Sushmita
Shrivastava: Yes, the education system needs a complete
overhaul. Large number of children in our country do not even
get a basic elementary education. The rich and upper middle
classes in cities find decent quality private schools to send
their children to. Even in these schools, getting a pass in
the exams is the priority, not learning. Even these schools
fail in teaching various arts, and in particular common sense
to children. Both the private and government schools in smaller
towns and villages are uniformly pathetic. Even if a student
graduates from a higher secondary school, there are not enough
colleges. The only hope left to most high school graduates
is correspondence education. It is not clear to me whether
one can be motivated enough to study through the correspondence
course material sitting at home. Even if one graduates from
college, the graduates are mostly unemployable, because of
poor quality course material and teaching in the colleges.
Despite all this, several thousand young men and women have
been leading our nation forward. We need world class infrastructure
and best talents in all schools and universities of India.
These resources should not remain limited to a handful of
IITs or IIMs. Each village should have a school with all resources
and facilities. Each university should have whatever it needs
for a better education.
Sivda:
Education is backbone of any country. Actual purpose
of education is to prepare the student for living a happy
life. It's not enough to continue with old system without
examining whether it is suitable or not. Present examination
system is based on multiple-choice questions, where the
applicant has to just pick out the correct option and it
is not a job-oriented one. From this system we cannot evaluate
the intelligence of a student. Present system is a burden
to the student because they have to carry and learn a lot
of things from the books, which are not at all useful for
them in daily life. This system may decrease the suicide
ratio because by attending the objective questions weak
students may get at least pass marks. Those who want to
get good marks or rank, they would have to study hard and
will have to go through every corner of the books even though
he may not get the desired results. After completion of
his study, the student would be in a position to get a job
without further delay in the line in which he studied. First
of all it is the duty of the government to control the rapid
increase in population and provide good education to the
youth without charging much fees from them. The study materials
should include topics like personality development, good
behaviour, respect to elders, fear of God, health care.
All these subjects should be taught in a practical way.
Just like a computer, the students are storing unwanted
study materials in their minds and there is very little
space left to store the fruitful knowledge. People need
education as per the present day requirements and complexities
of life.
Madhu
Agrawal: Present education-system needs drastic reforms.
Elementary knowledge of law should be provided at school-level
to make students know of their rights and duties in addition
for their being developed into law-abiding citizens. Special
chapters on 'Right-To-Information Act' should be included
in school text-books to effectively popularize country's
most public-friendly Act which has given rights of questioning
government to commoners similar to that till now was available
only to Parliamentarians and state-legislators to raise
questions in Parliament/State assemblies. In fact, basics
of all the fields should be included in school-syllabus
so as to leave college-studies exclusively for specialized
studies in different fields. Tendency of having simple graduation
for enjoying fun-life of colleges and/or to tag label of
being graduate is killing time of youth for unfruitful purposes.
Rather schooling-age should be increased to finish normally
at 18 years by increasing more class at school-level when
a schooling-degree rather than a certificate may be given
to students after their completion of schooling. Increasing
school-classes by one more year is necessary to include
basics of all fields including law in schooling. Courses
and examination-system may be revised after studying pattern
in advanced countries so as to make school-studies fun rather
than being burden on students.
RJ
Khurana: Yes, we very much do. The present education
system has nothing edifying about it. It can produce pen-pushing
babus who are copycats and incapable of original thinking
but it cannot produce original thinkers and path breaking
leaders. Intelligent and original thinking need dedicated
teachers who love teaching and have bright ideas and have
not drifted into the system for want of better opportunities
elsewhere. It also needs a healthy environment that contributes
to learning. The syllabi/course content need to be drawn
and updated carefully laying adequate emphasis on practical
work. The methodology should be reframed by incorporating
brainstorming sessions, emphasizing originality, holding
group discussions, language building and honing a host of
other tools that will stand a student in good stead in pursuing
further studies or careers. Last but not the least the teachers
should remain teachers and not used frequently for non-teaching
duties like preparing electoral roles, census and cooking
mid-day meals as they are presently obliged to do.
Sarad
Damodaran: The purpose of education is to develop the
mind of a man so that he can accomplish all his aims in
life. Examinations, to justify it, should enable a man to
use the potential of his brain and spirit. In student's
life the most precious time is to lay foundation stone for
his career to achieve the desired goals. With hard work
and determination they appear in examinations with a hope
to get fruitful and inspiring outcome. Youths are the source
and real treasure of our nation. But, does the present examination
system evaluate the students fairly? No. Firstly, at present
the education system is not a united one because the outcome
is waste of money and manpower. Because of the existence
of different education systems like State Boards, Central
Board and ICSC etc which has led to discrimination among
the students, even though if a student of the State Board
secures more marks than a student of the CBSE. The first
preference for selecting employee, the giant companies would
like to recruit the students from the CBSE group, because
it is considered to be most standard one. Secondly, in various
stages of secondary and competitive examinations, question
papers are made in three or four sets in which one would
be the easiest and other would be the toughest as the students
say; as a result the examination is becoming a botheration
to the younger generation. Students thus have to use unfair
means in exams. Students have also started protesting against
this examination system but no fruitful results have come
as yet.
RK
Gupta: After the independence in 1947, Pt Jawaharlal
Nehru felt the need of implementing the most modern education
for the people of India so that India could stand up to
the level of the western world. Nehruji had clear vision;
he knew that the new age was an edge of science & technology,
hence he founded a number of engineering colleges, Indian
Institutes of Technology, and national science laboratories
all over India. Nehruji himself had been a science graduate
apart from his law degree from the Oxford university, London.
He had been a student of botany, petrology and natural science.
In those days physics and chemistry was taught under the
subject `Natural science'. He wanted modern education for
India too. He appointed great educationists like Maulana
Kalam Azad as Central education minister, Dr Radhakrishnan,
Dr Zakir Hussain for this noble cause. These great educationists
contributed their services to the country in enhancing and
upliftment of the education system. The Radhakrishnan Commission,
the Kothari Commission and the new education system of Rajiv
Gandhi came into being. These Commissions submitted their
reports to the Government. Father of the Nation, Mahatma
Gandhi had his own concept of education, the buniyadi shiksha,
the Sewagram model. The buniyadi shiksha ensures the all-round
development of the learners, that is the development of
the body, mind and soul equally. This system of education
covers all the aspects of modern education. Theere is playway
method, learning by doing. Creativity, need-bsed and child-centred
education and the most important aspect is the job-oriented
education along with spiritual fervour. The buniyadi shiksha
of Mahatma Gandhi covers all the needs of Indian populace,
moreover it is inexpensive. Despite of the sincere efforts
of our great leaders and the most modern education reports,
the desired fruits have not been achieved. Due to the dearth
of sufficient budgetary allotments, the reports of the education
commissions could not be fully impelemented. The problem
of the mass education of such a big population was a herculean
task in itself. Actually 10pc budgetary allotment was required
to implement the education reports successfully. The nation
had many other priorities which also merited attention.
India went through Kashmir war 1947, China war 1962, Pakistan
war 1965, Bangladesh war 1971, and the Kargil war in 2001.
India faced the worst famine in 1965. Every year there was
flood, earthquake and other calamities. Sixty years after
independence, aims of education and country's needs have
also changed and hence the education system also needs change.
Now, we are living in the era of globalization, privatization
and the market economy. India is one of the free nations
of the world in economy, science and technology. It is counted
among the superpowers in the field of IT with large number
of engineers, being second number in the world. To maintain
its right place in the world, the country should spend 10pc
of its GDP on education as other developed countries are
doing. Investment in education is not a waste, the five-fold
result comes after many years. Care should be taken to implement
all the recommendations of the various education reports
with full zeal and lack of money should not be allowed to
come in their implementations. There should be objectivity,
practicality and precision in the education system. This
is an age of electronics, computers and nuclear science.
The education system also changes with requirements of the
ever changing future world.
Dr. Visal A Khan:
Today's education system in India is challenging but
needs some changes. Today's education produces only money
making machines. The moral values are getting eroded. Social
fabric is getting weakened. We are imparting theoretical
knowledge based education. We have to make the children
more aware on socialness. Even the information being given
is very much non uniform in all the states. The syllabus
of all the states have to be made more uniform so that everyone
in India gets equal opportunity in everything Educational
system in India that too higher education is too poor where
students are given importance on theories nor practicals,
so they lack the actual knowledge. I totally agree with
all of you and today's education system should be changed
and each and every person living in our country should be
learned. Considering school education, they are simply mugging
the answers and producing the same in their exams. It should
not be so. Education must make the student THINK. It must
make them invent new ideas and not reinvent the same wheel.
Emphasis should be on the theoretical knowledge than the
practical. A student from the very beginning of their of
education are forced to mug up the things rather than to
have free thoughts. In the higher studies as well the condition
is the same. So more stress should be on the rational or
practical knowledge that can be used when required. The
sentiments that everyone is expressing are quite reasonable.
The system puts too much stress on style of studying. But
I don't agree with this that you must study only things
that are going to be useful in life later on you need to
know about the world around you. And so you need to study
about the world if not in great details at least in brief.
The system is there just to keep students occupied, nowadays,
you rarely learn new skills I think that we should first
look over the main aim of education before giving any verdict
on this topic. As I take it, the education is meant to serve
many purposes. 1) It should enable the student to look the
world in a different perspective than just living in it.
2) He should come to know that what he is meant for and
work towards it directing his efforts in such a manner that
it culminates to upliftment of the society. 3) He should
prepare himself for the daunting task which lies just in
front of him. I dont think that anything which does not
help him in this should ever be taught in the school. The
introduction of games definitely adds to a personality.
In this present day system of "modern" education more emphasis
is given on the performance of a student in one sitting
rather than his performance throughout the year. Maybe we
all should take a hint from Wordsworth's poem "tables turned"
Syed Zia Ul Hasan
Naqvi: The present education system of India has become
an object of ridicule in these days. Because, in our country
majority of persons in spite of having high academic qualifications
in their subjects don't have desired knowledge of those
subjects. Every now and then we see and also experience
instances of eruditions of these erudite persons. They are
M.A in English but not in a position to draft a simple application
or letter in English, law graduates but unable to tell even
the names of law subjects, a specialist doctor but fail
to diagnose diseases. Hence after seeing this downfall of
education in our country people are excoriating our education
system and also raising stentorian voice for the change
in our education system government has also realized that
in the present education system people have only bookish
knowledge they don't have practical knowledge of their subjects
that's why the standard of education is continuously coming
down hence there are plans afoot at the government level
to change the present education system. In the present circumstances
when the education standard has become so low then the change
in education system seems to be unavoidable, we should have
a new education system in which we should concentrate on
all round development of personality of student and provide
them a meaningful, job oriented and purposeful education.
RK Kutty:
Education, healthcare and safety of every citizen should
come under the direct responsibility of a welfare state.
Alas, when the very concept of welfare state itself is totally
eroding, privatization of education system long back and
at present its total stranglehold by a kind of mafia, whose
only aim is reaping as much profit as possible; the need
of change in present education system is quite inevitable.
Whenever one encounters any young couple, they talk about
instances of bringing up kids in these days where the very
thought of getting admission for the tiny tots haunts them
like a nightmare. Such is the growth of private schools,
prefixing Saint with their names that they are quite confused
where to get the admission. The craze for admission in English
Medium School is such that very soon whatever limited number
of government schools conducting education in local dialects/languages
would become heritage pieces..Even in the State's capital
itself there are umpteen number of schools that are in a
sad state of affairs. Yes, the Union Human Resource Development
Ministry's endeavour now to have drastic changes in School
Education, Higher Education and even Management Education
in India's premier institutions like the IIMs and IITs is
well thought of but the irony is that the sooner the HRD
Minister announced his plans, the quicker the IIMs announced
their fee hikes. Isn't it an open challenge to the federal
governmentâ€(tm)s very authority that the so called institutions
management have the strength now to take on the government,
given the money power and support of the wealthy class who
consider it as their prerogative to hold sway on them and
it shouldnâ€(tm)t be decentralized? It is really the fault
of the systemsâ€(tm) own folly or lacunae of extending long
rope to such education mafias since quite long. It, in a
way, can be attributed to the fallacy of our brand of democracy
where too much of freedom in areas where too many cooks
spoils the broth proved correct.. Education suffered that
way ever since our Independence. Of course, when we attained
Independence from the British, those premier educational
institutions run by the Missionaries under the patronage
of the Empire were firmly rooted and attracted most of the
wealthy and influential class of the Indian society. Though
the post-Independent democratic governments of both the
states as well as the Centre pumped in enough funds to impart
education as a state responsibility, but it soon got crippled
under the pressure of private run/management institutions
which too got patronage from the ruling class, as most of
these management institutions were owned by the political
class or their cronies. In a way, not only education, but
also almost all public utility services like roadways, electricity,
and water supply et. al. The nation allowed the system to
be crippled by the very system and that is the fault that
weighs quite heavy on us now. Even if someone tries to honestly
improve the system by bringing in drastic changes, they
would end up in severe discontentment. The pathetic scenario
is well filmed in Malayalam recently by a Suresh Gopi starred
movie titled “Rashtram” (Nation). It is really a herculean
task to change the present system.
Shilpa Gupta:
Earlier, education was mostly theoretical and the motive
was only to get a job soon after completing the college.
There was not much stress on technical education which was
mostly theoretical.
But, nowadays there are a streams of courses like management education, engineering etc. which are imparting practical education. The students acquire good knowledge from the institutes and establish their identity in their respective fields of study. Every institute gives practical training.
Campus selection is another feature these days wherein the companies visit institutes to select students for working in their organizations. It improves talent and knowledge of the students.
Vikas
Dwivedi: I think in present times change in our educational
pattern is much necessary because today's time is known
as science era. In the present times the number of unemployed
is increasing by the day because after reading old syllabus
there are no guarantee of job so it is necessary that we
must include that type of courses in our educational pattern
which helps to make the pupils self-reliant. Thus it is
need of the time that we change our educational pattern
and we should give a strong base for our children as they
are the future of our country.
Adhinath
Jha: The present education system is not suitable for
India, because it makes only a mental dependent person.
The education system that improves standard, character,
national devotion, social responsibility is needed. But
I think the present system is not successful. From starting
to end there is uncertainty and insecurity of career. It
is resulting in frustration among the students. Sometimes
students are also committing suicide due to heavy load of
study. The evaluation system and syllabus selection are
also not practical as per the needs.
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