapt our education as per the needs of our countrymen and our country, we will make a better turnout and create a better tomorrow.