The Dark Side of "Indian" Education System
Disha Babla
Technical Account Manager, Amazon Web Services | 7 Million+ Impressions | Renowned Mentor | Tech Evangelist | Speaker | Making an impact in Cloud Computing Industry
Sustaining education standards and employability will become a challenge. India will be the most populous country in the world, and will grow to about 1.5 billion people by 2030.
Over the next five years, it is estimated that three out of ten Indians will be in the age group of 18-22, the ages that need education and employment. With 119 million young Indians, the current education system will be quite inadequate.
Sustaining education standards and employability will become a challenge. India will be the most populous country in the world, and will grow to about 1.5 billion people by 2030. This change in demographics could propel India in becoming a powerful engine of economic growth and development but only if the education system changes as per the needs of this growing economy.
Landscape of education in India
The education sector in India is perhaps the world’s largest and fastest growing. As per the study conducted by India Brand Equity foundation, the number of colleges and universities in India stood at 39,050 and 903, respectively in 2019-20, with 36.64 million students enrolled in higher education in 2019-20. Standing the second largest in value terms, after US, the education sector in India is estimated at US$ 91.7 billion.
The important highlights of this sector are:
- Degrees matter more than skills, leading to high number of graduates with low employability.
- Low technology adoption in tier II and III towns, creating pockets of high efficiency in an otherwise slow sector across the country.
- Education policy focused on rote learning, and lack of availability of quality vocational training.
- Inadequate academic-industry engagement, still limited to select few institutions.
- Quality education with global exposure, which is the cornerstone of excellence is limited and expensive.
- Inadequate research and scholarly excellence
- While a handful of institutions in the country offer world class education standards, a vast majority is struggling to keep up. The result is a largely unemployable youth population and mismatch between industry needs and degree qualifications.
The Challenge Areas
The biggest problem with the Indian education system is that it is not holistic in nature- teaching the basic skills on which professionals are tested on a daily basis- the reading, writing, comprehension and reasoning. The emphasis is on memorising, where students do not really learn anything, merely commit facts to memory and give superficial exams that actually test nothing.
While planning for a career, there is no structured career counselling that takes into account the skills and mindset of the student. Most Indian children take up courses to please their parents or confirm to social norms, and not because of interest or an innate skill.
The biggest problem with the Indian education system is that it is not holistic in nature- teaching the basic skills on which professionals are tested on a daily basis- the reading, writing, comprehension and reasoning. The emphasis is on memorising, where students do not really learn anything, merely commit facts to memory and give superficial exams that actually test nothing.
While planning for a career, there is no structured career counselling that takes into account the skills and mindset of the student. Most Indian children take up courses to please their parents or confirm to social norms, and not because of interest or an innate skill.
Access to Education Anyone, Anywhere and Anytime
Technology can come to the aid of planners here. Providing eLearning opportunities will enable anytime, anywhere education for students living in areas with no world-class institutions.
Providing unlimited teaching and learning opportunities will enable an equitable approach to high-quality education. It has done so by providing unlimited teaching and learning opportunities, while also improving the student’s learning outcomes and pedagogical innovation.
With mobility and mobile devices playing a significant role in daily life of the youth, there are no technology or accessibility barriers left any more. In India, even the University Grants Commission (UGC) is now recognising open online courses. In fact, in January last year, the government mandated that 15% of Indian universities must deliver online degree courses. Today, India is one of the fastest-growing online education markets, and over the next two years, should touch USD 1.96 billion. The icing on the cake is the rapidly growing number of Indians on mobile digital tools- Internet usage in India seems to be driven by rural internet growth and usage is touching 566 million people. This could be the best outreach for learning anywhere, anytime.
Research & Development
Investing in research could perhaps be the smartest way forward for India. With more research brains and skills, better knowledge repositories, the education system will have added assets in every generation. For every institution, research could be the strongest strand of its DNA. These scholars can take the quality levels to international levels, driving the education sector forward.
The standard of an institution is based on the global ranking of its best scholars. Research and innovative thinking need to be encouraged. At this point, Indian universities and colleges have almost no global standing, and recognition. We are not focusing on research, because in India it is seen as a cost, not investment. The way forward would be for institutions and the government to encourage scholar research, to provide grants for better research and more knowledge creation.
Shaping an environment for knowledge and skills
With a forward-looking plan, the Indian education system, over the next five years or a decade, will be in a position to adopt transformative and innovative approaches to higher education. The focus needs to be on crafting India to become a global force in skills and education levels- the dream is to have at least one in four graduates in the world to be alumni of Indian universities, and at least 20 Indian universities being among the world top 200!
Technological future of education
Going beyond mobile and connected devices, eLearning will soon include Artificial intelligence led modules, and analytics to personalise education. With an environment that will drive speed, agility and student support, here are to be expectations of good education standards. Reskilling for teachers will also be more focused, and so will be certifications for higher skills sets for professionals.
With Big Data and Analytics, the number of offerings will be varied and even customised for students. Artificial intelligence is all set to make courses more intuitive and accessible, while analytics drives complete personalisation.
What we need is a roadmap that delivers a complete overhaul of India’s education system over the next five years. A fundamental change is needed for the way education is perceived, imparted and utilised in India. An inclusive, quality assured and globally acceptable higher education system in the country will decide if India’s large population is a liability or an asset.
BY ( JDA ) analyst
3 年you cannot become an employee in AWS with out degree , do you know why ? 1.who knows what they want to become ,so that's why they study for degree at least you can earn money. 2.you will be less efficient in doing a task. 3.in order to get a job in amazon , you have to get a seat at good engineering college . 4.Rote learning are really good at mathematics . 5.syllabus are outdated but it teaches you the pain and pressure to handle the future challenges no matter how much talented you are . and list goes on . See if you say like this , a lot of students will take it as an advantage and won't join college . And if any education system has its own important highlights , we don't have right to blame . if you want to use it , use it. or other wise leave . Reality doesn't changes no matter if education system changes . you have to be best of the best That's it if you chose any field . DEGREE matters(If you are in an institute that has good reputation) , CGPA matters to an extent(if you have decent CGPA like 7.0 ),skills matters. you should have these three things. you can compensate if you are lacking in one of the things if you have to study , study but don't pressurize yourself all the time
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4 年Great post Disha!