Education

Education refers to the discipline that is concerned with methods of teaching and learning in schools or school-like environments, as opposed to various non formal and informal means of socialisation.

Education goes beyond what takes places within the four walls of the classroom. A child gets the education from his experiences outside the school as well as from those within.

Types of Education

There are three main types of education, namely, Formal, Informal and Non-formal. 

Formal Education

Formal education or formal learning usually takes place in the premises of the school, where a person may learn basic, academic, or trade skills. The formal education is given by specially qualified teachers they are supposed to be efficient in the art of instruction.

Examples of Formal Education

• Learning in a classroom
• School grading/certification, college,  and university degrees
• Planned education of different subjects having a proper syllabus acquired by attending the institution.

Characteristics of formal education

• Formal education is structured hierarchically.
• It is planned and deliberate.
• Scheduled fees are paid regularly.
• It has a chronological grading system.
• It has a syllabus and subject-oriented. The syllabus has to be covered within a specific time period.
• The child is taught by the teachers

Informal Education

Informal education is when you are not studying in a school and do not use any particular learning method. In this type of education, conscious efforts are not involved. It is neither pre-planned nor deliberate. It may be learned at some marketplace, hotel or at home.

Unlike formal education, informal education is not imparted by an institution such as school or college. Informal education is not given according to any fixed timetable. There is no set curriculum required. Informal education consists of experiences and actually living in the family or community.

Examples of Informal Education

• Teaching the child some basics such as numeric characters.
• Someone learning his/her mother tongue
• A spontaneous type of learning, “if a person standing in a bank learns about opening and maintaining the account at the bank from someone.”

Characteristics of Informal Education

• It is independent of boundary walls.
• It has no definite syllabus.
• It is not pre-planned and has no timetable.
• No fees are required as we get informal education through daily experience and by learning new things.
• It is a lifelong process in a natural way.
• The certificates/degrees are not involved and one has no stress for learning the new things.
• You can get from any source such as media, life experiences, friends, family etc.

Non-formal Education

Non-formal education includes adult basic education, adult literacy education or school equivalency preparation.

In nonformal education, someone (who is not in school) can learn literacy, other basic skills or job skills.

Home education, individualized instruction (such as programmed learning), distance learning and computer-assisted instruction are other possibilities. 

Non-formal education is imparted consciously and deliberately and systematically implemented. It should be organized for a homogeneous group. Non-formal, education should be programmed to serve the needs of the identified group. This will necessitate flexibility in the design of the curriculum and the scheme of evaluation.

Examples of Non-formal Education

• Boy Scouts and Girls Guides develop some sports program such as swimming comes under nonformal education.
• Fitness programs.
• Community-based adult education courses.
• Free courses for adult education developed by some organization.

Characteristics of Non-formal Education

• The nonformal education is planned and takes place apart from the school system.
• The timetable and syllabus can be adjustable.
• Unlike theoretical formal education, it is practical and vocational education.
• Nonformal education has no age limit.
• Fees or certificates may or may not be necessary.
• It may be full time or part-time learning and one can earn and learn together.
• It involves learning of professional skills.

What is the system that is generally followed?

We follow a very unique structure of education. It is known as a 10+2 system because one of the single structure till 10th grade and then you have two more years. It is implemented in all of the Union Territories as well as states of the country. However, not all of them follow a distinct pattern that follows the Central system and some have their own State syllabus boards. But, the Levels or Stages of Education in India today remain somewhat the same.

How have the levels been divided?

The educational stages can be divided into stages and feature several distinct extra educational options. So, the Levels or Stages of Education in India today can be understood as the following:

• Pre-Primary Stage – This is the first stage of education. It is for children between the ages of three to six years old. This stage comprises of the distinct level of classes and includes Pre-school, Nursery, Kindergarten – which includes Lower Kindergarten LKG and Upper Kindergarten UKG. This is usually provided by both the government and private schools.
• Primary Stage – The next stage after Pre-Primary school is that of the Primary Stage. This is for students between the age of five to twelve and consists of the first to fifth grade. The duration of the same is four to five years. They are usually a set of general subjects such as English, Mathematics, Environmental Sciences, and a second language. Under the Constitution of our country, elementary school and these five years have been made necessary and compulsory.
• Middle Stage – The next stages of education include around three to four years of further studying. This is the 5th to 7th grade or the 6th to 8th grade, so the students are almost fourteen years old when they are done with this stage. This Is different across states and is usually the part between elementary and high school.
• Secondary Stage – This is the stage between senior secondary school and middle school and consists of two to three academic years of studying. The students are around sixteen years old when they are done with it. In certain States, it is the 8th to 10th grade and for some, it is the 9th to 10th grade.
• Senior Secondary – The next stage of education is the final two years of schooling. It is the same across the country and forms the 11th and 12th grade. The pattern of 10+2 is followed and students have the will and freedom to choose their preferred subjects in light of the careers they wish to pursue. They can choose from Sciences, Commerce, Art and Humanities. They also have the option of choosing one elective such as Legal Studies, Entrepreneurship, Economics, Painting, Fashion Studies and many more.
• Undergraduate Study – This is where the students enter the world of university and college and they are done with school. Students that enter this stage at the age of eighteen and depending upon their chosen course it can take anywhere between three to five years. There are several degrees that students can choose from such as Medicine, Architecture, Law, Business, Economics, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Engineering and Technology. You can choose from a series of private and government colleges.
• Postgraduate Stage – This is the stage that students may choose to enter or not, and usually between 1-3 years where students can get their Masters degrees. Several colleges are known to provide PG education and you can specialise in a field or subject of your choice being divided into two parts private and government education, the ratio is 5:7 respectively. Government education has failed to give a good quality of education. The education received from the government schools is hugely insufficient. This is also because of the lack of teachers and no proper check on them, particularly in rural areas. Therefore, urban areas have a much higher literacy rate than rural areas. Public schools have weak infrastructure and poor academic attention which is very terrible for the overall development of an individual. Better facilities must be given to students in ­­ academic, sports, cultural, technical, media, arts, music, religious, social, and political areas which would aid them to discover their areas of interest. Government schools lack a lot in this kind of aspect.

  Whereas, the private schools which give all such facilities are too expensive for the lower class families. Above 37% of the Indian population is living below the poverty line. And they cannot afford education even at a primary level. India being a country of morals and beliefs, people are still traditionalistic and apprehend modern education. 

  The performance of the workers depends on several important factors like health and nutrition, education and training, etc. These are regarded as a significant determinant of quality of life. Sufficient investment in these fields will increase the productivity and efficiency of the manpower. The body of knowledge is achieved by the population and capacity of the population to use the knowledge effectively.

  Major issues of Indian Education

  1. Lack of money

  The absence of sufficient assets is a fundamental issue in the improvement of education. Because of poor economics, most instructive institutions need the framework, science gear and libraries, and so on. Because of this, the desired outcomes can’t be achieved.

  Every year there is a separate budget for the Education sector but it needs to be well directed through the appropriate pipeline so that it reaches every sector, where it’s needed the most.

  2. Costly higher education

  College and specialized institutions have turned out to be expensive in India. The expense structure of specific and able institutions. Privatization of advanced education has helped the development of benefit greedy business people. Now advanced education is a much expensive undertaking.

  3. Neglect of Indian languages

  The medium of teaching especially is English because of the focus on education in English, students are not developing foundational literacy and numerical skills. And then they are piled on with more material in English and as a result, kids mainly from government schools and poorer backgrounds were suffering a lot because of this. Standard distributions are not accessible in native Indian languages.

  4. No practical knowledge

  In educational institutions, lots of attention is provided to theory and books, and practical knowledge is completely neglected. When these students pass the exam, they forget all the things they have studied due to a lack of practical experience.  In India, parents and teachers expect their students to score high in the exam rather than getting quality knowledge. And education becomes a rat race.  Practical knowledge and skill-based education are still very far away from scholars who are studying in schools, colleges, and universities.

  5. The problem of brain drain

  Whenever smart, capable, and meriting candidates don’t get reasonable positions in the nation. They need to travel to another country to look for employment. So our nation is denied good ability. This wonder is called ‘Brain Drain’. Because of that, we lost so many talents that could be utilized in our nation for the betterment of education as well as the overall development of the country.

  6. Cast reservation and paid seat

  In the Indian education system, seats are reserved for reserved cast and rich students. The education system should give equal chance to all students irrespective of their caste and creed.  In India, the child of a good rich family gets a good education just because of ample money whereas the child of a poor family hardly gets a primary education.  The government data disclose the better reality that only 1 child out of 7 that takes birth in India goes to school. That problem should be conveyed into notice as soon as possible and do some severe work to change the circumstances as soon as possible.

  7. Mass illiteracy

  Still, we are not capable of getting 100 percent education. Even now most of the individuals stay uneducated. In India, the quantity of illiterate individuals is approximately 33 percent of the aggregate uneducated people. Propelled nations are almost 100 percent educated, and the situation in India is very unfavorable.

  8. Wastage of resources

  Our education system depends on General Education. The dropout percentage is high in the essential and auxiliary dimensions. The huge majority of the understudies in the 7-14 age group leave the school before completing their studies. It implies the wastage of financial and Human Resources.

  9. General education structure:

  Our education structure is of General Education in nature. The advancement of specialized and professional education is very unacceptable. So our way of instruction is ineffective. Hence the number of educated jobless people is growing by each day. This has changed into a prominent concern for the Government.

  10. Problems of primary education

  Our primary education is performed with an extreme number of issues. A huge number of primary schools have no structures, basic facilities like drinking water, furniture and study materials, urinals and power, and many more. Large quantities of grade schools are single educator schools and many schools are even without teachers. So the drop rate is high and a basis for concern. We can say that there is a quantitative extension of training but in subjective improvement, we are still falling behind.

  11. Outdated syllabus

  There is an urgent requirement to modify the present system of higher education in the country. We are required to ensure quality in education as well as quantity. Students are acquiring knowledge from the outdated syllabus. Lots of technological and scientific advancements are taking place in India. And hence the courses are Graduate and postgraduates need to be updated as per the modern and technological development.

  Some of the major challenges faced by the Indian Education System are:

  According to the 2018 Annual States of Education Report (ASER), India is creating another generation that can hardly read and write due to the lack of basic reading and arithmetic skills among the students in Indian Schools. But the mere difference now is that these children have spent some years of their lives in schools.

  1. High- dropout rates

  The other major challenge in the education system is the high dropout rate in public schools or government schools. It is all due to several factors such as poverty, lack of toilets, long distance to school, child marriages, patriarchal mindset, and cultural factors.

  2. Poor governance and lack of responsibility

  Another problem of our education is the absence of teachers in government schools. Further, poor management in these schools is also another major problem as these school management committees are barely functional. Also, the parents are oblivious of their rights and do not know whom to address in such conditions.

  3. Lack of infrastructure

  One of the major challenges faced by public schools is the lack of drinking water facilities, electricity, toilets, and poor hygiene, etc.

  4. Quality of teachers

   Lack of trained and skilled teachers is another problem mostly faced by our education system. Besides the lack of skilled teachers, they are also burdened with a non-academic workload which diverges their focus from teaching. Thus, according to a study by the National Institute of Education Planning and Administration (NIEPA) the teachers only spend around 19per percent of their time in teaching while their rest of the time is filled mostly on non-teaching administrative work. 

  5. Closure of Schools

   Due to the low strength of students and lack of teachers many government schools are closed. This is due to the competitions raised by private schools. 

  6. Corruption and leakages of funds

  Most of the funds which are granted for the advancement of schools are mostly consumed by corrupt mediators. As these funds transferred from central government to state government to schools involve many intermediaries. Due to which a right beneficiary only gets a certain part of the fund.

  Right to Education

  To develop the skills and potential of children, education is granted as a right to help them. So, that they can benefit their community and the nation in the long run. As education helps in the growth of an economy of a country, reduces inequality, or be it breaking patriarchal norms. Some of the highlights of the right to education are as follows:

  • Without any type of discrimination the right to education is legally granted to all.
  • The states must preserve, honor, and fulfill the right to education act.
  • Between the age of 6 to 14 years every child has the right to free and compulsory education. This act is affirmed as per the 86th Constitution Amendment Act via Article 21A.
  • According to the right to education act every government school shall provide free education to all the children and these schools must be conducted by the School Management Committee (SMC). While private schools shall accept at least 25% of the children in their schools from the economically backward section without any fees.
  • To monitor all phases of elementary education including quality of education National Commissions for Elementary Education shall be established.  

  Conclusion

  The overarching problems concerning each level of education in India are quality and pertinence. India bears extensive difficulties in facing the requirements of a growing and modern workforce.  Some of the needs that India’s education sector faces are appropriate curriculum, quality teachers, financial support for students, and adequate facilities. Additional challenges involve the inability to meet the different linguistic, social, regional, and local education needs of such a large country. Recent advancements in Indian management have made this an especially suitable time for corporations to commit to the development of India’s education system. So, to overcome these challenges major steps should be taken by the government for the advancement of the education system in our country. As there have been no changes in the education system since the British rule. But now we can just hope for the improvement in our education system with the new education policy introduced in the recent year.