Category: Indian Education

Poverty, Illiteracy and Unemployment, or Why Does Education Matter? Essay

Education is the hope for the development and success of most third world countries and the world dominates the country. Compulsory education creates a space for better growth and development. Education has the potential to completely change the course of a country: to train trained and educated young people. A country achieves its goal of economic growth at a higher rate and joins the list of alliances known as developed countries. A well-educated country will discard any obstacles that hinder its development and strive to achieve sustainable development.

Education in India refers to the process of learning, training and teaching human capital in schools and universities. The Indian government has reflected specific economic policies that emphasize the importance of education in India.

Factors Affecting the Importance of Education in India

Eliminate the Impetuousness of Unemployment

The substantial impact of illiteracy is ‘unemployment’. Unemployment hinders the progress of a country, leading to low living standards and rising crime rates. India is in a critical situation, with nearly 58% of unemployed graduates and 77% of households lacking a fixed income. About 67% of people have an annual income of less than 120,000 per year. In such circumstances, India cannot risk making any child illiterate, because that will lead to a miserable and jobless life.

The Eradication of Poverty

With India being one of the fastest growing economies in 2020, poverty in the country is declining and it is one of the biggest scourges of illiteracy. Until 2012, India won the title of the poorest people in the world. In India, almost 70.6 million people still live in extreme poverty, and the way to escape the vicious cycle of poverty is through education. The higher the literacy rate, the more job opportunities there will be, which will provide better living conditions.

Eradicate the Caste System

The caste system is the oldest Indian social hierarchy in the world. Caste discrimination hampers sustainable development in India. A society that discriminates on the basis of caste, belief, race, religion, or color is still entangled in a web of hatred, poverty, and insufficient resources. The factor that leads to the prevalence of orthodox customs is illiteracy. Education has changed the individual perception of caste discrimination. It makes the individual caste neutral, progressive in mind, and ready to make a fruitful contribution to the country.

Economic Stability and Growth

Education is an indispensable tool to help a country achieve economic growth and stability. Every year, 20 million young people in India graduate from various disciplines and begin to help the economic development of the country. Educating youth and adults to reveal hidden potential can lead India on a path of development.

Improvise in Health and Hygiene

Countries with high illiteracy rates have poor sanitation and sanitation conditions. For decades, India has lost millions of lives due to disease due to a lack of medical and healthcare facilities and poor sanitation. In order to improve the country’s health and sanitation sector, programs such as ‘Mission Swachh Bharat’ and ‘Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram’ attract people to participate safely. Educated people gain and benefit from knowledge about health and hygiene issues and government programs.

So, education is a powerful weapon that can help people cope with adversity in life, overcome social stigma such as poverty, fear, and status, and achieve success.

SWOT Analysis of Indian Education System

Introduction

Educational Services are considered as cyclical. When the economy is doing badly and unemployment is rising, the career predictions of working adults start to fall. This results in higher enrolment and increased profit at the schools. This system of education for young students is non-cyclical. Also some of the institutions perform actively to stimulate the economy. For example, IT department instructs for people’s benefit in good times so that they can boost their investment. There is more chance for growth in this industry. Education industries are reporting a rising demand for working adults. More number of employers are in need of college degree so that there can be chance of job participation. Both 18-year old students and a 30-year old without a college degree are looking for a career boost. Diplomas are becoming standard rather than the exception.

Education Landscape in India:

Indian Education system has two sectors. They are public sector and private sector. In public we have schools, Central Govt. funded institutions, State Govt. funded institutions, Higher education institutions. In private sector again there are 2 partitions, one is formal setup and the other is non-formal setup. In formal setup we have schools and higher education institution. In non-formal setup we have Pre-schools, Multimedia schools, Education material suppliers, Coaching classes, and Vocational training centres.

Recent trends and strategies:

Trends in K-12 Segments

Private schools adopting franchise models- Various operating models like a mix of franchisee and owned schools are being used by the private players to guarantee their economic capability. Setting up an all new education institution is very tough and expensive. Franchising provides opportunities to start a new business with less capital.

Emergence of international school segment- With collective awareness, private Indian players are cooperating with international brands to provide International standard quality education.

Increasing use of technology- Schools are participating in information and multimedia education technologies to provide better education to students. Byju’s has more than 400,000 students who are using the app currently, ranging from K-12 students preparing for competitive exams. The company acquired US based learning platform Osmo for US$ 120 million to start its plans of international expansion. Market size of digital publishing for education sector in India has increased from 5.29 per cent to US$ 356 million in 2017 from US$ 305 million in 2014. In March 2019, the Government of India is taking the initiative to stimulate institutions to offer online courses in rural areas to guarantee education for all.

Key Challenges- Enrolment rate across the senior classes is very low, while the girls dropout rate have observed increase in contrast to that of boys in the primary and secondary levels.

Trends in higher education segment

Specialised degrees gaining popularity- With more and more students opting for industry focused educations, the demand for specialised degrees is rising up. Most of the universities are offering MBA technical degrees with focus on specific sectors.

Multi campus model gaining popularity-Many private institutes are adopting multi city campus model to scale up their operations and expand in the untapped market of tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

International collaborations-In order to meet the need of today’s demanding students who seek international experience, many Indian universities and colleges have entered into joint venture agreements with international universities to provide world class education. As of March 2019, the Government of India recognized seven research proposals under Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration. The SPARC grants will help IIT Mandi to collaborate with international universities located in US, France, Germany, UK.

Trends in vocational segment

Corporate partnerships- In a recent -years, vocational training companies have entered into agreements with corporate houses to train their current employees with the required skill sets. Tata Motors has tied up with Nirma University to provide BTech degree to its employees working at its Sanand Plantin Gujarat in order to elevate employee skills at various levels in the organisation.

Investment in online learning- In March 2019, Byju’s raised up a sum of 25 million dollars, making it the fourth most valuable start-up in India value at 5.4 billion dollars. In July 2018, Un academy raised 21 million dollars from its existing investors, taking its total funding to 38.6 million dollars.

Strategies adopted:

Offering Scholarships:

In 2017, NIIT launched India’ Next Tech Star program to guide the students across India in building applications for next generation. In January 2019, HP India came up with ‘’HP Udaan Scholarship’ to support more than 1300 students from low income families. To encourage education, about 50% is secured for girls. The Government of Manipur announced a scholarship worth Rs 1 crore for civil services aspirants.

Joint Ventures:

Indian institutions are open to start strategic alliances with Australian institutes, as the country is the preferred end point for Indian students seeking quality foreign education. Medvarsity partners with Lecturio.com to provide improved technology- based healthcare learning for medical students. The aim is to deliver better learning opportunity.

Providing online and supplemental solutions:

E-learning platforms are increasing the scope of education and changing the Indian education system. As the Indian education industry opens up to new innovative ways of learning, Edu-comp has decided to explore this opportunity by offering its various online and supplemental solutions to help institutions to leverage the most of technology.

Challenges for education in India:

1. Technical skills of the work force have to be frequently updated. They have be perfect in their technical knowledge. They must be motivated and should be familiar with the skills such as interpersonal skills, team work, leadership and creative thinking.
2. Traditional setup – our academic system is liberalised by forming a traditional set of rules and regulations that supports quick development in its present work system and the required level of autonomy and flexibility.
3. Curriculum- The curriculum nowadays is not practical in nature. It does not provide knowledge that can be used to develop natural resources by which employment could be produced so that it can help to recover the existing conditions.
4. Infrastructure facilities- Infrastructure facilities such as refining the education system, positive approach towards national integration, research activities, consultancy, more self-governance, and strengthening multi organized integration. The shift of Indian academics in response to global force is a major undertaking.
5. Skilled labor- Small and medium technology industries moved to develop countries for the benefit of labour. Globalization and technology advancements have allowed skilled workers who are living in developing countries to provide service in developed countries.
6. Counseling- Counselling is necessary to understand and gain the talents of students and trainees, and to help them discover career alternatives. Guidance and counseling must define career development as a regular process during which individuals enhance their professional awareness, employability and maturity.

SWOT analysis of Indian education system:

Strengths

India has got very rich and learned education heritage. Very good primary education which provides a very strong base. Indian education system moulds the growing minds with huge amount of information and knowledge. Indian education system gives the greater exposure to the subject knowledge. Indians are rich in theoretical knowledge. India has abundant strength of resources and manpower such as NASA. Cost of education is also very low.

Weakness

Lack of adequate up-gradation of syllabus. No standard and no common course content and no common exam procedure. Lack of specialised courses and fixed curriculum learning is considered a one-step process. Education is exam based. There are no fixed parameters. Lack of Industry –Institute interaction, rigidity in the curriculum. Lack of multidisciplinary courses and role of the teacher is sticked to teaching alone. Mindset of stakeholders is not in proper condition which in turn effectcs immediate changes. Learning is job oriented.

Opportunities

India has rich resources of human and physical. There are enough number of higher education institutions in India. Hence, we can produce more and highly qualified students. Satisfying students demands by providing improved quality of education. Producing enough number of technically skilled outputs and autonomy curriculum should be made more realistic, practically and job oriented. Students are considered as a customer so that they can provide highly technically skilled labour to the country.

Threats

Lack of interest and interaction from the industry in developing and collaborating for the research field. Loss of quality standards by Indian institutions as more number of students choose for education abroad. Lack of team work and attitude of the people who fail to work jointly on a public platform.

Key policies and initiatives:

Interim Budget (2019-20) – The Government has increased the expenditure budget for education from Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 93,848 crore

UGC (Online Courses) Regulations, (2018) – In a reform, educational institutes in the country have been allowed certificates of diploma and degree programs in online mode under the University Grants Commission Regulations, 2018.

Performance Grading Index -In August 2018, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India has developed a Performance Grading Index based on 70 indicators in order to increase education in all states of India.

Pradhan Mantri Grameen Digital Saksharta Abhiyan -The scheme was official accepted in February 2017, with the aim of providing digital knowledge to 60 million rural people in the country by March 2019.

National Education Policy – The new National Education Policy considers education as most important parameter in the country. It majorly focuses on quality of education as well as innovation and research in the sector. In November 2018, the National Education Policy Framework 2018 was launched. According to Mr Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India, New National Education Policy draft is ready and would be given to the central government.

Conclusion:

The Indian education experts must develop a database on all types of education regarding the number of educational institutions, their local and external elements, faculty strength, economical resources and quality and certifications. In addition, market intelligence about the situations in other countries is sought through diplomatic attaches in the Indian embassies abroad. Inspiring research programmes in areas with the support of industry. Encourage and establish institutions capable of providing consultancy and specific services for facing assignments. Inform relevant curricula to meet the universal standards and demands. Establishing state of art institutions. Interaction and collaboration between institutions and industry at all levels.