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The future of education in india: predictions and trends for 2023.

Rohan Parikh

Rohan Parikh, Chairperson - The Green Acres Academy

While edtech as a sector has grown tremendously in the past decade, the true impact of its effective application is only now becoming clear. From e-learning platforms, student engagement tools in the classroom, to skill development and continuous learning opportunities for higher education, EdTech has played a significant role in transforming the way knowledge is accessed. In addition to this, the positive government policies and the tech innovations brought about by wide spread internet penetration and the advent of 5G, have further accelerated the transformation of the sector.

There is no doubt that there will be significant educational reforms in 2023 as a result of the new National Education Policy (NEP). STEM-based learning will experience a big push during the next few years as skill-based education picks up speed. In terms of school education, there have been a lot of focused policy developments that have been designed keeping tech enabled solutions in mind, with the objective of driving digital literacy and inclusiveness in terms of access to quality learning methods. As NEP embarks on its voyage, all school curriculum will experience considerable changes as experiential learning gains popularity. Schools will soon start implementing programs with the primary goal of making learning pleasurable.

We’ve put together a list of 2023 educational trends that will make learning more flexible, available, and engaging for both students and instructors. The top five trends that will have a big impact on education in 2023 and beyond are listed below:

1. Augmented reality and virtual reality

Technology is developing, and we have reached a brand-new era when augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are quickly gaining traction. Because of virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, children now have a space where they can understand complicated ideas and gain practical learning experiences in low-risk virtual environments. STEM-related classes, simulations of medical procedures, resources in the arts and humanities, technical education, AR, and VR all have the potential to improve it. The capacity to communicate knowledge in novel and more interesting ways online is the second reason why virtual reality and augmented reality technologies are on their way to becoming one of the most promising additions to the “Edtech” field.

2. Rise of Real and AI together

Artificial intelligence, also known as AI, can communicate with humans and provide assistance. It has the potential to alter a wide number of sectors, including education, and to solve some of the most pressing challenges facing education today by introducing novel approaches to teaching and learning. The use of AI tools and technology may provide benefits such as faster paper grading, tailored training, intelligent material delivery, and student access to tutoring programs or AI-based intelligent tutoring systems (ITS). Realizing that AI should be centered on people is vital. Giving students a sustainable and high-quality education in the future will be made possible by a mix of teachers’ involvement and AI.

3. Personalized Education

Personalizing learning for each student’s strengths, needs, talents, and interests is yet another straightforward yet very successful and novel approach to the learning process. This aids in creating a learning plan specifically for the learner. The fundamental idea behind introducing customized learning is that every kid learns in a unique way and at a unique speed. Each student in customized learning receives a ‘learning plan’ based on their learning style, prior knowledge, abilities, and interests. It goes against the ‘one size fits all’ philosophy that is prevalent in most schools. In order to ensure that the student obtains hands-on learning on the selected topics and that they’re expected to learn as they move through their education, the developed plan is kept project-based.

4. Holistic learning will be the focus

The emphasis now is on supporting a child’s whole and holistic development so they may grow up to be responsible adults with the right skill sets, thanks to shifting educational environments. Educators are increasingly emphasizing the holistic learning approach to education, which emphasizes a child’s academic success while also preparing them to confront life’s obstacles. There are several advantages to holistic education. Students are given the tools they need to improve their academic achievement as well as develop the soft skills required for a successful professional career. The fact that holistic learning enhances academic achievement, mental and emotional health, and problem-solving skills is only one of its many advantages.

5. Education with the Entrepreneurial Mindset

In recent years, there has been a lot of excitement about incorporating entrepreneurship into schooling. Teachers design their lectures and classes to help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset and perspective from an early age. If entrepreneurial ideals are entrenched in the educational process, students will be better equipped to be obedient members of society. Students who are taught such a mindset are better able to acquire the skills and information needed to achieve their own unique goals. As a result, the curriculum designed here aims to build entrepreneurial knowledge, skills, attitudes, behavior, and drive in a way that assures entrepreneurial success while also making the student more employable in the future workforce.

The covid-pandemic has been a learning experience for educators and policymakers, and it has established a standard for the foreseeable future. The effective measures and techniques implemented now will establish the foundation for the Indian educational system’s ability to handle crises in the future without suffering significant interruption. It’s also helped us recognise that learning doesn’t have to be a strict, one-way process. EdTech will play a vital role in society and serve as a solid pillar for the next generation despite the huge shift brought about by technology and new policy reforms like the NEP. It’s time to welcome the innovative advances that technology is bringing to education and to look ahead to a successful and forward-thinking future.

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Jul 12, 2023

Transforming Education in India: A Journey from Tradition to Innovation

- By Samruddhi Gole , Senior Research Associate, Leadership For Equity

India, a land steeped in rich cultural heritage, has a vibrant history of imparting knowledge and education dating back to ancient times. This nation has witnessed a massive transformation in its education system, evolving from traditional Gurukuls to modern schools and now to online colleges. This article will delve into the evolution of the Indian education system, highlighting its historical roots, current status, future prospects, and the transformative role of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

Unravelling India's Educational Heritage

Traditionally, Indian education was primarily reserved for the upper castes. However, societal evolution has bridged this gap, and today, education is universally accessible, regardless of caste, social class, or any other differentiating factors.

The first education system in India, dating back to 5000 BC, was the 'Gurukula' system. In this model, a student (shishya) would approach a teacher (Guru) for admission. If accepted, the student would stay with the Guru, assisting with household chores while learning practical skills, science, mathematics, philosophy, and metaphysics. This holistic education system emphasizes the development of human values and the practical implementation of knowledge to solve real-world problems.

However, the Gurukula system was eventually replaced by the modern school system introduced to India in 1830 by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay. This system prioritized science and mathematics, with less emphasis on philosophy, ethics, moral values, and metaphysics. The medium of communication was also changed to English.

Current State of Education in India: Facts & Figures

Under the 2020 amendment to India's Right to Education Act, free and compulsory education is ensured for every child aged 3-18. Here are some statistics related to India's education system:

26% of the Indian population, approximately 1.39 billion, falls within the primary education sector (0-14 years).

18% of the Indian population, roughly 500 million, fall within the secondary and higher education sector (15-24 years).

The adult (15+ years) literacy rate in India is 69.3%, with male literacy at 78.8% and female at 59.3%.

Kerala boasts the highest literacy rate in India.

University of Delhi is the most popular higher education institution in India, followed by IIT Bombay.

In the 2019 English Proficiency Index, India ranked 34th among 100 nations.

Future Prospects for India's Education System

India's future aims for its education system are ambitious and progressive. Initiatives such as the United Nation's E9 Initiative, launched in April 2021, aim to encourage digital learning, specifically targeting marginalized groups, particularly girls. The Union Budget of 2021-22 allocated $7.56 billion for school education and $5.28 billion for higher education. It is estimated that by 2030, more than 20 Indian higher education universities will rank among the top 200 universities globally.

The New Education Policy (NEP) 2020: A Game-Changer

The NEP 2020, introduced by the Government of India, seeks to reform the Indian education system by replacing rote learning with competency-based learning. The policy aims to produce engaged, productive citizens capable of fostering an equitable, inclusive, and plural society.

The NEP 2020 replaces the existing 10+2 academic structure (ages 6-16 and ages 16-18) with a 5+3+3+4 structure, emphasizing Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). It also focuses on the inclusion of Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGs).

Key highlights of the NEP 2020 include:

The school curriculum will focus more on core concepts, introducing practical learning.

Introduction of vocational education from the 6th grade.

The 10+2 school system will be replaced by the 5+3+3+4 school system.

Higher education will become multi-disciplinary, aiming for all universities to become multidisciplinary by 2040.

Multiple exit options in undergraduate degrees.

Online Education in India

The NEP 2020 also emphasizes online education to meet present and future challenges in providing quality education. Online education breaks away from the traditional 6-hour-long classroom system, focusing instead on the practical application of learned skills. Some advantages of online education include flexibility, affordability, diverse options, efficient Learning Management Systems (LMS), and effective time management.

Open Learning and Distance Education System in India

Open and distance education plays a crucial role in increasing the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER). The government has set measures to improve the open and distance learning infrastructure, promoting a blend of online and distance education.

The transformation of India's education system is an ongoing journey. With the introduction of the NEP 2020 and the growing focus on online and distance learning, India is poised for a revolutionary shift in its educational landscape.

This transformation, however, requires a systemic approach, active stakeholder involvement, and a commitment to improving the quality of education across all levels. Only then can India truly harness the potential of its vast youth population and pave the way for a brighter, more educated future.

Dash, M. (2000). Education in India: Problems and perspectives. Atlantic Publishers & Dist.

Kalyani, P. (2020). An empirical study on NEP 2020 [National Education Policy] with special reference to the future of Indian education system and its effects on the Stakeholders. Journal of Management Engineering and Information Technology, 7(5), 1-17.

Kumar, A. (2021). New education policy (NEP) 2020: A roadmap for India 2.0. University of South Florida M3 Center Publishing, 3(2021), 36.

Mahmood, S. (1895). A History of English Education in India: Its Rise, Development, Progress, Present Condition and Prospects, Being a Narrative of the Various Phases of Educational Policy and Measures Adopted Under the British Rule from Its Beginning to the Present Period,(1781 to 1893).. (Vol. 50). MAO College.

Tilak, J. B. (2023). Book review: Revisiting the educational heritage in India. Journal of International Cooperation in Education, 25(1), 157-162.

Sector, E. (2006). Literacy Initiative for Empowerment LIFE.

School Education in India: Challenges, Solutions, & Government Initiatives 2023

Executive summary.

This comprehensive article delves into the present status of school education in India, highlighting its challenges and the solutions being implemented. It overviews government initiatives, including the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, infrastructure development, teacher training programs, digital integration, vocational education, and inclusive practices. Additionally, it explores the measures taken to address the digital divide, promote parental engagement, and reform assessment and examination practices. The article emphasizes the importance of collaboration between stakeholders and the government’s commitment to ensuring equitable, inclusive, and quality education for all.

Introduction

As of 2023, the school education landscape in India is undergoing significant changes, propelled by various initiatives to enhance quality, accessibility, and inclusivity. This write-up provides an overview of the present status of school education in India, highlighting key developments, challenges, and areas of improvement.

Government Initiatives: The Government of India has continued to prioritize education, recognizing it as a crucial pillar for national development. Key initiatives include:
New Education Policy (NEP) 2020: The focus of the NEP 2020 is to transform the education system, focusing on holistic development, skill enhancement, and flexible learning approaches. It emphasizes foundational literacy and numeracy, digital integration, vocational education, and multidisciplinary learning.
Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan: This Samagra Shiksha is a centrally sponsored scheme whose main objective is to ensure inclusive & equitable quality education from pre-primary to higher secondary levels. It focuses on improving infrastructure, teacher training, and supporting underprivileged students.
Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao: This campaign promotes girls’ education and aims to bridge gender gaps in school enrollment and retention. It emphasizes creating a conducive environment for girls’ education and addressing societal biases.
Access and Enrollment: India has made considerable progress in increasing school enrollment rates by implementing the Right to Education Act (2009). However, challenges persist in ensuring access to education for all, especially in remote and economically disadvantaged areas. Efforts are being made to address these challenges through infrastructure development, provision of transportation, and residential schools for marginalized communities.
Quality of Education: While access to education has improved, ensuring quality education remains a significant challenge. Issues such as a shortage of qualified teachers, inadequate infrastructure, outdated teaching methods, and rote learning practices must be addressed. The NEP 2020 emphasizes teacher training, competency-based education, and the use of technology to enhance learning outcomes.
Digital Integration: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated technology adoption in education. Schools have increasingly embraced online learning, digital content, and virtual classrooms. However, the digital divide remains a hurdle, particularly in rural areas with limited internet connectivity and device access. Steps are being taken to bridge this gap through government initiatives, partnerships, and community participation.
Vocational Education: There is a growing emphasis on vocational education to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving job market. Efforts are being made to introduce skill-based training programs in schools, providing students with practical skills and enhancing their employability prospects.
Inclusivity & Special Needs Education: India has made progress in promoting inclusive education for children with disabilities. The 2016 Act on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities focuses on inclusive education and reasonable accommodations. However, implementation challenges, lack of infrastructure, and societal attitudes hinder inclusive practices. There is a need for increased awareness, training, and infrastructure support to ensure equal opportunities for all learners.

In 2023, school education in India will be witnessing significant changes driven by government initiatives and a focus on enhancing quality, access, and inclusivity. While progress has been made, challenges such as ensuring quality education, bridging the digital divide, and promoting inclusive practices persist. Continued efforts, collaboration between stakeholders, and the effective implementation of policies are vital for realizing the vision of an equitable and inclusive education system in India.

Challenges Ahead

Presently, school education in India has many challenges which need to be addressed for further improvement. Here are some of the critical challenges ahead:

Quality Enhancement: Ensuring quality education remains a critical challenge. The focus should shift from rote learning to more holistic and skill-based approaches. Teacher training programs must be strengthened, and innovative teaching methods should be encouraged. Assessments and examinations should be reformed to assess critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
Infrastructure Development: Many schools in India lack basic facilities such as classrooms, libraries, laboratories, and sanitation facilities. Bridging the infrastructure gap, especially in rural and remote areas, is crucial to provide a conducive learning environment for all students.
Teacher Shortage and Quality: Many regions have a shortage of well-trained and qualified teachers. Competent teachers’ recruitment, training, and retention need to be prioritized. Encouraging the best talent to join the teaching profession, providing continuous professional development, and creating incentives for excellence can help overcome this challenge.
Equity & Inclusion: Despite efforts to ensure access to education, inequities persist. Children from marginalized communities, remote areas, and economically disadvantaged backgrounds often face barriers to education. Addressing these disparities requires targeted interventions, scholarships, transport facilities, and a focus on inclusive practices that cater to diverse learning needs.
Digital Divide: While digital integration has expanded during the pandemic, the digital divide remains a significant challenge. Many students lack reliable internet connectivity, devices, and digital resources. Bridging this gap requires infrastructure development, affordable technology, and digital literacy programs, particularly in rural and underserved areas.
Inclusive Education: While there has been progress in promoting inclusive education, children with disabilities still face barriers to accessing quality education. Lack of trained special educators, inclusive infrastructure, and societal stigmas hamper the implementation of inclusive practices. Ensuring equal opportunities and support for students with special needs requires comprehensive policies, teacher training, and infrastructure upgrades.
Parental Engagement: Active involvement of parents in their child’s education is crucial for academic success. However, many parents, especially in marginalized communities, face challenges in understanding the importance of education and engaging with schools. To improve learning outcomes, efforts should be made to promote parental awareness, involvement, and collaboration.
Assessment & Examination Reforms: The examination-centric approach and high-stakes assessments pressure students and often promote rote learning. Reforms in assessment methods, focusing on formative assessments, project-based learning, and skill-based evaluations, can encourage a more comprehensive evaluation of students’ abilities.

Addressing the challenges above requires a multi-faceted approach involving government initiatives, policy reforms, adequate funding, community participation, and stakeholder collaboration. By prioritizing these challenges, India can strive to provide equitable, inclusive, and quality education for all its children.

Possible Solutions

The government has implemented several solutions and initiatives to address the challenges in school education in India. Here are some of the key measures taken by the Government of India:

New Education Policy (NEP) 2020: The NEP aims to bring about transformative changes in the education system. It emphasizes foundational literacy and numeracy, holistic development, skill enhancement, and flexible learning approaches. The policy encourages multidisciplinary education, vocational training, and technology integration in classrooms.
Infrastructure Development: The government has launched various initiatives to improve school infrastructure, especially in rural and remote areas. Programs such as Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan focus on providing adequate classrooms, libraries, laboratories, and sanitation facilities. Additionally, efforts are being made to ensure access to clean drinking water and separate toilets for girls and boys.
Teacher Training & Development: The government has prioritized teacher training programs to enhance the quality of education. Initiatives like the National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA) provide comprehensive training to teachers on innovative teaching methodologies, classroom management, and inclusive education practices. Capacity-building programs aim to upgrade teachers’ skills and keep them abreast of the latest pedagogical approaches.
Digital Integration: The government has promoted digital integration in education through initiatives like Digital India and the ePathshala platform. The government is working on expanding internet connectivity in rural areas, providing affordable devices, and developing digital content in regional languages. Online teacher training programs and digital literacy initiatives are also being undertaken.
Inclusive Education: Efforts are being made to promote inclusive education through policies such as the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (2016). The government is working on enhancing school infrastructure and facilities to support students with disabilities. Inclusive education resource centers, assistive technologies, and special educator training programs are being established to ensure equal opportunities for all learners.
Vocational Education and Skill Development: The government focuses on integrating vocational education and skill development programs into the school curriculum. Initiatives like the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) aim to equip students with employable skills and link education to industry requirements. Skill-based training programs and apprenticeship schemes are being introduced to enhance students’ job prospects.
Financial Support & Scholarships: The government provides financial support and scholarships to economically disadvantaged students to encourage their participation in education. Schemes such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid-Day Meal Scheme, and scholarships for girls and students from marginalized communities aim to improve access, retention, and completion rates.
International Collaborations: The government is fostering collaborations with international organizations and countries to learn from global best practices in education. Partnerships with institutions and countries have facilitated knowledge sharing, exchange programs for teachers and students, and the implementation of innovative teaching methodologies.

These solutions and initiatives reflect the government’s commitment to improving school education in India. While challenges persist, the government’s efforts and the active involvement of communities, educators, and stakeholders aim to create a more inclusive, equitable, and quality-driven education system.

Education for All in India

Professor Arun C Mehta, Ex. HoD of EMIS Department, NIEPA

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State of the Education Report for India 2023

Launch of UNESCO 2023 State of the Education Report for India: Seeds of Change

The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) New Delhi Regional Office launched the fifth edition of its annual flagship report, Seeds of Change - UNESCO 2023 State of the Education Report for India on Education to address Climate Change .

This year’s report delves into the role of education in tackling the increasingly complex and intensifying challenges posed by climate change. India, like many parts of the world, continues to bear witness to the dire consequences of climate change through climate disasters and biodiversity losses. Education’s full potential to shape a generation that understands the gravity of this urgent issue and equip them with the tools to combat it must be realized now.

Shri Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education

The National Education Policy 2020 underscores the importance of making environmental education an integral part of school curricula at all stages. In order to address climate change in India, the Ministry of Education strongly believes in the role that education can play in resolving impacts of climate change. This report by UNESCO is very timely as it comes at a time when India is making significant strides in working on the issue of climate change.

Education is a transformational tool in our fight against climate change – when we know better, we can do better. Educational systems must adapt to equip younger generations with the knowledge, skills and competencies to prepare them for the impacts of climate change. This year’s UNESCO State of the Education Report for India is dedicated to the pivotal role of education in addressing climate change. We can see from the research that India has already taken some significant steps in this direction, and in doing so, is helping to promote sustainable and long-term solutions to this global challenge.

Tim Curtis, Director and UNESCO Representative of the UNESCO New Delhi Regional Office

The National Council of Educational Research and Training’s (NCERT) commitment to addressing climate change through school education aligns seamlessly with the vision of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The NCERT is delighted to know that the UNESCO New Delhi Regional Office has developed this report on the pivotal theme of education to address climate change and I trust this report will be an informative guide for programmes directed towards climate change education.

In 2023, India ranked eighth out of 59 countries and the European Union (collectively accounting for 92% of global greenhouse gas emissions) on climate performance according to the Climate Change Performance Index, rising two spots from the previous year. The country’s new National Curriculum Framework revised in 2023 mentions climate change 52 times. Today, India is a country well-suited for an exploration of climate education innovations, and UNESCO’s report highlights its best practices and future opportunities to do just that.

UNESCO - has long promoted the mobilization of intersectoral partnerships, political commitments, and youth empowerment as key drivers for fully leveraging education in building a greener and more sustainable future. Its global programme, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), contributes to this end by laying the foundation for global collaboration and policy innovation. Additionally, the Greening Education Partnership (GEP), launched by the United Nations Secretary-General in 2022, provides a practical framework for education stakeholders to take further action and UNESCO serves as the secretariat to the Greening Education Partnership (GEP).

To date, 80 Member States have joined the Partnership, for which UNESCO serves as the secretariat with strong commitment to green education systems, structured around four pillars of transformative education:

Greening schools

Greening curriculum

Greening teacher training and education systems’ capacities

Greening communities

The four pillars of the GEP are used as a guide with which the report analyzes India’s state of education to address climate change. The report is a synergy between UNESCO’s globally informed framework and the local expertise cultivated by the research team from the Centre for Environmental Education, India who authored this report.

The report concludes with ten concrete recommendations for education sector stakeholders, which we hope will facilitate immediate actions to enhance education’s role in addressing climate change. We also hope that the recommendations will inspire stakeholders in the environmental sector to further engage with education in their policy initiatives.

The ten recommendations are:

Emphasize the urgent need for collective action to address climate change through education

Include a climate change education component in all development policies

Integrate climate change education at all stages of education

Support educational institutions to be green and climate-ready

Embed climate change perspectives into green skills and vocational education programmes

Empower teachers with comprehensive climate change education training and resources

Engage with the youth to build a green future

Incorporate local and traditional knowledge that supports low-carbon lifestyles in climate change education

Promote partnerships to foster innovations in climate change education

Strengthen and create education-centred portals to provide reliable information on climate change

The launch event also showcased an engaging exhibition highlighting various initiatives taken to develop education to address climate change in India.

UNESCO New Delhi Regional Office extends its gratitude to UNICEF India, British Council India, and the Mobius Foundation for their support and cooperation.

To illustrate the report in an accessible manner, the following audio-visual package is also available free of copyright on UNESCO New Delhi’s YouTube channel :

Summary video underlining the recommendations of the report

Short capsules highlighting the key recommendations of the report

Seeds of Change - 2023 State of the Education report for India on Education to Address Climate Change

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Vision 2030: The rulebook for a re-imagined education system

As the education system underwent a drastic change during the pandemic. here are some of the ways that will help change the future of the education system in india..

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future of education, vison 2030 , importance of education,

Imagine schools the way we have witnessed them for centuries - a model with students divided by grades, learning a curriculum that is standardised to their age, broken down into four to five major subject areas, and being subject to evaluation via examinations.

Now, imagine a different approach along with the existing framework. A school as a learning hub for students, honing global citizens who are aware of their social responsibilities and thrive on innovation and creativity. A center that nudges students to learn in their own ways, at their own pace. An institution that challenges them to solve real-world problems. This, I believe, will be the cornerstone of the future-looking schools of tomorrow.

In fact, the tide has already turned and we have made major strides towards a reimagined education system. The pandemic did to the education system, what cell phones perhaps did to the way we communicate with each other - set it on a path of transformation.

We now realise education must be seen in the broader context of the economy and development today. It must be relevant and responsive to the rapidly changing ecosystem. We have been forced to rethink how we design schools, learning pedagogies and who we put at the centre of that design. We will be learning, adapting, and constantly evolving this design.

A FUTURE PROOF LEARNING APPROACH

It is perhaps a unanimous agreement that education, across the spectrum, must evolve to equip children with the skills they need to thrive in a world that is ever-changing and unpredictable. Think about it. 85 percent of all jobs in 2030 have not been invented yet and this is a cycle that will continue.

A must for education now, and in the next decade would be to be relevant to the workplaces of the future. This means students will be taught skills that are essential to their success. They will be prepared for jobs that have not yet been created, for technologies that have not yet been invented, and to solve unpredictable issues that aren't yet anticipated.

While technical skills will remain essential, soft skills will gain prominence, making them an integral part of learning. Skills such as complex problem solving, creativity, innovation, analytical thinking, emotional intelligence, and empathy will be critical in a future-proof curriculum.

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Essay on The Indian Education System: Challenges and Opportunities 1000, 500, 300, 200 words

Essay on The Indian Education System: Challenges and Opportunities

Introduction

Essay on The Indian Education System: The Indian education system is one of the oldest in the world, with a rich history dating back to ancient times. It has undergone numerous transformations over the centuries, but it continues to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of India. This essay explores the strengths and weaknesses of the Indian education system, its historical evolution, current challenges and potential opportunities for improvement.

Essay on The Indian Education System: A Journey of Challenges and Opportunities 500 words

Essay on the indian education system: challenges and opportunities 300 words, essay on education system in india 200 words, essay on education system in india 150 words, historical evolution.

The roots of the Indian education system can be traced back to the Gurukul system, where students lived with their gurus (teachers) and received holistic education encompassing not only academic subjects but also ethics, values and life skills. This system emphasized experiential learning and individualized instruction.

During British colonial rule, the education system underwent significant changes with a focus on producing a workforce to serve the colonial administration. This period saw the establishment of institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), which have since become renowned globally.

Strengths of the Indian Education System

Diversity : India’s education system is vast and diverse, offering a wide range of subjects and courses, catering to the varied interests and talents of its students.
Quality Institutions : India boasts several prestigious institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), and top-tier universities that have produced exceptional graduates who excel on the global stage.
Strong Emphasis on STEM : The system places significant importance on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, contributing to India’s reputation as a hub for IT and engineering professionals.
Global Diaspora : The Indian education system has produced a vast pool of skilled professionals who have excelled internationally, making India a significant contributor to the global workforce.

Challenges Faced

Quality Disparities : While India has prestigious institutions, a majority of schools and colleges, especially in rural areas, lack basic infrastructure and quality teachers. This results in a stark rural-urban divide in education.
Rote Learning : The system’s emphasis on rote memorization rather than critical thinking and problem-solving often stifles creativity and innovation among students.
Pressure and Stress : A highly competitive environment and parental expectations can place immense pressure and stress on students, leading to mental health issues.
Outdated Curriculum : The curriculum often lags behind in terms of relevance to real-world skills, emerging technologies and global trends.
Inequality : Socio-economic disparities result in unequal access to quality education, perpetuating inequality.

Opportunities for Improvement

Holistic Education : Incorporating holistic education that includes life skills, ethics and vocational training can prepare students for the complexities of the modern world.
Teacher Training : Investing in teacher training and providing incentives for educators can improve the quality of instruction across the board.
Flexible Curriculum : Regularly updating and adapting the curriculum to include relevant and contemporary subjects can better prepare students for the future job market.
Digital Education : Leveraging technology for online and distance learning can bridge the urban-rural education gap and make education more accessible.
Mental Health Support : Introducing mental health support services within educational institutions can help students cope with the pressures of academic life.

The Indian education system is at a crossroads, with both strengths and weaknesses. While it has produced brilliant minds and professionals, it also faces challenges related to quality, access and relevance. To truly harness its potential, India must address these issues and embrace reforms that prioritize holistic education, teacher development and adaptability to the changing global landscape. Only then can the Indian education system prepare its youth to excel not only in the domestic arena but also on the global stage.

Essay on The Indian Education System: An In-depth Analysis 600 words

Introduction :

The Indian education system has a rich and diverse history dating back thousands of years. With its roots in ancient Gurukul systems, it has evolved significantly over time to meet the changing needs of society. This essay delves into the Indian education system, its structure, challenges, and prospects.

Historical Background:

The origins of the Indian education system can be traced back to ancient times when education was imparted in Gurukuls, informal centers of learning under the guidance of a guru (teacher). This system emphasized holistic education, including subjects like mathematics, science, philosophy and ethics. However, the British colonial era (from the 18th to the 20th century) brought significant changes to India’s education system, introducing a more standardized, Westernized approach.

Structure of the Indian Education System:

Pre-primary and Primary Education: The foundation of education in India starts with pre-primary and primary education, typically from ages 3 to 14. This stage is crucial for building a strong educational base.
Secondary Education: After completing primary education, students move on to secondary education, which spans from grades 9 to 12. Here, they follow the curriculum set by respective state boards or national boards like the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education).
Higher Education: After completing secondary education, students have the option to pursue various streams, including science, arts, commerce and vocational courses. India has a vast higher education system comprising universities, colleges, and institutes offering undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programs.
Technical and Professional Education: India boasts prestigious institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) that offer specialized technical and management education.

Challenges in the Indian Education System:

Quality Disparities: There is a significant gap in the quality of education between urban and rural areas. Urban schools tend to have better infrastructure and teaching facilities, while rural schools often lack essential resources.
Rote Learning: The system is often criticized for promoting rote learning over critical thinking and practical skills. This limits students’ creativity and problem-solving abilities.
Overemphasis on Exams: The Indian education system is notorious for its heavy reliance on high-stakes exams, which can lead to immense stress and a narrow focus on exam-oriented education.
Lack of Vocational Education: While there has been progress in recent years, vocational education remains underdeveloped in India. This limits opportunities for skill development and employment.
Gender Disparities: Gender inequality still exists, with fewer girls having access to education, especially in rural areas.

Prospects for Reform:

RTE Act: The Right to Education (RTE) Act of 2009 is a significant step towards universalizing education by ensuring free and compulsory education for all children aged 6 to 14.
Emphasis on Skill Development: There is a growing recognition of the importance of skill-based education to prepare students for the job market. Initiatives like Skill India aim to address this need.
Digitalization: The use of technology in education, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, has gained momentum, making education more accessible and interactive.
International Collaboration: Collaboration with foreign universities and institutions is on the rise, leading to the establishment of international campuses in India, which can enhance the quality of education.

Conclusion:

The Indian education system has a rich history but faces numerous challenges. However, ongoing reforms and initiatives offer hope for a brighter future. A shift towards a more holistic, skill-based and inclusive approach can help prepare the youth of India for the complex challenges of the 21st century and beyond, ensuring that education remains a tool for personal and national development.

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The Indian education system is a complex and multifaceted structure that has evolved over centuries. It is a critical component of the nation’s growth and development, playing a pivotal role in shaping the lives and aspirations of millions of young Indians. This short essay explores the Indian education system, highlighting its strengths, challenges and potential for transformation.

Historical Roots

The roots of the Indian education system can be traced back to ancient times, with institutions like Nalanda and Takshashila renowned for their pursuit of knowledge. The traditional Gurukul system, where students lived with teachers, was a hallmark of early Indian education. However, over time, the education system underwent significant changes, especially during British colonial rule, leading to the present structure.

Diversity and Inclusivity : One of the system’s strengths is its inclusivity, catering to a diverse population with various languages, cultures and backgrounds. India offers a wide range of educational boards and mediums, allowing students to choose a system that suits them best.
Strong Foundation in Science and Technology: The country has produced numerous skilled professionals who have excelled in fields such as engineering, medicine and information technology. Indian institutes like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are globally recognized for their excellence.
Competitive Examinations: India’s rigorous competitive examination system prepares students for challenges in various fields. Exams like the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam are examples of such assessments.
Inequality : The education system grapples with stark inequalities, both in access and quality. Disparities in infrastructure, teacher quality and educational resources persist, creating a divide between urban and rural areas.
Rote Learning : The emphasis on rote learning, where students memorize information without understanding its practical application, has been criticized for stifling creativity and critical thinking.
Pressure and Stress: The intense competition for limited seats in prestigious institutions places immense pressure on students, often resulting in stress and mental health issues.
Outdated Curriculum: The curriculum often lacks relevance to real-world challenges, leading to a gap between classroom education and practical skills needed for employment.

Opportunities for Reform

Curriculum Overhaul : Updating the curriculum to incorporate practical skills, vocational training and a broader understanding of subjects can make education more relevant and engaging.
Digitalization : Leveraging technology for education delivery can help bridge the urban-rural divide and improve access to quality education.
Teacher Training: Investing in teacher training and professional development can enhance the quality of instruction and foster a more interactive learning environment.
Emphasis on Holistic Development : Encouraging extracurricular activities, sports and arts alongside academics can promote holistic development and reduce the stress on students.

The Indian education system has come a long way, reflecting both its strengths and challenges. While it has produced outstanding professionals, it also faces the task of addressing inequalities and adapting to the changing needs of a globalized world. Through reforms, inclusivity and a focus on holistic development, India can continue to harness the potential of its vast youth population and build a brighter future for generations to come.

The Indian education system is a vast and intricate structure that has evolved over centuries. It comprises various stages, from primary to higher education, and plays a pivotal role in shaping the country’s future. However, it faces both challenges and opportunities in its quest for excellence.

One of the most significant challenges facing the Indian education system is accessibility. While strides have been made to increase enrolment, especially at the primary level, there is still a wide gap in access to quality education, particularly in rural areas. Infrastructure deficits, inadequate teacher training, and socio-economic disparities are obstacles that hinder many children from receiving a good education.

Another pressing issue is the rote-learning culture prevalent in the system. Traditional assessment methods often prioritize memorization over critical thinking and problem-solving skills. This can stifle creativity and hinder students from developing a deeper understanding of subjects.

However, there are opportunities for improvement. The digital revolution has the potential to bridge educational gaps. Online learning platforms and educational apps can provide access to quality resources, even in remote areas. Additionally, the National Education Policy 2020 aims to transform the system by focusing on holistic learning, vocational skills, and flexibility in curriculum choices.

Moreover, India’s diverse population is a unique asset. It fosters a rich cultural exchange and can be leveraged to create a more inclusive and globalized education system that prepares students for a competitive world.

In conclusion, the Indian education system faces challenges related to accessibility and outdated teaching methods. However, it also possesses significant opportunities for improvement through digital integration, policy reforms, and embracing diversity. Addressing these challenges while capitalizing on these opportunities is essential for shaping a brighter future for India’s students.

The education system in India is a complex and diverse landscape that reflects the country’s vast cultural and socioeconomic diversity. While it has made significant progress over the years, it still faces numerous challenges.

One of the key strengths of the Indian education system is its emphasis on academic excellence. India is home to some prestigious institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), which are renowned globally. Additionally, the country has a rich tradition of producing skilled professionals in fields such as medicine, engineering, and IT.

However, there are significant issues that need to be addressed. The system often places excessive pressure on students to excel in rote memorization rather than promoting critical thinking and creativity. The quality of education varies widely between urban and rural areas, with rural regions often lacking access to quality schools and teachers. Furthermore, socio-economic disparities persist, limiting educational opportunities for many.

In recent years, there has been a push for educational reform, with initiatives aimed at improving infrastructure, curriculum and teacher training. Additionally, the promotion of digital learning and vocational education is gaining momentum.

In conclusion, while the Indian education system has notable strengths, it also faces substantial challenges related to quality, accessibility and equity. Continued efforts to reform and modernize the system are essential to ensure that all children in India have access to a high-quality education.

The education system in India is a complex and multifaceted structure that plays a pivotal role in shaping the nation’s future. While it has made significant progress in recent years, challenges persist.

India’s education system consists of several stages, starting with primary education, followed by secondary and higher education. The government has implemented various schemes to promote enrollment and quality in primary schools, but issues like infrastructure gaps and teacher shortages persist, particularly in rural areas.

Secondary education faces issues of standardized curricula and a heavy emphasis on rote learning, which can hinder critical thinking and creativity. The higher education system, on the other hand, boasts prestigious institutions like the IITs and IIMs, but access and quality vary greatly across the country.

To address these challenges, India must focus on improving infrastructure, teacher training and curriculum development. Additionally, promoting a more holistic and skill-oriented approach to education can better prepare students for the demands of the modern world. Overall, the evolution of India’s education system is critical for the nation’s socio-economic development and global competitiveness.

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Indian Education System Issues And Challenges

Major Issues in the Indian Education System

The Indian Education System has its share of issues and challenges which need to be resolved to provide better and improved education to children, who are the future of the country. Over the years, a lot has changed in the Indian education system but still, there are many loopholes and problems which need to be resolved.

In this article, we shall discuss in detail the issues and challenges with the Indian Education System and a few counter solutions to overcome these challenges. Also discussed are a few schemes which have been initiated by the Government for the improved education of students across the country.

Aspirants preparing for the upcoming IAS Exam must carefully go through this article.

Education System in India – Issues Download PDF Here

About the Indian Education System

A major shift in the education system can be observed from the pre and post-British rule till today in India. Initially, children were educated in Gurukuls which was later modified and the modern education system was introduced.

After India became independent, the constitution committed six fundamental rights, of which one was the Right to Education. It allowed free education for every child up between the ages of 6 and 14 years.

The education system is mainly divided into pre-primary, primary, elementary and secondary education, which is followed by higher studies.

However, there are many drawbacks and loopholes in this system which if curbed can work for the overall development of the country.

To know in detail about the Right to Education Act (RTE) , aspirants can visit the linked article.

Current Issues in Education in India

Discussed below are the current issues with the Education system in India:

Expenditure on education – More funds should be allotted for the development of the education system in India. In the past few years, many beneficial steps have been taken in this direction and if the same is continued India may soon overcome the current challenges.
Gross enrolment pattern – As followed by the UN must also be adopted by India.
Capacity utilisation – The world now needs creative minds and the Government must encourage schools to boost the students and utilise their capacities to the max and not let their ideas go unheard.
Infrastructure facilities – Better infrastructure must be provided especially in Government schools. Since the Government is now focussing on digital education, they must undertake steps to provide all necessary facilities in the Government schools and rural areas as well.
PPP model – Well-designed PPPs can create models of innovation for the school system in India. Thus the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model must be taken into consideration.
Student-teacher ratio – The number of students in search of proper education is way more in comparison to the teachers and faculty available. Thus, qualified teachers must be appointed to impart knowledge to the future of the country.
Accreditation and branding – quality standards.
Students studying abroad – Many students choose to study abroad because of these issues in the Indian education system. The concerned authorities must work on them and students must also choose to stay, learn in India and empower the country through their knowledge.

UPSC and other Government exam aspirants can also refer to the links given below for exam preparation:

Indian Education System Problems and Solutions

There are a few simple solutions which can help in overcoming the problems with the India Education System:

Innovations required – India is moving towards digital education. This will help in budding the innovative minds of students and the youth of the country. This will bring a transformation in the Indian education system and the authorities and Government must encourage and boost the young minds to focus on overall development rather than just the book-learning.
Quality of education – There is a major difference in the quality of education being provided in the rural and urban areas of the country. Steps must be taken to standardize the quality of education across India so that everyone can get equal and unbiased knowledge and opportunities to grow.
Making education affordable – There are Government schools and educational Institutions which are affordable but lack in terms of infrastructure and quality. On the other hand, there are various private education institutions which demand high fees and have better infrastructure and equipment to study. This disparity must be worked upon and the Government must make education affordable and accessible for all.

Schemes & Campaigns to Boost Education System in India

Given below is a list of Government schemes introduced to enhance the education system in India:

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan – Launched in 2001 to promote ‘Education for All’, strengthening the existing infrastructure of schools and construction of new schools. To know in details about the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) , visit the linked article.
National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level – It is a focused intervention of the Government of India, to reach the “Hardest to Reach” girls, especially those not in school. Read more at Elementary Education: Moving Towards RTE And Quality Improvement.
Mid-Day Meal Scheme – It is one meal that is provided to all children enrolled in government schools, government-aided schools, local body schools, special training centres (STC), madrasas and maktabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Visit the Mid Day Meal Scheme page to learn more.
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan – It is a flagship scheme aiming at enhancing secondary education and increasing the enrolment rate by providing a secondary school within a reasonable distance of every home.
Scheme for Infrastructure Development in Minority Institutes – The scheme would facilitate the education of minorities by augmenting and strengthening school infrastructure in Minority Institutions to expand facilities for formal education to children of minority communities.
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao – The scheme to promote girl child education in India. Visit the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana page to learn more about the BBBP campaign.

Aspirants can get the detailed UPSC Syllabus for the prelims and mains examination at the linked article and start their exam preparation accordingly.

Frequently Asked Questions about Indian Education System

What are some of the problems that beset the indian education system, how effective is the indian education system.

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Education in India – A Detailed Analysis

Last updated on April 21, 2024 by ClearIAS Team

This article is a detailed analysis of the Education System of India.

The post covers various aspects of the problems faced by the Indian Education sector, the Constitutional provisions related to education, and the education policies adopted by modern India.

History of Education in India

India has a rich tradition of imparting knowledge.

The ‘gurukul’ was a type of education system in ancient India with shishya (students) living with the guru in the same house. Nalanda has the oldest university system of education in the world. Students from across the world were attracted to Indian knowledge systems.

Many branches of the knowledge system had their origin in India. Education was considered a higher virtue in ancient India.

However, the renaissance and scientific thinking as happened in Europe didn’t happen in India at that time.

The British who took control of the Indian affairs by that time had different priorities. Education in British India initially lagged a lot.

However, later, the British established the modern education system still followed in India. They replaced age-old systems of education in the country with English ways .

Still, the education system in India needs a lot of reforms.

Current Status of Education in India: Data from Census 2011

Literacy rate in India as per Census 2011: 74%.
Literacy rate: Male: 82.1%; Female: 65.5%
Kerala tops the rankings, followed by Delhi, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.
Bihar is the lowest among states, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, etc., however, they are improving their position.
Bihar has a literacy rate of 63.8%, and that of women is 53.3%.
Literacy rates for both adults as well as youths have increased, still, the absolute number of illiterates in India is as much as India’s population was at the time of independence.
The gender gap in terms of literacy began to narrow first in 1991 and the pace has accelerated, however still lags far behind the global female literacy rate of 7% (UNESCO 2015).
There are large state variations in the gender gap.
However, during 2001 – 2011, the male literacy rate increased by 6 percentage points but female literacy increased by nearly 12 percentage points. Achievement in female literacy in Bihar is noteworthy: from 33% in 2001 to 53% in 2011.
Be that as it may, India is still lagging behind the world literacy rate of 86.3%(UNESCO 2015). A major group of states lies in the average rank i.e. just above the national level of 64.8 percent.

Indian Education System: The Present Pyramidal Structure

The Indian education system can broadly be considered as a pyramidal structure:

Pre-primary level: 5-6 years of age.
Primary (elementary) level: 6-14 years of age. Elementary-level education is guaranteed by our constitution under Article 21 A . For this level, the government has introduced Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) under the Right To Education(RTE) Act.
Secondary level: Age group between 14-18. For this level, the government has extended SSA to secondary education in the form of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan .
Higher education: generally of three levels: UG→ PG→ MPhil/PhD. To cater to the requirements of higher education, the government has introduced Rashtriya Uchhattar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA).

Read: Examination System in India

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) related to Education

Goal 4 of SDG : Education for all – ensures equitable, inclusive, and quality education along with the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.

Provisions in the Indian Constitution related to Education

Under Article 45 in DPSP , it was mentioned that the government should provide free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14 years within 10 years from the commencement of the Constitution. As this was not achieved, Article 21A was introduced by the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2002 , making elementary education a fundamental right rather than a directive principle. Article 45 was amended to provide for early childhood care and education to children below the age of six years.
To implement Article 21A, the government legislated the RTE Act. Under this act, SSA – Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan – got a further impetus. SSA aims to provide Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE) in a time-bound manner.
SSA has been operational since 2000-2001. Its roots go back to 1993-1994 when the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was launched. However, under the RTE Act, it got legal backing.

RTE Act 2009

86th Amendment Act 2002 introduced Article 21-A, which provides for free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act was enacted to implement this fundamental right.

Provisions of the RTE Act

‘Compulsory education’ means an obligation of the government to provide free elementary education and ensure compulsory admission, attendance, and completion of elementary education.
Provision for a non-admitted child to be admitted to an age-appropriate class.
Rational deployment of teachers, ensuring that there is no urban-rural imbalance in their postings.
Prohibition of deployment of teachers for non-educational work, other than services like decennial census, elections, etc.
It prohibits (a) physical punishment and mental harassment (b) screening procedures for admission of children (c) capitation fees (d) private tuition by teachers (e) running of schools without recognition.
Development of curriculum in consonance with the values enshrined in the constitution, ensuring all-around development of the child, building a system of child-friendly and child-centered learning.
To further inclusiveness, 25% reservation is provided for disadvantaged students in private schools.

Criticisms of the RTE Act

Even though the RTE + SSA have increased access to schools, resulting in a high enrollment rate, dropout rates increased in tandem. However, there is inadequate attention given to this scenario.
There is a fear of financial burden on the government for teacher recruitment and training.
The grey area of teacher transfer is also not helping the cause.
Since all state holidays are not relevant for all localities, such a calendar preparation by local authorities can increase attendance and can also encourage local panchayats to take ownership of schools.
RTE students in private schools are paying extra fees as the schools claim that the government fund provided for the same is not adequate.
Most private schools treat RTE as charity and demand that the onus of universalizing education should be on the government’s head rather than putting pressure on them.
70% of students are in government schools. So it must be fixed in priority, by providing infrastructure , teacher quality , and targeted learning for children from disadvantaged groups to provide an equitable education system.
Under the RTE Act, till class 8, students should not be failed in exams. This is called the No detention policy. It had reduced dropout rates.
There is growing criticism of the policy resulting in reducing the quality of elementary education. Hence the RTE Act was amended to scrap the policy.
RTE Act prioritized schooling of children only from the age of 6, thus ignoring pre-school education. Kothari Commission had recommended the establishment of a center for the development of pre-primary education in each district.
District Information System for Education (DISE) report states that 30% of primary and 15% of upper primary schools have higher PTRs.
According to the Economic Survey 2018-19, the PTR at the national level for primary schools is 23 and 27 for secondary schools. Thus PTR appears to be satisfactory, as there are sufficient teachers. However, the main issue is a balanced deployment of teachers based on student strength.
Even though the Student-Classroom ratio (SCR) improved in almost all of the States, there is disparity across the country.

Modern Education in India: The Evolution of the System through various policies

The British government had introduced modern education in India. From Macaulay’s minutes to Wood’s dispatch to several commissions like the Sadler Commission, 1904 Indian education policy, etc. built the foundation of the Indian education system during the colonial period.

Radhakrishnan committee

In 1948-49, the University Education Commission was constituted under Radhakrishnan . It molded the education system based on the needs of an independent India. The pre-Independent Indian education value system was catering to colonial masters. There was a need to replace Macaulayism with the Indian value system. ( Macaulayism is the policy of eliminating indigenous culture through the planned substitution of the alien culture of a colonizing power via the education system). Some of the values mentioned in the commission were:

Wisdom and Knowledge
Aims of the Social Order : the desired social order for which youths are being educated.
Love for higher values in life
Training for Leadership

The Independent Indian education system developed along the lines of this value framework. In the present times, where there are imminent threats of political ideologies hijacking the pedagogy of education and commercialization of education eroding value systems, it is appreciable to dust off the values promulgated by the commission. A recent controversial circular by the Central University of Kerala (CUK), directing that research topics for Ph.D. students must be by ‘national priorities’, and research in ‘irrelevant topics’ and ‘privilege areas’ must be discouraged, is a case in point.

Kothari commission

If the Radhakrishnan committee charted out the value system of the Indian education system, it was the Kothari Commission that provided the basic framework of the same. The commission provided for:

Standardization of educational system on 10+2+3 pattern.
Emphasized the need to make work experience and social/national service an integral part of education.
Linking of colleges to several schools in the neighborhood.
Equalization of opportunities to all and to achieve social and national integration .
Neighborhood school system without social or religious segregation and a s chool complex system integrating primary and secondary levels of education.
Establishment of Indian Education Service.
On-the-job training of the teaching staff and efforts to raise the status of the teachers to attract talents into the profession.
To raise expenditure on education from 2.9% of the GDP to 6% by 1985.

This committee report paved the way for the National Educational Policy 1968 which provided the base and roadmap for further development of the education system in India.

National Educational Policy 1968

The policy provided for “radical restructuring” and equalization of educational opportunities to achieve national integration and greater cultural and economic development.
Increase public expenditure on education to 6% of GDP.
Provide for better training and qualification of teachers.
Three-language formula : state governments should implement the study of a modern Indian language, preferably one of the southern languages, apart from Hindi and English in the Hindi-speaking states, and of Hindi along with the regional language and English in the non-Hindi-speaking states. Hindi was encouraged uniformly to promote a common language for all Indians.

National Educational Policy 1985

The policy aimed at the removal of disparities and to equalize educational opportunities, especially for women, SC and ST.
Launching of “Operation Blackboard” to improve primary schools nationwide.
IGNOU, the Open University, was formed.
Adoption of the “rural university” model , based on the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, to promote economic and social development at the grassroots level in rural India.

T.S.R.Subramanium committee report

ECCE is inconsistent across states. So all government schools should have facilities for pre-primary education, which would facilitate pre-school education by the government instead of the private sector.
The policy of no detention should be upheld only till class five and not till class eight.
There is a steep rise in teacher shortage, absenteeism, and grievances.
Need to constitute an Autonomous Teacher Recruitment Board.
Four years integrated B.Ed. the course should be introduced.
There is an inadequate integration of information technology (IT) and the education sector.
The National Skills Qualification Framework should be scaled up.
The choice of vocational courses should be in line with local opportunities and resources .
Bringing formal certification for vocational education at par with conventional education certificates.
All India Education Service.
Existing separate laws governing individual regulators in higher education should be replaced by the said act.
The role of existing regulatory bodies like UGC and AICTE should be revised.
National Accreditation Board (NAB) subsuming the existing accreditation bodies.

Kasturirangan Report On School Education (Draft National Education Policy)

For restructuring the education system in India, the government is preparing to roll out a New Education Policy that will cater to Indian needs in the 4th Industrial Revolution by making use of its demographic dividend. Committee for Draft National Education Policy (chaired by Dr. K. Kasturirangan) submitted its report on May 31, 2019.

You can read about the National Education Policy 2020 in detail here .

School Education:

Low accessibility.
The curriculum doesn’t meet the developmental needs of children.
Lack of qualified and trained teachers.
Substandard pedagogy.
Currently, most early childhood education is delivered through anganwadis and private preschools. However, there has been less focus on the educational aspects of early childhood.
Guidelines for up to three-year-old children.
Educational framework for three to eight-year-old children.
This would be implemented by improving and expanding the Anganwadi system and co-locating anganwadis with primary schools.
Expanding the ambit of the Act to all children between the ages of three to 18 years, thus including early childhood education and secondary school education.
There should be no detention of children till class eight. Instead, schools must ensure that children are achieving age-appropriate learning levels.
The current structure of school education is to be restructured based on the development needs of students.
10+2+3 structure to be replaced by 5-3-3-4 design comprising: (i) five years of foundational stage (three years of pre-primary school and classes one and two), (ii) three years of preparatory stage (classes three to five), (iii) three years of middle stage (classes six to eight), and (iv) four years of secondary stage (classes nine to 12).
The current education system solely focuses on rote learning. The curriculum load should be reduced to its essential core content.
Force students to concentrate only on a few subjects.
Do not test learning in a formative manner.
Cause stress among students.
To track students’ progress throughout their school experience, State Census Examinations in classes three, five, and eight should be established.
Restructure the board examinations to test only the core concept. These board examinations will be on a range of subjects. The students can choose their subjects and the semester when they want to take these board exams. The in-school final examinations may be replaced by these board examinations.
Although establishing primary schools in every habitation has increased access to education, it has led to the development of very small schools making it operationally complex. Hence the multiple public schools should be brought together to form a school complex .
A complex will consist of one secondary school (classes nine to twelve) and all the public schools in its neighborhood that offer education from pre-primary to class eight.
These will also include anganwadis, vocational education facilities, and an adult education center.
Each school complex will be a semi-autonomous unit providing integrated education across all stages from early childhood to secondary education.
This will ensure that resources such as infrastructure and trained teachers can be efficiently shared across a school complex.
A steep rise in a teacher shortage, lack of professionally qualified teachers, and deployment of teachers for non-educational purposes have plagued the system.
Teachers should be deployed with a particular school complex for at least five to seven years.
They will not be allowed to participate in any non-teaching activities during school hours.
Existing B.Ed. the program will be replaced by a four-year integrated B.Ed. program that combines high-quality content, pedagogy, and practical training. An integrated continuous professional development will also be developed for all subjects.
Separating the regulation of schools from aspects such as policymaking, school operations, and academic development.
Independent State School Regulatory Authority for each state will prescribe basic uniform standards for public and private schools.
The Department of Education of the State will formulate policy and conduct monitoring and supervision.

Higher Education

According to the All India Survey on Higher Education , the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education in India has increased from 20.8% in 2011-12 to 25.8% in 2017-18. Lack of access is a major reason behind the low intake of higher education. The policy aims to increase GER to 50% by 2035.
Multiple regulators with overlapping mandates reduce the autonomy of higher educational institutions and create an environment of dependency and centralized decision-making.
The National Higher Education Regulatory Authority (NHERA) should replace the existing individual regulators in higher education. Thus the role of all professional councils such as AICTE would be limited to setting standards for professional practice. The role of the UGC will be limited to providing grants.
Separate the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) from the UGC into an independent and autonomous body. It will function as the top-level accreditor and will issue licenses to different accreditation institutions. All existing higher education institutions should be accredited by 2030.
Replacing the current system of establishing higher educational institutions by Parliament or state legislatures. Instead, institutions can be set up through a Higher Education Institution Charter from NHERA.
Research universities focus equally on research and teaching.
Universities focus primarily on teaching.
Colleges focus only on teaching at undergraduate levels.
All such institutions will gradually move towards full autonomy.
Total investment in research and innovation in India has declined from 0.84% of GDP in 2008 to 0.69% in 2014. India also lags behind many nations in the number of researchers, patents, and publications.
NRF will act as an autonomous body for funding, mentoring, and building the capacity for quality research.
Undergraduate programs should be made interdisciplinary by redesigning their curriculum to include: a common core curriculum; and one/two area(s) of specialization.
Introduce four-year undergraduate programs in Liberal Arts.
By the next five years, five Indian Institutes of Liberal Arts must be set up as model multidisciplinary liberal arts institutions.
Poor service conditions and heavy teaching loads, augmented by a lack of autonomy and no clear career progression system, have resulted in low faculty motivation.
Introduction of a Continuous Professional Development program and permanent employment track system for faculty in all higher education institutions by 2030.
The student-teacher ratio of not more than 30:1 must be ensured.
All higher education institutions must have complete autonomy on curricular, pedagogical, and resource-related matters.

Read: Institutions of Eminence Scheme

Additional Key Focus Areas:

Additional key focus areas are (1) Technology in Education (2) Vocational Education (3) Adult Education and (4) the Promotion of Indian Languages.

Technology in Education

Improving the classroom process of teaching, learning, and evaluation
Aiding teacher training.
Improving access to education.
Improving the overall planning, administration, and management of the entire education system.
Electrification of all educational institutions paves the way for technology induction.
An autonomous body, the National Education Technology Forum, set up under the Mission, will facilitate decision-making on the use of technology.
Single online digital repository to make available copyright-free educational resources in multiple languages.

Vocational Education

Less than 5% of the workforce in the age group of 19-24 receives vocational education in India, in contrast to 52% in the USA, 75% in Germany and 96% in South Korea.
Vocational courses : All school students must receive vocational education in at least one vocation in grades 9 to 12.
Higher Education Institutions must offer vocational courses that are integrated into undergraduate education programs.
The draft Policy targets to offer vocational education to up to 50% of the total enrolment in higher education institutions by 2025, up from the present level of enrolment of below 10%.
National Committee for the Integration of Vocational Education for charting out plans for the above objectives.

Adult Education

As per Census 2011, India had a total of 26.5 crore adult non-literate (15 years and above).

Establishing an autonomous Central Institute of Adult Education as a constituent unit of NCERT. It will develop a National Curriculum Framework for adult education.
Adult Education Centers will be included within the school complexes.
Relevant courses are made available at the National Institute of Open Schooling.
National Adult Tutors Programme to build a cadre of adult education instructors and managers.

Education and Indian Languages

The medium of instruction must be the mother tongue until grade 5, and preferably until grade 8.
3 language formula be continued and flexibility in the implementation of the formula should be provided. Implementation of the formula needs to be strengthened, particularly in Hindi-speaking states. Schools in Hindi-speaking areas should also teach Indian languages from other parts of India for national integration.
To promote Indian languages, a National Institute for Pali, Persian, and Prakrit will be set up.
The mandate of the Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology will be expanded to include all fields and disciplines to strengthen vocabulary in Indian languages.

Transforming Education

The policy talked about the synergistic functioning of India’s education system, to deliver equity and excellence at all levels, from vision to implementation, led by a new Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog.

Education Governance

Revitalize education governance by bringing in synergy and coordination among the different ministries, departments, and agencies.

Constitute the National Education Commission or Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog, as an apex body for education headed by the Prime Minister. It would be responsible for developing, implementing, evaluating, and revising the vision of education and overseeing the implementation and functioning of bodies including the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), National Higher Education Regulatory Authority, and National Research Foundation.
The Ministry of Human Resources and Development must be renamed the Ministry of Education to bring the focus back on education.

Financing Education

The Draft Policy reaffirmed the commitment to spending 6% of GDP as a public investment in education.
The draft Policy seeks to double the public investment in education from the current 10% of total public expenditure to 20% in the next 10 years. 5% will be utilized for higher education, 2% in school education, and 1.4% for early childhood care and education.
There should be optimal and timely utilization of funds through the institutional development plans and by plugging loopholes in the disbursement of funds.

Criticism of the New Education Policy of India

The New Education Policy lacks operational details.
It is not clear from where the funding will be sourced.
Enough importance is not given to innovation, startup culture or economic principles to be added to the curriculum.
One-size-fits for all states can’t be a solution as each state in India is diverse in its educational needs. Controversy on NEET has shown this.
With technological advancement and the democratization of knowledge, the policy should have focused more on how to teach rather than what to teach.
Economic Survey 2017-18 mentioned the perils of the distinction between research institutions and universities in higher education. The policy recommendation of three distinct higher education institutions of research universities, teaching universities, and teaching colleges will further augment the gap between research and universities.
The draft policy is silent on the Institutions of Eminence and agencies like the Higher Education Funding Agency.
The role of Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog should be defined clearly. What would be its role vis-a-vis existing regulators? Also, there are criticisms from some quarters that RSA will open the door to the politicization of education.
Earlier the 3-language formula proposed by the draft policy made Hindi compulsory in non-Hindi speaking states. However, after the furor, the proposal was removed.
Even though the policy talks about bringing “unrepresented groups” into school and focusing on educationally lagging “ special education zones” , it doesn’t comprehensively address the inequalities prevalent in the system. It misses methods to bridge the gaps between rich and poor children.
The policy proposes to remove the provision mandating that primary schools be within stipulated distance from students’ homes and common minimum infrastructure and facility standards that should be met by all schools. If a common minimum standard is not specified, it will create an environment where quality in some schools will fall further thus augmenting the inequalities between schools across the country.

India’s education history is rich with ambitious policies failing at the altar of inadequate implementation of the same. In the absence of a handholding mechanism for states to embark on the path-breaking reforms mentioned in the policy and that too in a short time, will be too much to ask.

Funding requirements and governance architecture pose major challenges in the implementation of the policy. Political commitment is required to increase funding. RTE Act expansion to include preschool should keep in mind the present infrastructure inadequacies and teacher vacancies.

Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog may face administrative problems and turf battles. Also, it will raise questions on the role of new bodies like the National Medical Council.

The recent controversy on 3 language formula shows the sensitivity of language education in India and care should be taken to appreciate the emotional overtures while implementing the same.

Politically acceptability, social desirability, technological feasibility, financial viability, administratively doability, and judicially tenability are 6 pillars that will impact the implementation of the policy.

Be that as it may, the new education policy aims to address the challenges of (i) access, (ii) equity, (iii) quality, (iv) affordability, and (v) accountability faced by the current education system. It aims to revitalize and equip the education system to meet the challenges of the 21st century and 4th industrial revolution rather than catering to 19th and 20th century needs of industrialization. Also, India is on the cusp of a demographic dividend, rather than entered into this phase. So the education system catering to these needs is not a luxury that we hope for but rather a dire need at this moment in Indian history.

The Problems associated with the Education System in India

HRD ministry: Over 1.4 million schools and 50,000 higher educational institutions are operating in India. Out of 907 universities, there are 399 state universities, 126 deemed-to-be universities, 48 central and 334 private universities.

Even after more than a hundred years of “ Gokhale’s Bill”1911, where universal primary education was originally mooted, India is yet to achieve this goal.
China had achieved it in the 1970s. As per Census 2011, over 26% of India’s population is still illiterate, compared to 4% in China. About 50% of India’s population has only primary education or less, compared to 38% in China. The 13% of the population with tertiary education at the upper end in India is comparable with China.
Progress has been made in respect of female participation up to secondary level and GER for girls has exceeded that of boys.
But the girl’s enrollment rate is lower than that of boys at the higher education level.
A gap is visible across social categories in terms of enrollment rate at the higher education level.
According to NSSO’s 71st round (2014), drop-out rates are very high for boys at the secondary school level. Reasons for the same are economic activities, lack of interest in education, and financial constraints.
The transition rate from secondary school to senior secondary and further to higher education is very low.

Despite these highly ambitious education policies and elaborate deliberations on the same, the outcomes are rather shaky. Major criticisms and shortcomings of these policies and their implementations are:

Half the population is crowded at the bottom, either illiterate or with only primary education. Meanwhile, a disproportionately large segment is at the upper end with tertiary education.
The 2015 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) reflects this deteriorating quality. The report opines that deficits in foundational reading and arithmetic skills are cumulative, which leaves students grossly handicapped for further education .
India had fared poorly in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test in 2008, and 09.
Education policies in India are focused on inputs rather than on learning outcomes.
Teacher shortages.
Local politics.
Corruption in teacher appointment.
Defects in teacher training.
Socio-cultural factors like caste division, and cynical attitude towards the teaching profession.
There is no accountability, as there is a guaranteed lifetime job independent of performance.
From 1952-2012 , education expenditure as a percentage of total government expenditure increased from 7.92 to 11.7, and as a percentage of GDP increased from 0.64 to 3.31. But it has still not reached 6% of GDP, as was recommended by the Kothari Commission way back in 1964.
Expenditure by the government on elementary education is more than tertiary level, but expenditure per student is more in tertiary. So there is a need to increase expenditure in all segments.
All India survey on higher education has shown that in West Bengal Muslim students in universities are very low. Lack of education at the primary and secondary levels is said to be the main reason.
Even though Article 15(4),(5) provides reservations for SC, ST, and OBC in higher education institutions , the Economic Survey 2018-19 points out their inadequate representation in these institutions.
The suicide of Rohit Vemula, a Ph.D. scholar at the University of Hyderabad, in 2016 had brought forward the discrimination still existing in these institutions.
Also, the representation of teachers at these levels is skewed against the backward class in spite of reservations. Article 16(4) provides for reservations of backward class in jobs.
At the school level, poor children are primarily concentrated in government schools. The poor quality of government schools thus disproportionately affects these children and creates a vicious cycle of illiteracy.
At the higher education level, the situation is more critical. One reason for the introduction of the National Medical Commission Bill is to curb the exorbitant fees charged by medical colleges.
Youths coming out of the higher education system in India are not employable, as they lack relevant industry-level skills.
India’s long-standing neglect of primary and secondary education has limited access to quality basic education. No skill development program can succeed without an underlying foundation of basic education.
National Policy on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 (PMKVY) has shown disappointing results.
Budget 2019-20 stated that the government enables about 10 million youth to take up industry-relevant skill training through the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). The Budget has also increased focus on ‘new-age skills’ like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, 3D Printing, Virtual Reality, and Robotic.
Currently, B Tech courses in AI are offered mostly in premier institutions only.
The budget 2019-20 proposed the National Sports Education Board for the development of sportspersons under the Khelo India program (2017).

Now we will look at each rung of the education ladder in India.

Early childhood education

Early childhood education (ECE) is needed for cognitive development in the early stage.
Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) has a component for providing ECE through Anganwadis . But lack of effective regulation in this sector is eroding the quality of ECE.
There is a National Early Childhood Care and Education Policy 2013 . However, the policy has not been properly implemented.
There are multiple service providers but there is no clarity in the types of services provided.
The sprawling of an unregulated private channel, both organized and unorganized, which is also spreading to rural areas, has led to inequitable access, uneven quality, and commercialization of ECE.
Both Anganwadis and private schools focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic rather than cognitive and conceptual development.
There is a decline in the quality and training of teachers.
S.R. Subramanian’s committee report has brought focus to the quality deterioration in this sector.

Primary level

There is an increasing trend of parents choosing private schools for the primary level. However, there is variable quality in private schools. Also, fees vary from school to school and are on the higher side.
Eschew rigid curricula and make them more cognitive and flexible. There should be a broader cognitive approach than rote learning.
There is a need for activity-based learning. Teachers should teach at the right level, rather than teaching for the average learner.
The government has launched Padhe Bharat Bade Bharat – targeting early reading and writing. The twin-track approach of comprehension and math is the main focus.
There is a supply-side problem . The government is pumping funds through government schools thus increasing the number of schools and thus enrollment. However, quality and inclusiveness have dropped and dropout rates increased. These lead to poor learning outcomes.

School Complex

RTE and SSA have resulted in over-access but low-quality primary-level education. Now the aim should be to integrate these into school complexes, as mentioned by the Kasturirangan committee report, thus rationalizing the number of schools in an area.
The ‘Adarsh’ integrated school system of Rajasthan is an example of a school complex system . Here one school provides classes from l to XII under one principal. There is one such school in every gram panchayat.
This is an efficient way to solve teacher shortages and also to address the shortages of secondary schools. It can also address the problem of resource scarcity by integrating and rationalizing resources.
Inclusive learning can be furthered through school.
Also, these complexes can act as a pivot around which new reforms in education can be implemented.

Secondary level

ASER Rural 2017: In 2017, ASER changed the age group of the survey from primary level to secondary level. The report mentions the following:

Enrollment is low in this age group. There is a high digital divide at this level. Low quality also persists at this level. There is a high amount of absenteeism as well.
There is a need to expand RTE to cover the 14-18 age groups.
To realize the demographic dividend, skill education for these groups is necessary.

Economic Survey 2018-19 points out that Indian demography is changing and it requires more quality secondary education system rather than merely an increasing number of primary-level schools.

Private fees

The vagueness in the judgment regarding ‘reasonable surplus’ and ‘commercialization’ of education has watered down the outcome of the judgment.
There are state laws for capping fees. However, implementation problems and litigation make them ineffective.
CAG report mentioned misreporting and mismanagement by private schools. So laws should address this problem through stricter inspection, penalties, etc.

Higher education

There is an increasing number of higher education institutions but their quality is questionable, effectively making ‘islands of excellence amidst the sea of mediocrity. Increased accessibility to a low-quality higher education system has made democratization of mediocrity.

Raghuram Rajan, the ex-RBI governor, argued that India needs idea factories and universities by leveraging India’s inherent strengths like tolerance, diversity, etc. He said that there is a need for strong accreditation agencies and continuing education.

Problems of the higher education system in India

There is a dual problem of both quality and quantity. The gross enrollment ratio (GER) in higher education is only 24.5.
Even though education policy had an elitist bias in favor of higher education, the state of the same is much worse than the state of school education. Unlike school education, there is no national survey of the learning levels of college students.
The desired levels of research and internationalization of Indian campuses remain weak points.
Also, there is a low philanthropic investment in this sector. This creates an exclusive dependency on government funding by universities. This, in turn, reduces the autonomy and vision of these universities.
Privatization of higher education has not been led by philanthropy but the commercial interest that does not have a symbiotic relationship with the vision of universities.
These have led to inadequate human capacity, shoddy infrastructure, and weak institutions. Recommendations of the Narayana Murthy committee, on the role of the corporate sector in higher education, have not been implemented and thus channeling of CSR funds to higher education remains inadequate.
Banks and financial institutions are not giving adequate attention to this area. Giving PSL status to these institutions can be considered.
Indian higher education system is of a linear model with very little focus on specialization.
UGC and AICTE act more as controllers of education than facilitators.
Due to the mushrooming of colleges at a higher rate since the 1980s , there is a regulatory sprawl in higher education.
Poor governance , with mindless over-regulation , is widespread in this sector. Educational institutions responded to this with claims of academic and institutional autonomy for themselves, which was mostly a smokescreen for a culture of sloth in these institutions.
There is a concentration of powers, as these regulatory institutions control all aspects like accreditation, curriculum setting, professional standard-setting, funding, etc.
Compartmentalization and fragmentation of the knowledge system.
Disconnect with society.
Overemphasis on entrance tests.
Absence of innovation in learning methods.
Corrosion of autonomy of universities.
For long basic disciplines across the physical and social sciences and humanities were ignored.
However, the Economic Survey 2017-18 mentioned that there is an increase in Ph.D. enrolment in India in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) due to efforts by the government to increase the number and quantum of fellowships. However, there are still fewer researchers in India in comparison to other countries.
Budget 2019-20 proposes ‘Study in India’ with a focus on bringing foreign students to higher educational institutions in India to make India a “hub of higher education.”
Higher education institutions are used as rewards for loyalists and channels of graft by political parties in power.
Indian higher education system is plagued by unregulated and shoddy coaching institutions. The coaching industry makes around Rs. 24000 crores a year in India. Proper regulation of the same is required.

Research and development (R&D)

Economic Survey 2017-18 stated: “To transform from net consumer to net producer of knowledge, India should invest in educating its youth in science and mathematics, reform the way R&D is conducted, engage the private sector and the Indian diaspora, and take a more mission-driven approach in areas such as dark matter, genomics, energy storage, agriculture, and mathematics and cyber-physical systems”.

Although Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) is consistently increasing, as a fraction of GDP it has been stagnant between 0.6-0.7 percent of GDP over the past two decades.
The universities play a relatively small role in the research activities in India. There is a disconnection between research institutes and universities. This results in the compartmentalization of research activities and teaching into two separate silos.
The separation of research from teaching leads to a situation where universities have students but need additional faculty support, while research institutes have qualified faculty but are starved of young students.
India was, at one point, spending more on R&D as a percentage of GDP than countries like China – but currently, India under-spends on R&D.
Doubling of R&D spending is necessary and much of the increase should come from the private sector and universities.

The need of the hour

It is imperative to improve math and cognitive skills at the school level to make a difference at a higher level.
There is a need to expand R&D in India and to go beyond paper presentations and patents to a broader contribution of providing value for society.
There is also a need to encourage Investigator-led Research for funding science research. Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) 2008, a statutory body of DST, is a step in the right direction.
50:50 partnerships with SERB for industry-relevant research under the Ucchatar Avishkar Yojana (UAY) is the right way to go forward.
It would strengthen state universities and provide knowledge in areas specific to a state.
National Research Foundation, to fund, coordinate, and promote research at the college level, is proposed by the Kasturirangan report. It is reiterated in Budget 2019-20 : NRF will ensure the overall research ecosystem in the country is strengthened with a focus on areas relevant to national priorities without duplication of effort and expenditure. The funds available with all Ministries will be integrated into NRF.
Link national labs to universities and create new knowledge ecosystems. Together they can link up with the commercial sectors and help develop industrial clusters.
National Mission on Dark Matter
National Mission on Genomics
National Mission on Energy Storage Systems
National Mission on Mathematics
National Mission on Cyber-Physical Systems
National Mission on Agriculture
Ramanujan Fellowship Scheme.
Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research ( INSPIRE ) Faculty Scheme.
Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship.
Visiting Advanced Joint Research Faculty Scheme ( VAJRA ).
Improve the culture of research thus ‘ ease of doing research’. There is a need for less hierarchical governance systems that encourage risk-taking and curiosity in the pursuit of excellence.
Greater public engagement of the science and research establishment is needed. A greater effort at science communication is needed.

Government initiatives on higher education

The government is trying to revitalize the Indian higher education system and for this many initiatives have been launched. Let’s discuss the importance of them.

National Testing Agency (NTA) 2017

NTA was set up for conducting entrance exams in higher educational institutions. It is based on the recommendations of the Ashok Mishra committee on IIT entrance 2015.
It will conduct JEE, NEET, National Eligibility Test (NET), Common Management Admission Test (CMAT), and Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT).
It will provide diversity and plurality in higher education. It will also ensure independence and transparency in conducting the exams.
However, it should be ensured that the computer-based test should not lead to further exploitation of rural students.
NEET stands for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test . It is for admissions in medical courses by replacing a plethora of medical entrance tests with one national-level test.
Supreme Court had said that NEET should be the sole basis for admission to medical courses.
There is a controversy about whether urban and CBSE students will dominate NEET. The government should pay heed to this criticism.
In Tamil Nadu doctors serving in rural areas get weightage in PG admission. NEET will effectively dislodge this system.
This controversy brought forward the conflict between the fair and transparent system of admission to curb the commercialization of medical education and the socioeconomic goals of the state, which in the case of Tamil Nadu includes ensuring enough doctors for rural areas.
Controversy on NEET has brought the following question to the limelight: should uniformity be thrust upon a country with such vast disparity and diversity? The political leadership should iron out the differences and produce a suitable admission policy. This task should not be left to the judiciary.
Be that as it may, states can’t remain insulated from the need to upgrade their education standard.

RUSA: Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan 2013

About 94 % of students in higher education study in 369 State universities, whereas less than 6% of students study in 150 Centrally-funded institutions.
11th 5-year plan (2007-12) opined that the center’s bias towards premier central institutions had skewed funding for these institutions mainly and thus neglected state-level institutions.
State investment in higher education was declining. UGC’s system of direct release of funds to State institutions bypassing State governments also leads to a sense of alienation for the states.
RUSA tried to correct this bias. The scheme aims at financing state institutions concerning their governance and performance.
RUSA has shown the result in increasing the performance of state institutions and changing the way regulators function for the good. State Higher Education Council(SHEC) made medium-long-term state perspective plans.
Cabinet in 2018 decided to continue the scheme. A renewed focus by the center on RUSA will be a success only if it is impartially administered and states are willing to heed the advice of SHEC.

HECI: Higher Education Commission of India bill

On the recommendation of the Yashpal Committee 2010 for renovation and rejuvenation of higher education, the National Commission on Higher Education and Research bill was introduced but was not passed.
HECI was proposed to act as an overarching regulator of higher education by replacing UGC, which will maintain academic standards, approve new educational institutions, etc. but with no funding powers.
Draft Higher Education Commission of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act) Bill, 2018 was introduced in 2018. Budget 2019-20 proposed to bring a bill on HECI this year.
The draft bill had separated funding and placed it under MHRD. This was criticized for the fear of increasing political control and reducing the autonomy of universities.

IoE: Institutions of Eminence 2017

Around 2005, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the QS World University Rankings started, and in 2009 the Academic Ranking of World Universities started. From India, only the Indian Institute of Science was included in the top 500 every year. This prompted the government to introduce NIRF and IoE.
Under IoE, UGC was tasked to select 10 government universities and 10 private ones as IoE. These would be given autonomy in operations.
Selected government institutions would be provided with ₹1,000 crore over five years.
The IoE tag is expected to help them achieve the world’s top 500 higher education institutions in a decade and later into the top 100.
Institutes among the top 50 in the National Institute Ranking Framework rankings or in the top 500 in international ratings were eligible.
The model for the sector remains dependent on state patronage.
Entry into the global education race could now become an overriding concern when many systemic issues are plaguing the sector.
Funding only for public institutions is discriminatory.
Humanities institutions were neglected.
Transparency in the selection process, and the public sharing of benchmarks and guidelines. The furor over the selection of Jio Institute, even before it functioned, had attracted many eyeballs and criticisms.
Separate category to include sectoral institutions like IIM.

National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2015

NIRF is a methodology adopted by the MHRD to rank higher education institutions in India.

NIRF is common for public and private institutions as well as state and central institutions. Comparison of state-level colleges with central and private colleges may lead to a vicious cycle of low funding, poor performance, and low ranks among state-level institutions because of the resource gap.
So performance index values should be normalized concerning investments and resources that have gone into that institution. Also should consider making another ranking system for state-level institutions.

HEFA: Higher Education Financing Agency 2018

Introduced in Budget 2018-19, HEFA is a joint venture of MHRD and Canara Bank

With an initial capital base of Rs 1,000 crores, it will act as a not-for-profit organization that will leverage funds from the market and supplement them with donations and CSR funds. These funds will be used to finance improvement in infrastructure in top institutions.
It has been tasked with raising ₹1 lakh crore to finance infrastructure improvements in higher education by 2022.

Foreign Education Providers Bill 2013

There is no account of programs delivered by foreign universities in India. Inadequate regulation has led to low-quality courses offered in this sector.
The foreign Institution bill was not been able to pass in Parliament. However,

EQUIP report has mentioned the revival of this bill.

There are many other schemes and initiatives like SWAYAM, which offers open online courses from Class IX to post-graduation free of cost, GIAN and IMPRINT which are primarily focused on elite institutes like IITs and IISc.

APAAR: One Nation One Student ID Card

The Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) is a transformative initiative introduced in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) of 2020 and the National Credit and Qualifications Framework (NCrF).

It aims to provide a unified and accessible academic experience for students across India by assigning a unique and permanent 12-digit ID to every student, consolidating their academic achievements in one place.

Other Major Issues connected with the Education sector in India

The Indian education sector is also affected by other issues like the politicization of campuses, gender parity problems, poor-quality standards, etc.

Politicization of campuses

JP movement had provided an impetus to the politicization of students.
In Indian higher education institutions, university politics has become a launchpad for political ambitions.
Though campus politics is vital for democracy, as it makes students better citizens, the negative side of the politicization of campuses has been visible across Indian campuses. Recent incidents at Kerala University are a case in point.
One of the most important problems of student politics in India is that it acts as an appendage to political parties without having an independent identity or autonomy.

Gender Parity

By parents → who send boys to private and girls to government schools. Economic Survey 2018-19: enrollment of girls is higher than that of boys in government schools but the pattern gets reversed in private schools. The gender gap in enrollment in private schools has consistently increased across age groups.
By teachers → who reinforced the belief that boys are quick learners.
Girls are eased out of school to work on home chores or get married.
Economic Survey 2018-19 opines that BBBP has been a success and proposes to extend the cause of Gender equality by coining the slogan of BADLAV (Beti Aapki Dhan Lakshmi Aur Vijay-Lakshmi) to enhance the contribution of women in the workforce and the economy.
For ranking states based on gender disparity, Digital Gender Atlas for Advancing Girl’s Education was launched by MHRD.
In higher education, gender disparities still prevail in enrollment.
Efforts by the Government through programs like Beti Padhao, and Beti Bachao, the GPI has improved substantially at the primary and secondary levels of enrolment.

Quality of education

Learning outcomes are not assessed in India as numerical outcomes. The 12th Five-Year Plan noted the need for measuring and improving learning outcomes.

Children of illiterate parents can’t supplement school studies at home and also can’t afford expensive tuition, leading to a vicious cycle of illiteracy.
From 2014 to 2018, there was a gradual improvement in both basic literacy and numeracy for Class III students but only a quarter of them are at grade level (ability to read and do basic operations like subtraction of Class II level).
The report also shows that 1 out of 4 children leaving Class VIII are without basic reading skills (ability to read at least a Class II level).

Government initiatives

Central Rules under the RTE Act were amended in February 2017 to include the defined class-wise and subject-wise learning outcomes.
Nationwide sub-program of SSA to improve comprehensive early reading, writing, and early mathematics programs for children in Classes I and II.

Teacher Training

Teachers play the most critical role in a student’s achievement.
The need is for better incentives for teachers, investments in teacher capacity through stronger training programs, and addressing the problems in the teaching-learning process.
However, teachers in India, especially in government schools, are considered a cog in the way to efficient governance. There is an inadequate focus on their motivation and skill updation.
NCERT study shows that there is no systematic incorporation of teacher feedback into designing pieces of training. Also, there is no mechanism to check whether this training is translated into classroom performance.
These results in de-professionalizing the teaching profession and curb a teacher’s “internal responsibility” — the sense of duty to the job.
World Development Report on Education (2018) opined that both teaching skills and motivation matter. Individually targeted continued training is important. In line with this, MHRD and the National Council for Teacher Education launched the National Teacher Platform, or Diksha in 2017 . It is a one-stop solution to address teacher competency gaps.
However, the current training through Diksha follows a one-size-fits-all approach. Even though the platform is designed to democratize both access to and creation of content by teachers, its real benefits are in the ability to provide continuous professional development which complements existing physical training.
This technology-enabled platform allows training to become a continuous activity rather than an annual event and also creates a feedback loop ensuring the effectiveness of the material.
Diksha has the potential to re-engineer in-service teacher training in India. It is important to create good content and also to ensure technology consumption by teachers, the role of headmasters in promoting teachers’ professional development, etc.

As India participates in the PISA in 2021, it is to be made sure that we recognize the importance of teachers and their role in education outcomes.

Private Schools vs Public Schools: The Big Debate in Education

At least 30% of students between the 6-14 age groups are in the private sector.

There is an increasing perception that the quality of teaching in private schools is better than that of public schools. Thus there is a clamour for increasing the number of private schools and simultaneously limiting public spending on government schools.
However, the claim on the quality of private schools is debatable as there is a wide disparity of the same among these schools.

Research paper by Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, professor of education and international development at the Institute of Education, London, offers insights into private-public school education in India:

The paper points out that between 2010-11 and 2015-16, the average enrolment in government schools declined from 122 to 108 students per school, while in private schools it rose from 202 to 208.
Nevertheless, according to the District Information System for Education (DISE), 65% of all school-going children, 113 million, get their education from government schools.
The study points out that the migration to private schools is due to the belief among parents that these schools offer better value for money in terms of quality.
IndiaSpend, in 2016, reported that despite the Rs 1.16 lakh crore spent on SSA, the quality of learning declined between 2009 and 2014. It also points out that less than one in five elementary school teachers in India are trained. Also, the contractual teachers, who are high in number in government schools, are likely to be less motivated and accountable.
Preference for private school tutoring is there.
The quality of schools varies between states. In 2016, in Kerala, the proportion of children enrolled in primary government schools increased from 40.6% in 2014 to 49.9% according to ASER 2016.
States with better-functioning government schools have more expensive private schools as there is no market for the ‘low-fee’ budget private schools. Around 80% of private schools in India are ‘low’ fee schools.
ASER 2016 has shown small improvements in learning outcomes in government schools.
Between 2010-11 and 2015-16, the number of private schools grew by 35% – to 0.30 million. On the other hand, the number of government schools grew only by 1%, to 1.04 million. The migration out of government schools has left many of these economically unviable.
Government teachers in India earn four times that of China but don’t perform as well. Up to 80% of India’s public expenditure on education is spent on teachers. There is a need to link teacher salaries to their accountability.
However, the salary of private teachers is very low compared to their government counterparts. This is due to the “bureaucratically-set high ‘minimum wage’, which is being influenced by strong unions of government school teachers.
Another reason for the low salary of private school teachers is that the private education sector offers salaries based on market factors of demand and supply. Since 10.5% of graduates are unemployed in India, there is a high supply of teachers.
Rather than merely increasing the budget outlay for education, the need is to revise the Education policy for better accountability and monitoring mechanisms.
Gandhi argued that a Public-private partnership (PPP) model may be the solution, with public sector funding and private resources for education, since reforming the present system may not be politically feasible.

Rather than debating about private versus public schools, the focus should be to enable the private sector to set up more schools under the scrutiny of regulatory authorities. There is no point in driving off the private initiative in schooling given the limited resources of the states. Private investment should be encouraged but made accountable for quality and conduct.

The above discussion showed the challenges of the Indian education system. A workforce that India wants to create in this digital age requires reforms in education at all levels. UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2016 opined that India is expected to achieve universal primary education in 2050. India is 50 years late in achieving its global education commitments. If the nation wants fundamental changes in the education system, it has to meet the 2030 SDG targets on education. There is an urgent requirement for greater evolution in education in India.

Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP): How to transform Education in India?

EQUIP is a five-year vision plan on education, released by MHRD, by the Prime Minister’s decision to create a five-year vision plan for each Ministry.

The EQUIP project is crafted by ten expert groups led by experts within and outside the government:

Group 1: Strategies for expanding access
Group 2: Towards global best teaching/learning process
Group 3: Promoting Excellence
Group 4: Governance reforms
Group 5: Assessment, Accreditation, and Ranking Systems
Group 6: Promotion of research and innovation
Group 7: Employability and Entrepreneurship
Group 8: Using Technology for Better Reach
Group 9: Internationalisation
Group 10: Financing Higher Education

The groups have suggested initiatives to transform the education system completely. The goals set by the groups are:

Double GER in higher education and resolve the geographically and socially skewed access to higher education institutions.
Upgrade the quality of education to global standards.
Position at least 50 Indian institutions among the top 1000 global universities.
Introduce governance reforms in higher education for well-administered campuses.
Accreditation of all institutions as an assurance of quality.
Promote Research and Innovation ecosystems for positioning India in the top three countries in the world in matters of knowledge creation.
Double the employability of the students passing out of higher education.
Harness education technology for expanding the reach and improving pedagogy.
Promote India as a global study destination.
Achieve a quantum increase in investment in higher education.

We can see that each of the above goals has been known to us for a long time. The problem is its implementation. The political class and all other stakeholders should come together to achieve these goals. The plethora of government initiatives on higher education is a sure sign of the importance given by the political class in the reform of the education system of India. Let’s hope that a new dawn of Indian education is around the corner which will bring back the glory of ancient times when India was the centre of knowledge production.

As the Economic Survey 2016-17 points out, lack of health, malnourishment, etc. affects the cognitive ability of children. This will, in turn, have a detrimental effect on their future educational prospects. This leads to a vicious cycle of inter-generational illiteracy, poor health, and ultimately poverty. So education and health are complementary to each other and reforms in one sector should invariably be preceded and followed by reforms in other sectors. Human development as a whole can be considered as a wholesome development and we must appreciate the interlinkages of each section of human capital formation, be it health, education, digital literacy, skills, etc.

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Reader Interactions

November 27, 2019 at 10:33 pm

Wow what the largest matter of education is?. Very nice thank u sir

November 28, 2019 at 12:09 pm

Nice article but it is too long we need around 400 words which explains education in india,challenges,way forward only It is very hard to remember and segrate from given imp because all points look like imp please try to make it around 400 words only

November 28, 2019 at 2:00 pm

@MKM – The aim was to cover almost everything about Education in India as a comprehensive post. The post covers: (a) History of Education in India (b) Current Status of Education in India: Data from Census 2011 (c) RTE Act (d) Various Educational Policies in the past (e) The New National Educational Policy (NEP) (f) The Problems associated with the Education System in India (g) Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP): How to transform Education in India?

Though ClearIAS prefers short and crisp articles, for important areas like Education, we felt a detailed write-up would be useful.

Thank you for your feedback. We will continue to create concise articles as well.

November 28, 2019 at 12:35 pm

Good Source thank you Team.

November 28, 2019 at 1:56 pm

November 28, 2019 at 2:41 pm

November 29, 2019 at 7:45 am

This is a very nice and comprehensive information on education.

November 29, 2019 at 2:21 pm

Such a nice article sir thank you..

December 16, 2019 at 5:31 pm

March 30, 2020 at 12:48 pm

Sir,a small corrrection regarding literacy rate ranking, Kerala (93%)tops its followed by Lakshadweep(92 %), Mizoram (91 %) , Tripura (87.7 %) and Goa (87.4 %) as 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th places repectively according to 2011 census.

June 16, 2020 at 12:20 am

Excellent Work

August 31, 2020 at 1:14 pm

Thank you vry much team.🤗 You provide excellent data ,analysis,facts,etc…evrything at one doc.

November 16, 2020 at 10:47 pm

Absolutely amazing stuff. Can’t believe.. Thanks from the bottom of my heart ❤️❤️

May 27, 2021 at 12:38 pm

Great article about Education very informative thanks for sharing

May 31, 2021 at 11:55 pm

Well and easy to understand…thank u for the team

September 12, 2021 at 10:37 am

Very good and such a broad information thank u 💖.. Lots of love

December 16, 2021 at 11:10 am

Need to update with current data eg how much percentage of school/ children get access of online education in pandemic Era COVID challanges others family support etc thank

January 28, 2022 at 10:32 am

Thank you so much for your birthday support

February 27, 2022 at 5:33 pm

good information

June 10, 2022 at 3:00 pm

Nice article very informative…traditional classroom study should be changed into a smart classroom online

July 14, 2022 at 8:55 pm

December 18, 2022 at 1:05 am

Absolute coverage article, Kindly keep it up for your determined spectators.

May 28, 2023 at 9:10 pm

desserstation on education/slums/miagration par hindi me pdf mil sakta hai

January 23, 2024 at 8:06 pm

The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of India’s education system, highlighting its pyramid structure and alignment with Sustainable Development Goals. Constitutional provisions like Article 21A and the RTE Act aim for universal education. However, the RTE Act faces criticism. To enhance educational outcomes, addressing these concerns and ensuring effective implementation are imperative. Schools in Pataudi Gurgaon focus on quality, inclusivity, and overcoming criticisms can lead Indian education to new heights. Thank You Samriddhi Sharma

February 7, 2024 at 7:44 pm

It’s crucial to delve into the challenges confronting the Indian education sector and understand the constitutional framework and policies guiding it. Exploring these aspects sheds light on the complexities and opportunities within the system. However, it’s equally important to consider how these discussions translate into action at the grassroots level, especially in local communities like Rajajinagar, Bangalore. How are schools in rajajinagar bangaloreaddressing these systemic issues and implementing reforms to ensure quality education for all students? This intersection of policy discourse and on-the-ground realities is where meaningful change happens.

March 8, 2024 at 6:22 am

Is there any data on how many states provide free education to girls till grade X and how many provide it till grade XII?

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Essay on Indian Education System for Students and Children

500+ words essay on indian education system for students and children.

The Indian education system is quite an old education system that still exists. It has produced so many genius minds that are making India proud all over the world. However, while it is one of the oldest systems, it is still not that developed when compared to others, which are in fact newer. This is so as the other countries have gone through growth and advancement, but the Indian education system is still stuck in old age. It faces a lot of problems that need to be sorted to let it reach its full potential.

Problems with Indian Education System

Our Indian education system faces a lot of problems that do not let it prosper and help other children succeed in life . The biggest problem which it has to face is the poor grading system. It judges the intelligence of a student on the basis of academics which is in the form of exam papers. That is very unfair to students who are good in their overall performance but not that good at specific subjects.

Moreover, they only strive to get good marks not paying attention to understanding what is taught. In other words, this encourages getting good marks through mugging up and not actually grasping the concept efficiently.

Furthermore, we see how the Indian education system focuses on theory more. Only a little percentage is given for practical. This makes them run after the bookish knowledge and not actually applying it to the real world. This practice makes them perplexed when they go out in the real world due to lack of practical knowledge.

Most importantly, the Indian education system does not emphasize enough on the importance of sports and arts. Students are always asked to study all the time where they get no time for other activities like sports and arts.

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How Can We Improve Indian Education System?

As the Indian Education System is facing so many problems, we need to come up with effective solutions so it improves and creates a brighter future for students . We can start by focusing on the skill development of the students. The schools and colleges must not only focus on the ranks and grades but on the analytical and creative skills of children.

In addition, subjects must not be merely taught theoretically but with practical. This will help in a better understanding of the subject without them having to mug up the whole thing due to lack of practical knowledge. Also, the syllabus must be updated with the changing times and not follow the old age pattern.

Other than that, the government and private colleges must now increase the payroll of teachers. As they clearly deserve more than what they offer. To save money, the schools hire teachers who are not qualified enough. This creates a very bad classroom environment and learning. They must be hired if they are fit for the job and not because they are working at a lesser salary.

In conclusion, the Indian education system must change for the better. It must give the students equal opportunities to shine better in the future. We need to let go of the old and traditional ways and enhance the teaching standards so our youth can get create a better world.

FAQs on Indian Education System

Q.1 What problems does the Indian Education System face?

A.1 Indian education is very old and outdated. It judges students on the basis of marks and grades ignoring the overall performance of the student. It focuses on academics side-lining arts and sports.

Q.2 How can we improve the Indian education system?

A.2 The colleges and schools must hire well and qualified teachers. They must help students to understand the concept instead of merely mugging up the whole subject.

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Essay on Indian Education System

Education is like a key that opens doors to a world of knowledge, opportunities, and growth. In India, a vast and diverse country, the education system plays a crucial role in shaping the future of millions of students. In this essay, I will argue that the Indian education system has its strengths and challenges, and it is continually evolving to provide quality education to its youth.

The Foundation of the Indian Education System

The roots of the Indian education system can be traced back to ancient times, where gurus (teachers) imparted knowledge to their students. This rich history forms the foundation of modern Indian education. Today, the system is a blend of traditional values and contemporary approaches.

The Structure of Indian Education

The Indian education system is divided into several stages, including primary, secondary, and higher education. It is governed by various boards and councils, such as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE). These boards set standards and conduct examinations.

Strengths of the Indian Education System

One of the strengths of the Indian education system is its emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects. India has produced many successful scientists, engineers, and IT professionals who have made significant contributions worldwide.

Furthermore, the Indian education system places importance on rote learning, which helps students develop strong memory and discipline. It also fosters a competitive spirit, motivating students to excel academically.

Challenges Faced by the Indian Education System

Despite its strengths, the Indian education system faces several challenges. One significant challenge is the disparity in access to quality education between urban and rural areas. Many rural schools lack proper infrastructure and trained teachers, hindering the education of countless students.

Another challenge is the pressure of examinations and competition. High-stakes exams can create stress and anxiety among students, which may not always be conducive to their overall development.

The Importance of Vocational Education

Recognizing the need for practical skills, the Indian education system has been gradually incorporating vocational education. Vocational courses provide students with skills that are directly applicable to various industries, making them job-ready upon graduation. This is a positive step towards reducing unemployment and enhancing employability.

The Role of Technology in Indian Education

In recent years, technology has played a significant role in transforming Indian education. E-learning platforms and digital classrooms have made education more accessible and interactive. These innovations bridge the gap between urban and rural students, providing them with valuable resources.

Expert Opinions on Indian Education

Experts in education, such as Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the former President of India, have stressed the importance of holistic education. They advocate for a system that not only focuses on academics but also nurtures creativity, critical thinking, and ethical values.

The Journey Towards Educational Reforms

The Indian government has been working on several educational reforms to address the challenges faced by the system. Initiatives like the National Education Policy 2020 aim to provide quality education, promote research and innovation, and reduce the burden of exams.

Conclusion of Essay on Indian Education System

In conclusion, the Indian education system is a complex and evolving landscape. It has its strengths, including its emphasis on STEM subjects and rote learning, and its challenges, such as the rural-urban education divide and exam pressure. However, with ongoing reforms and a focus on holistic education, India is working towards nurturing well-rounded individuals who can contribute to the nation’s growth and prosperity. The Indian education system continues to shape the minds and futures of millions, guided by the vision of a brighter tomorrow.

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Insight Note

India’s New National Education Policy: Evidence and Challenges

The National Education Policy (NEP) of 2020 provides an important opportunity to move Indian education from “sorting and selection” to “human development,” enabling every student to develop to their maximum potential.
Although the NEP focuses on foundational literacy and numeracy, and early childhood education is welcome, delivering on its promise will require sustained attention to implementation.
Three principles will be very important for implementation: (1) a focus on independent and reliable measurement of outcomes; (2) rigorous evaluations of policy and programme effectiveness; (3) careful cost-effectiveness analyses of alternative policy proposals.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education severely. An increased focus on involving parents in education and in using technology effectively (while bridging the digital divide) will be important for recovery.

Karthik Muralidharan

University of California San Diego (UCSD)

Abhijeet Singh

Stockholm School of Economics

Introduction

The global expansion of schooling in the past three decades is unprecedented: Primary school enrollment is near-universal, expected years of schooling have risen rapidly, and the number of children out of school has fallen sharply. Yet the greatest challenge for the global education system, a “learning crisis” per the World Bank, is that these gains in schooling are not translating into commensurate gains in learning outcomes. This crisis is well exemplified by India, which has the largest education system in the world. Over 95 percent of children aged 6 to 14 years are in school, but nearly half of students in Grade 5 in rural areas cannot read at a Grade 2 level, and less than one-third can do basic division (Pratham, 2019). India’s new National Education Policy (NEP) of 2020 (the first major revision since 1986) recognises the centrality of achieving universal foundational literacy and numeracy. Whether India succeeds in this goal matters intrinsically through its impact on over 200 million children and will also have lessons for other low- and middle-income countries. We review the NEP’s discussion of school education in light of accumulated research evidence that may be relevant to successfully implementing this ambitious goal.

Governance and pedagogy

India has made tremendous progress on access to schooling since the 1990s. Yet multiple nationally representative datasets suggest that learning levels have remained largely flat over the past 15 years. A large body of evidence has shown that increasing “business as usual” expenditure on education is only weakly correlated with improvement in learning (Glewwe and Muralidharan, 2016). Two key constraints that limit the translation of spending (of time and money) into outcomes are weaknesses in governance and pedagogy.

Governance challenges are exemplified by high rates of teacher absence in public schools, with nearly one in four teachers absent at the time of surprise visits (Muralidharan et al., 2017). Even when teachers are present, instructional time is low for a variety of reasons, including large amounts of administrative paperwork.

Further, teacher recognition for performance and sanctions for nonperformance are low. Studies in India and elsewhere have shown that even modest amounts of performance-linked bonus pay for teachers can improve student learning in a cost-effective way (Muralidharan and Sundararaman, 2011). By contrast, unconditional increases in teacher pay (the largest component of education budgets) have no impact on student learning (Muralidharan and Sundararaman, 2011; de Ree at al., 2018). Overall, improving governance and management in public schools may be a much more cost-effective way of improving student learning than simply expanding education spending along default patterns.

An even greater challenge in translating school attendance into learning outcomes may be weaknesses in pedagogy. Even motivated teachers primarily focus on completing the textbook, without recognising the mismatch between the academic standards of the textbook and student learning levels. The rapid expansion of school enrollment has brought tens of millions of first-generation learners into the formal education system who lack instructional support at home and often fall behind grade-appropriate curricular standards. The mismatch is clearly illustrated in the figure, which presents the levels and dispersion of student achievement in mathematics in a sample of students from public middle schools in Delhi (Muralidharan, Singh and Ganimian, 2019). There are three points to note about this figure: (i) The vast majority of students are below curricular standards (represented by the blue line of equality), with the average Grade 6 student 2.5 years behind; (ii) the average rate of learning progress is much flatter than that envisaged by the curricular standards, resulting in widening learning gaps at higher grades; (iii) there is enormous variation in learning levels of students in the same grade, spanning five to six grade levels in all grades.

Figure 1: Achievement versus curricular standards

A graph with "grade enrolled in" on the x axis, "assessed level of student achievement" on the y axis, a red "line of linear fit" showing the actual relationship, and a green "line of equality" showing the results that would exist in an equal system

The estimated level of student achievement (determined by a computer-aided instruction program) in mathematics in public middle schools in Delhi is plotted against the enrollment grade of students (Muralidharan, Singh and Ganimian, 2019). Most students are below curricular standards (line of equality), average progress in learning is flatter than curricular standards, and achievement substantially varies. The graphic has been adapted from Muralidharan, Singh and Ganimian (2019) by H. Bishop/Science; ©American Economic Association; reproduced with permission of the American Economic Review.

The figure captures many features that we think are central to understanding the Indian education system. It suggests a curriculum that targets the top of the achievement distribution and moves much faster than the actual achievement level of students. Coupled with social promotion—grade retention is forbidden by law until Grade 8—this leads to student achievement being widely dispersed within the same grade and most students receiving instruction that they are not academically prepared for. Similar patterns likely exist in many other developing countries (Muralidharan, Singh and Ganimian, 2019).

The figure may also help explain why increased expenditures on items such as teacher salaries and school infrastructure may have little impact on learning. Students, having fallen so far behind the curriculum, may not gain much from the default of textbook-linked instruction. By contrast, pedagogical interventions that target instruction at the level of students’ academic preparation can be highly effective (Muralidharan, Singh and Ganimian, 2019; Banerjee et al., 2007; Banerjee et al., 2017).

The figure also highlights the stark inequality in Indian education. The true inequality is likely even greater because the figure does not reflect the large number of students in private schools. A comparison of data from two Indian states to countries included in an international learning assessment found that learning inequality in India is second only to South Africa (Das and Zajonc, 2010). Thus, although the academically strongest Indian students are internationally competitive, with many ultimately achieving world-renowned success, most Indian children fail to acquire even basic skills at the end of their schooling.

To better understand the Indian education system, it is useful to recognise that education systems have historically served two very different purposes: (i) to impart knowledge and skills (a “human development” role) and (ii) to assess, classify, and select students for higher education and skill-intensive occupations (a “sorting and selection” role). The Indian education system primarily serves as a “sorting and selection” or a “filtration” system rather than a “human development” system. The system focuses primarily on setting high standards for competitive exams to identify those who are talented enough to meet those standards, but it ends up neglecting the vast majority of students who do not. Thus, a fundamental challenge for Indian education policy is to reorient the education system from one focused on sorting and identifying talented students to one that is focused on human development that can improve learning for all.

Research into policy

The NEP, released in 2020, does an excellent job of reflecting key insights from research. Three points are especially noteworthy.

First, and most important, is the centrality accorded to universal foundational literacy and numeracy, which the NEP calls an “urgent and necessary prerequisite for learning.” This represents a substantial shift in the definition of education “quality” from inputs and expenditure to actual learning outcomes. Relatedly, the NEP recognises the importance of early childhood care and education and brings preschool education into the scope of national education policy alongside school education. The NEP’s focus on stronger and universal preschool education is consistent with global recognition of the importance of “the early years” in developing cognitive and socioemotional skills.

Second, consistent with the evidence, the NEP aims to strengthen teacher effectiveness through a combination of improving their skills, reducing extraneous demands on their time, and rewarding performance. Notably, the NEP highlights the need for “a robust merit-based structure of tenure, promotion, and salary structure.” This is a meaningful departure from the status quo that does not reward good performance. If implemented well, improving teacher motivation and effort can be a force multiplier for the effectiveness of other input-based spending. School inputs on their own do not seem to translate into learning gains (Glewwe and Muralidharan, 2016), but inputs can be highly effective when teachers and principals are motivated to improve learning outcomes (Mbiti et al., 2019).

Third, the NEP recognises that improving school effectiveness may require changes to how schools are organised and managed. Large-scale school construction in the 1990s played an important role in promoting universal school access by providing a school in every habitation. However, as of 2016, over 417,000 government primary schools (~40 percent of schools) had fewer than 50 students across Grades 1 to 5 (Kingdon, 2020). Small and spread-out schools present challenges for governance (by making supervision difficult), pedagogy (by requiring teachers to simultaneously teach students in multiple grades), and infrastructure quality (by being too small for libraries and computer laboratories), as well as cost-effectiveness. The NEP, therefore, recommends investing in larger school complexes and also recognises the importance of school management, emphasising the need for customised school development plans to anchor a process of continuous school improvement. Given large improvements in rural road construction, it will be viable to provide buses or other transport to ensure universal school access for all children while also obtaining the benefits of larger-scale schools.

Implementation challenges

Although the NEP is an excellent document that reflects research and evidence, delivering on its promise will require sustained attention to implementation. The glaring gaps between the high quality of policy and programme design on one hand, and the low quality of implementation on the other, are widely recognised in India across many dimensions of public policy.

Preliminary findings from two of our recent projects illustrate this challenge in relation to policy recommendations in the NEP. First, in a large-scale randomised controlled trial covering over 5,000 schools in the state of Madhya Pradesh, we found no notable effects on school functioning or student achievement of an ambitious reform that aimed to improve school management, largely through the type of school development plans that are recommended in the NEP (Muralidharan and Singh, 2020). Yet, this model is perceived to be successful and has been scaled up to over 600,000 schools nationally (and aims to reach 1.6 million schools). Our work suggests that this perception is based primarily on completion of paperwork (such as school assessments and improvement plans), even though there was no change in management, pedagogy, or learning outcomes.

The second example illustrates how even measuring learning outcomes accurately is challenging. The state of Madhya Pradesh administers an annual state-level standardised assessment to all children in public schools from Grades 1 to 8. This has been declared a national “best practice” and the NEP recommends a similar assessment for students in all schools in Grades 3, 5, and 8. Yet, an independent audit that administered the same test questions to the same students a few weeks after the official tests showed that levels of student achievement are severely overstated in official data (Singh, 2020a). The audit found that a large fraction of students did not possess even basic skills even though most of these students were shown as having passed the test.

In light of such challenges, we highlight three key principles that may increase the likelihood of success. The first is measurement. India’s success in achieving universal enrollment shows that the system is capable of delivering on well-defined goals that are easily measured. A similar approach needs to be implemented for delivering universal foundational literacy and numeracy. Although the challenge of data integrity is real, one reason for optimism is that there is evidence that using technology-based independent testing sharply reduced the extent to which data on learning was inflated (Singh, 2020a). Thus, investing in independent ongoing measurement of learning outcomes in representative samples to set goals and monitor progress will be a foundational investment.

The second key principle is ongoing evaluations of policy and programme effectiveness. An important lesson from the past two decades of research on education is that many commonly advocated interventions for improving education (such as increasing teacher salaries, providing school grants, or giving out free textbooks) may have very little impact on learning outcomes, whereas other interventions (such as teaching at the right level) may be highly effective. Even in the same class of policies, different interventions may have widely varying effectiveness; for instance, in the case of education technology, the impact of providing hardware alone is zero or even negative, but personalised adaptive learning programmes have been found to be highly effective (Muralidharan, Singh and Ganinian, 2019; Banerjee et al., 2007). Yet, use of rigorous, experimental evidence in education policy-making remains more an exception than the rule. Disciplining interventions under the NEP with high-quality evaluations can accelerate the scaling up of effective programmes as well as course corrections of ineffective ones.

The third key principle is cost-effectiveness. Evidence has shown pronounced variation in the cost-effectiveness of education interventions, with many expensive policies having no impact and inexpensive ones being very effective. Given limited resources and competing demands on them, cost-effectiveness is not only an economic consideration but also a moral one. The World Bank and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office recently synthesised a large body of evidence on the most cost-effective education interventions (Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel, 2020). India would do well to heed these recommendations (suitably modified to its context) when allocating scarce public resources.

Confronting COVID-19

Education has been sharply disrupted around India and the world by the COVID-19 shock. Public schools in India have been mostly closed and are likely to remain so for the entire academic year. This presents one major threat and two opportunities.

The threat is that the learning crisis will worsen. Children who have missed a year of school—especially those without educated parents—are likely to have regressed in their learning and suffer long-term learning losses. Thus, the challenges (see Figure 1) are likely to have worsened, making it imperative to provide high-quality supplementary instruction when schools reopen, including perhaps through reducing holidays and vacation days.

Yet, there may also be two important longer-term opportunities. The first is the rapid acceleration in the use of education technology by both households and the government. Given evidence of strong positive effects of personalised instruction, the widespread adoption of education technology may help accelerate the NEP’s stated goal of reducing the digital divide and leveraging potential benefits of technology for education, such as opportunities to increase student engagement and personalise instruction to individual student needs.

The second is increasing engagement with parents and families. Households play a critical role in education. Yet, education policy has mostly focused on school-based interventions, reflecting a belief that it is more feasible to improve schools than to intervene in households at scale. The COVID-19 crisis and the resulting growth in the use of mobile phones for engaging children have sharply increased educators’ engagement with parents, with approaches ranging from text-message reminders to check their child’s homework to parent groups for peer coaching and motivation. Work is under way to evaluate the impacts of these promising approaches. The benefits of increased parental engagement may persist even after schools reopen.

Nothing inevitable

Effective reform will require a confluence of ideas, interests, institutions, and implementation. Our focus has been on the ideas of the NEP and the extent to which they are supported, or may be refined by, research evidence. The NEP also pays attention to institutional infrastructure needed to deliver on this vision and acknowledges the centrality of implementation. However, both the NEP and our discussion are silent on the interests, specifically on political and bureaucratic constraints. We remain optimistic that substantial improvements are possible. In particular, backing the intent of the NEP with a commitment to regular independent measurement and reporting of learning outcomes in a representative sample of all children—as envisaged by the NEP in setting up a quasi-independent national testing agency—may help to provide an institutionalised focus on learning to both political and bureaucratic leadership. The NEP’s proposal to provide such information to parents directly, if implemented in easily accessible formats, may catalyse improvements in both public and private schools.

Such reforms are particularly urgent given India’s demographic transition. In many states, especially in South India, total fertility rates are already below replacement levels, and cohort sizes in primary schooling are shrinking. Thus, much of the country has already passed the peak of potential demographic dividend without having solved the learning crisis. Some large populous states in Northern India, such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, still have a window for intervention, but this window is shrinking. The one silver lining is that declining cohort sizes may increase resources per student in coming years, thus freeing up fiscal space for cost-effective investments.

There is nothing inevitable about low learning levels in Indian schools. Other developing countries, such as Vietnam, have been able to achieve substantially superior learning outcomes at very similar levels of per capita incomes. Research suggests that a key explanation is the greater productivity of Vietnam’s schooling system, which focuses attention on ensuring that even the weakest students reach minimum standards of learning (Singh, 2020b). The NEP provides an important opportunity to move Indian education from “sorting and selection” to “human development,” enabling every student to develop to their maximum potential. India, and the world, will be better off if this vision is realised in practice.

Banerjee, A., Banerji, R., Berry, J., Duflo, E., Kannan, H., Mukerji, S., Shotland, M. and Walton, M. 2017. From Proof of Concept to Scalable Policies: Challenges and Solutions, with an Application. Journal of Economic Perspectives. vol. 31, pp. 73-102. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.31.4.73

Banerjee, A.V., Cole, S., Duflo, E. and Linden, L. 2007. Remedying Education: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments in India. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. vol. 122, issue 3, pp. 1235-1264. https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.122.3.1235

Das, J. and Zajonc, T. 2010. India Shining And Bharat Drowning: Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement. Journal of Development Economics. vol. 92, issue 2, pp. 175-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2009.03.004

de Ree, J. Muralidharan, K., Pradhan, M. and Rogers, H. 2018. Double for Nothing? Experimental Evidence on an Unconditional Teacher Salary Increase in Indonesia. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. vol. 133, issue 2, pp. 993-1039. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjx040

Glewwe, P. and Muralidharan, K. 2016. Improving Education Outcomes in Developing Countries: Evidence, Knowledge Gaps, and Policy Implications. Handbook of the Economics of Education. Elsevier. vol. 5, pp. 653–743. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-63459-7.00010-5

Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel. 2020. Cost Effective Approaches to Improve Global Learning: What Does Recent Evidence Tell Us are “Smart Buys” for Improving Learning in Low- and Middle-Income Countries?” World Bank, Washington, DC. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/teachingandlearning/publication/cost-effective-approaches-to-improve-global-learning

Kingdon, G.G. 2020. The Private Schooling Phenomenon in India: A Review. The Journal of Development Studies. vol. 56, issue 10, pp. 1795-1817. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2020.1715943

Mbiti, I., Muralidharan, K., Romero, M., Schipper, Y., Manda, C. and Rajani, R. 2019. Inputs, Incentives, and Complementarities in Education: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. vol. 134, pp. 1627-1673. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjz010

Muralidharan, K., Das, J., Holla, A., and Mohpal, A. 2017. The Fiscal Cost of Weak Governance: Evidence from Teacher Absence in India. Journal of Public Economics. vol. 145, pp. 116-135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.11.005

Muralidharan, K. and Singh, A. 2020. Improving Public Sector Management at Scale? Experimental Evidence on School Governance in India. RISE Working Paper Series. 20/056. https://doi.org/10.35489/BSG-RISE-WP_2020/056

Muralidharan, K., Singh, A. and Ganimian, A. 2019. Disrupting Education? Experimental Evidence on Technology-Aided Instruction in India. American Economic Review. vol. 109, issue 4, pp. 1426-1460. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20171112

Muralidharan, K. and Sundararaman, V. 2011. Teacher Performance Pay: Experimental Evidence from India. Journal of Political Economy. vol. 119, pp. 39. https://doi.org/10.1086/659655

Pratham. 2019. Annual Status of Education Report 2018. New Delhi.

Singh, A. 2020a. Myths of Official Measurement: Auditing and Improving Administrative Data in Developing Countries. RISE Working Paper Series. 20/042. https://doi.org/10.35489/BSG-RISE-WP_2020/042

Singh, A. 2020b. Learning More with Every Year: School Year Productivity and International Learning Divergence. Journal of the European Economic Association. vol. 18, issue 4, pp. 1770-1813. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvz033

Acknowledgements

From Policy Forum by Muralidharan & Singh “India’s new National Education Policy: Evidence and challenges” Science 02 Apr 2021: Vol. 372, Issue 6537, pp. 36-38. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf6655

Republished with permission from AAAS.

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Muralidharan & Singh “India’s new National Education Policy: Evidence and challenges” Science 02 Apr 2021: Vol. 372, Issue 6537, pp. 36-38. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf6655

Myths of Official Measurement: Auditing and Improving Administrative Data in Developing Countries

Augmenting state capacity for child development: experimental evidence from india, improving public sector management at scale experimental evidence on school governance in india.

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Essay on Future of India

Students are often asked to write an essay on Future of India in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Future of India

The rise of india.

India’s future is bright, full of potential and promise. With advancements in technology, it’s becoming a global leader in various sectors.

Technological Advancements

India’s tech industry is booming. With initiatives like ‘Digital India’, the country is rapidly digitizing, opening new opportunities.

Education and Skill Development

India’s focus on education and skill development is preparing a competent workforce, ready to meet global demands.

Environment and Sustainability

India is also working towards sustainable development, aiming to balance economic growth with environmental preservation.

The future of India is a blend of technological progress, educational advancements, and sustainable practices, promising a prosperous tomorrow.

250 Words Essay on Future of India

The vision of future india.

India, a land of diverse cultures, languages, and traditions, is on the cusp of a new era. The future of India lies in harnessing its potential as a knowledge economy, capitalizing on technological advancements, and nurturing its human capital.

Knowledge Economy and Digital Transformation

The future of India is deeply intertwined with its transition to a knowledge-based economy. With the digital revolution, India has the potential to become a global hub for innovation, research, and development. The government’s Digital India initiative is a step towards this vision, aiming to transform India into a digitally empowered society.

Advancements in technology, particularly in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics, are poised to redefine India’s future. These technologies can revolutionize sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and manufacturing, leading to increased productivity and improved quality of life.

Human Capital and Education

India’s demographic dividend, with more than 50% of its population under the age of 25, presents a unique opportunity. However, it also poses a challenge. The need for quality education and skill development is paramount to prepare this workforce for the future.

Challenges and Opportunities

Despite these prospects, challenges remain. Socioeconomic disparities, infrastructural gaps, and environmental concerns need to be addressed. However, with effective policy measures, robust institutional frameworks, and a commitment to sustainable development, India can overcome these challenges.

In conclusion, the future of India is promising, filled with opportunities and potential. By leveraging technology, investing in human capital, and addressing existing challenges, India can chart a path towards a prosperous and inclusive future.

500 Words Essay on Future of India

The dawn of a new era.

India, a country with an ancient civilization and rich cultural heritage, stands at the cusp of a new era. With a population of over 1.3 billion, it is poised to become the most populous nation by 2027. This demographic dividend, coupled with rapid technological advancements, holds the promise of catapulting India into the league of developed nations.

Technological Innovation

India is rapidly emerging as a global hub for technological innovation. The IT sector, which currently contributes about 8% to the nation’s GDP, is expected to play a pivotal role in shaping India’s future. The proliferation of startups, especially in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics, is testament to this trend. These technologies are not just creating new jobs but are also driving efficiencies in sectors as diverse as healthcare, agriculture, and education.

The future of India is intrinsically tied to the education and skill development of its youth. The government’s focus on initiatives such as ‘Skill India’ and ‘Digital India’ aims to equip the workforce with the skills required for the jobs of the future. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are making quality education accessible to students in the remotest corners of the country, thereby democratizing education.

Infrastructure Development

Infrastructure development is another key area that is set to transform the landscape of India. The government’s ambitious ‘Smart Cities’ initiative aims to build 100 smart cities that leverage technology to improve urban life. Additionally, the ‘Bharatmala’ and ‘Sagarmala’ projects aim to improve connectivity and spur economic growth.

Environmental Sustainability

India’s future is also intertwined with its commitment to environmental sustainability. The country is making significant strides in renewable energy, with a target of achieving 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022. The successful implementation of the world’s largest clean cooking fuel program, ‘Ujjwala Yojana’, is another feather in India’s sustainability cap.

Challenges Ahead

While the future looks promising, India also faces significant challenges. Socio-economic disparities, gender inequality, and inadequate healthcare infrastructure are some of the key issues that need to be addressed. The future of India depends on how effectively these challenges are tackled.

In conclusion, the future of India lies in leveraging its demographic dividend, harnessing technological advancements, improving education and skill development, and committing to environmental sustainability. While challenges persist, the spirit of resilience and innovation that characterizes India gives hope for a bright and prosperous future. As India stands on the brink of a new era, it is poised to not just transform itself, but also make significant contributions to global progress.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Essay on Indian Heritage
Essay on Indian Farmer
Essay on Women’s Safety in India

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

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Education in India – A Detailed Analysis

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Indian Education System: The Present Pyramidal Structure

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) related to Education

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Modern Education in India: The Evolution of the System through various policies

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