Education is a tool that gives people more control over all facets of their lives. His knowledge, abilities, and perspective on the world are expanded as a result. Additionally, it aids in fostering moral and ethical principles. In addition to all of this, the increased employment opportunities and improved income prospects are both significant. Without a doubt, a nation’s ability to develop rests on the caliber of its educational system. The effectiveness and productivity of the workforce will increase with enough investment in the educational sector. In the end, educated individuals aid in speeding the rate of economic development, culminating in the expansion of the nation.

According to the Emerging Directions in Global Education (EDGE) report 2011, around 26,478 institutions provide higher education in India and account for the largest number in the world, whereas there were 6,706 higher education schools in the U.S. and 4,000 in China.

India’s modern education system was introduced by the British colonial Government. During the colonial period, the foundation of the Indian education system was built up by the Macaulay minute, Wood’s Dispatch, Curzon’s education policy, Sadler commission, and so on.

Provisions in the Indian Constitution on education:

• Article 21A: 86th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2002 introduced Article 21A which made elementary education a Fundamental Right rather than a Directive Principle.
• Article 45: It was amended to provide early childhood care and education to children below the age of 6 years.
• Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009: This Act was passed to implement Article 21A. It also provided essential legal backing for the implementation of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has been in operation since 2000-2001.

Major Issues and Challenges of the Education Sector:

India is renowned for having excellent schools. However, the Indian educational system is accused for failing to give students the necessary employability in connection to the demands of the industrial sector. As a result, the Indian education sector is currently dealing with a number of issues that demand rapid attention.

1) Teacher-Student Ratio: 11.16 lakh teaching posts remain unfilled in schools, according to the UNESCO’s State of the Education report for India 2021. It demonstrates unequivocally that there is a teacher shortage in public schools. In addition, teachers have heavy non-academic workloads, which causes them to lose focus on what they are actually teaching the kids. A research by the National Institute of Education Planning and Administration (NIEPA) found that instructors spend only about 19% of their time on teaching and the rest on administrative tasks that are unrelated to instruction.

Apart from it, when it comes to the Government sector, the Government teachers enjoy a lifetime guarantee of job security irrespective of their performance which results in no accountability from their side.

2) Allotment of Funds: Funds are provided to the schools by the Central Government to the State Government. Every National Education Policy since 1968 has said that India needs to spend 6% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on education. The 2019-20 Economic Survey showed that in 2019-20, 52 years since that recommendation, India spent only 3.1% of its GDP on education. This is the data collected from a website. In addition, many corrupt mediators are there in between who keep the money aside for themselves and only a small portion of the entire fund is provided to the schools. This hampers the functioning of the schools in a great way. The requirements of the schools like libraries, labs, and other infrastructural facilities cannot be managed appropriately by the schools due to the lack of availability of money. 

3) Expensive Higher Education: According to a survey by Assocham, there has been a 169% rise in inflation in primary and secondary education from 2005 to 2011. Specialized institutions and colleges are expensive in India. Higher education for some courses is beyond the reach of the common man. For example, IIM charges Rs. 2 lakh per semester for MBA classes. Privatization of advanced education into the hands of greedy entrepreneurs resulted in high drop rates in the field of unaffordable higher education.

4) Lack of Infrastructure: Lack of infrastructural facilities like poor hygiene, lack of toilets, drinking water facilities, electricity, playground, etc. is one of the major loopholes of the education sector. A survey was conducted in 2010 whereby approximately 95.2% of schools are not still under the complete set of RTE infrastructure indicators. According to the 2016 Annual Survey of Education Report, only 68.7%schools had useable toilet facilities and around 3.5% of schools in India had no toilet facilities. 

5) High-Dropout Rates: In the primary and secondary levels, dropout rates are very high. Students between the age group of 6- 14 years leave the school before completion of their education. According to the ASER report 2012, enrollment in the 6-14 years of age is over 96% in rural India but dropout rates are very high. Various factors responsible for dropout rates are as follows- poverty, lack of toilets, long distance to school, child marriages, patriarchal mindset, and cultural factors.

6) Neglect of Regional Languages: In 2017-18, 14% of students who were enrolled in private schools in India’s rural areas and 19.3% in urban areas selected a private school with the English language as the medium of instruction. English is the main medium of language in education. Standardized publications in Indian languages are also not available. As a result, students who are from rural backgrounds, Government schools, and those who are not well versed in the English language face a lot of problems in gaining knowledge and understanding the concepts.  

7) Old Curriculum of Study and Lack of Practical Knowledge: The old Indian educational system was mostly focused on bookish learning, but with the usage of the internet and experiential learning techniques, much has changed. The usage of the abacus and Vedic mathematics has given mathematics new dimensions. There were now more opportunities for learning and intriguing study techniques.

Similar to this, the traditional educational curricula mostly concentrated on cramming up the theories and notions. The kids are not being exposed to any practical work. Instead of emphasizing practical application and applicability of the principles, parents and educators also concentrate on assisting the pupils in achieving excellent grades in the subjects. Education has consequently turned into a contest. However, since the National Policy on Education 2020 was announced, things have altered. India now has three educational policies. The first one happened in 1968, the second one in 1986, and the third one is in 2020. The fundamental goal of the National Policy on Education from 1986 was to give underprivileged people equitable chances in the educational system. The National Policy on Education 2020, however, is more comprehensive in scope. It attempts to give students employability through skill-based learning. The New Educational Policy 2020 addresses every flaw in the earlier educational policies.

8) The Problem of Brain Drain: Students who don’t receive opportunities or merited positions in their home country often go to seek jobs elsewhere. It is referred to as brain drain. We lose talented individuals as a result who may have aided in the growth of the education industry or must have contributed to the advancement of our nation. Over half of the class 10th and 12th top scorers were said to have relocated and were either studying or working abroad, primarily in the US, between 1996 and 2015. The National Skill Development Mission, one of the government’s initiatives in this area, seeks to teach some 400 million people in India by 2022, but it won’t be enough to reverse the trend.

Solutions to Challenges: A way forward

1. More importance should be given to the primary and secondary education of a child.
2. Our marking system needs to be changed by the creativity of the students. It should not be based on cramming.
3. Indian Government should spend more on building the infrastructure of schools and teachers’ training.
4. Appropriate measures need to be taken up by the Government for providing quality education that is affordable for all. Like under National Education Policy 2022, the students are free to choose the language according to their own interests. In the education expenditure, from the year 1952 to 2014, the total GDP percentage increased from 0.64 to 4.13.

Note:

The educational system needs to be improved immediately. One out of every three rural children is not even capable of learning, according the ASER 2020 research. The government must take strong measures to ensure that teachers are properly trained and that the issues affecting primary and secondary education in India are resolved. The emphasis should be on learning rather than cramming. Education should be learner-centric rather than mark-centric because it is a nation’s lifeline.