Must Needed Education Policies for Better Education Scene in India
Since 1968 when the Government first introduced its official policy on education, via the National Policy on Education 1968, the Government reflected its yearning to ‘restructure’ almost every element of education to gain national integration and greater economic and cultural development. The challenge that posed the nation then lay scattered in the forms of linguistic and cultural divides, the divides related to the economic backgrounds of the marginalized communities, incompetent and improper training of teachers, imbalanced education structure, etc.
Returning to the times of today, measuring the progress gauged by subsequent education policies of 1986, and 1992, most of these concerns have been addressed. And, you can add the front of accessibility to this list, for a certain extent. Thanks to the revolution of online education the institutions have begun to impart through the internet to the remotest corners of the earth, leave the boundaries of the country.
Still, a few of the hardships have survived and are thriving soundly to assume threatening proportions. To provide possible solutions, therefore, the article will cover talk on the policies required for tackling these challenges successfully. Moreover, these policies will shape around these challenges, in order to meet them successfully. And so, here we go with two of the most pressing needs of recent times:
Affordability
The massive spread of schools has successfully met the challenge of school education being inaccessible to Indian children. Still, it’s the front of higher education that is quite a costly affair for the grown-up Indian students. And, howsoever small may be the chunk of scholars availing higher education, most of them have held themselves on to the traditional and exhausted departments like the Bachelor of Arts, and the Bachelor of Sciences.
Disciplines of recent times like Bachelor of Technology, Bachelor of Pharmacy, Master in Business Administration, etc, have fewer takers. The reason lies in them being unaffordable to most of the young Indians, even after 70 years of Independence.
Accountability
Contrary to the story narrated above, the school going students, particularly, the ones belonging to the Primary wing, are the greatest and worst sufferers, bearing the receiving end of the entire education system. Be it the political will (un)exhibited by our eminent honorable, the intermediary officers, or the teachers, and further down to the school support staff, it is the children who face the brunt, as accountability evades all of them. The malady has spread in every constituting block of the education system, particularly, in its Primary zone. For a quick glimpse of the accountable factors, please have a look below:
Lack of Political Will
Insufficient budgets and discouraging attempts to remove political interventions in issues like the appointment of teachers and their transfers, etc, are some stark examples of the want of answerability finding its home in the perceptions of our leaders.
Lack Among Direct Beneficiaries of Education
Assume, for example, that fifty percent of children fail in the board examinations of the tenth standard. Nobody, in such cases, is accountable other than the children themselves. The answerability is absent due to a multitude of factors like the absence of culture to perform, a want of system promoting risks and rewards for the blamed children, and their uncertain tenures.
Lack of Parents’ Accountability
Though it may shock few of our readers, you can’t belittle the role of parents, and the entire family of children, for this matter, in bolstering their wards’ education, besides providing monetary resources. And, this is particularly true for the caretakers of school-going children. Parents, extended families, and coteries are the first teachers that children become familiar with. Thus, they experience the dominant effect in their lives during all their years of schooling, and beyond.
Students particularly require this kind of parenting for their attendance, behavior, and efforts, during their tender years. Furthermore, for the parents regarding this front, there are more jobs to take at hand. These are like, familiarizing children with cultural activities of the school, and provisioning for educational materials, such as books. Moreover, students’ guardians also need to educate them against the stereotypes or biases, namely, differing expectations for boys and girls. And finally, their participation in parent associations or school management committees, communication with teachers, and support for homework and school assignments, are the fronts that parents need to share to lessen loads of teachers and educationists.
Talking of higher education, parents’ say greatly gets reduced to providing financial supplies for paying the tuition fees. Still, they may impart specific counsel on preparation for higher education, subject choices, vocational training, and/or insightful signals to employment.
Lack of Competence in Educational Institutes
As per the concerns of the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007, our universities are in an appalling state. And the situation is no better still today. In nearly half of the districts, enrollments in higher education are lamentably low. Ninety percent of our colleges and nearly two-thirds of our universities are perceived as below average on quality parameters. Furthermore, university appointments in many states, including that of vice-chancellors, have become subject to caste and communal considerations. They have been politicized and, there are grievances regarding corruption and favoritism.
The situation is nearly the same on the front of school education, particularly for the full, or partially state-backed schools. But you can take a breath of respite for a much better scenario portrayed by the guild of private institutions. But still, that is quite a small chunk of the pie.