Abstract
The success of an economy is greatly determined by the education systems in practise. Education is the back bone of every nation and civilized society in today’s world. A developed country is also an educated country, keeping in mind the significance of a good education system. Indian higher education system is the third largest in the world. Right from the time of independence India is constantly marching towards good education to its civilians. There have been a humpty number of challenges to education system in India but equally a lot of opportunities are available to overcome these challenges and strengthen the education system in India. There is a need for much transparency and accountability to build a good education avenue to reach the long-term goals of knowledge building and this makes it inevitable to have genuine and committed educational institutions and colleges. India provides highly skilled talent resources to other countries and it is also essential that with the presence of abundant talent resources the nation can be transformed from a developing nation to a developed nation. The current study aims to highlight the challenges and point out the opportunities available in higher education with special reference to commerce education in Karnataka state, India.
KEYWORDS: Higher Education, Knowledge Building, Institutions, Colleges, Student Community.
Introduction
India’s higher education system is the third-largest in the world, next to the United States and china. As per the latest 2011 Census, about 8.15% (68 millions) of Indians are graduates, with Union Territories of Chandigarh and Delhi topping the list with 24.65% and 22.56% of their population being graduates respectively. At present in 2011, there are government–recognized Universities in India. Out of them 20 centrals are central universities, 109 are deemed universities and rest are state universities. Education system provides a benchmark to measure the effectiveness of knowledge creation and implementation thereby contributing to immense growth and development of individuals, corporates, society and the country at large. Immense efforts are being made by academicians to build a strong academic set-up.
Literature review
JD SINGH (2011) He explained the present situation of Higher Education in the country. And roles of the society.
Zaffar Ahmad Nadaf and Bilal Ahmad Bhat (2016) He explained the challenges in the sphere of Higher Education in India. especially in provincial and semi-urban ranges.
Dr R.N.Nadar (2018) Education is the backbone of every country. A country will not be able to survive in the competitive world, if its education system is not capable of contributing for its development
Rohan Mukherjee (2008) Indian higher education, and looks in particular at ways in which potential foreign participants can legitimately play a role in the sector
Rahul Agarwal (2015) The face of higher education in India has gone a drastic change in past two decades Privatization, increased cost of education
P.Arunachala (2018) Higher education in India is undergoing rapid changes. The challenges ahead are multifaceted and multidimensional.
Vivek Mansukhani (2018) This study reflects on why India has made limited investment in international higher education scholarship opportunities, particularly for those who are from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.
Shyam Sunder(2010) The number of institutions and enrolment in higher education continue their rapid growth, but the quality of this education remains uncertain
Sangramsing Nathusing Kayte (2013) The number of institutions and enrolment in higher education continue their rapid growth, but the quality of this education remains uncertain. A small number of state-subsidized institutions attract a thin top layer of talent from each year’s cohort.
Geeta Kingdon (2013) The school governance environment is an important determinant of schooling quality and thus of development.
Need of the study
- Higher Education. Since a higher education provides you with more freedom in pursuing a career
- The inspires and interests you, you’ll likely enjoy your career more.
- Higher education can be seen as a focal point of knowledge and its application, an institution which makes a great contribution to the economic growth and development through fostering innovation and increasing higher skills.
- This study intends to understand and evaluate the issues and challenges in the Indian educational system and to provide solutions.
- The solutions are derived largely based on the public view and conclusions of other researchers.
Statement of the problem
“Innovation fosters the new ideas, technologies, and processes that lead to better jobs, higher wages and a higher standard of living. For advanced industrial nations no longer able to compete on cost, the capacity to innovate is the most critical element in sustaining competitiveness” as more knowledge workers are required in private and public enterprises, polities encourage and develop policies and investments supporting the education of larger fractions of their populations to higher levels of academic achievement.
Objectives of the study
- To understand the status of Indian Education System in commerce stream.
- To evaluate the issues and challenges to Indian Education System in commerce stream.
- To ascertain the possible solutions to resolve the issues in commerce education.
- To provide suggestions for improvement of commerce education in higher education.
Scope of the study
The present study, in fact is an exploratory investigation about the higher education system with special reference to the commerce stream. Its geographical area extends to the boundaries of Karnataka state.
Research methodology
This research output is the outcome of an overview of studies conducted on the problems of Indian Education System. This is basically a qualitative research and follows the experiential approach. It uses secondary data for its analysis. Discussions with experts form part of the research work.
Nature of study
The study is mainly descriptive in nature. Secondary data are used for the purpose of the study
Secondary data
Secondary data was collected from websites, various articles and journals
Limitations of the study
1. Lack of quality education
In the top 100 universities list by ‘Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings’, none of the Indian universities could be found in the list. In the 2017 rankings by the HRD ministry, only 2,995 institutions (6%) participated from around 51,000-strong higher educational institutions in India. There is severe regional imbalance too. In the overall rankings, of the 100 best institutions, 67 are from just eight states. Among the best 100 universities, 40 are in three states. Among the best 100 colleges, 77 are from just five states
2. Corruption in education
Corruption in Indian education system has been eroding the quality of education. It is one of the major contributors to domestic black money. Payment to Management at dark rooms and seeking admissions is increasing. ‘Get full salary in the account, pay back part to Management by blank signed cheques’ is also a practice in some private schools.
3. No proper value education
Value education is not offered in the schools and colleges. If offered, religion and hatred are spread in the name of value education. Many of the doctors, lawyers, CAs, politicians and Govt servants who are supposed to be the saviors of the society, suffer from serious charges of corruption. Old-age homes are increasing. Suicides are increasing. The meaning of love is eventually changing. The education-led technology, inventions and innovations are being misused.
4. Poor Women’s education
Women have a much lower literacy rate than men. Conservative cultural attitudes prevent girls from attending schools. Despite Govt’s attempts to provide incentives viz. midday meals, free books and uniforms, girls’ attendance is poor. Though the minimum age for marriage is eighteen, many girls get married much earlier. Therefore, at the secondary level, the female drop-out rate is high.
5. Lack of Facilities
As per 2016 Annual Survey of Education Report, 3.5% schools in India had no toilet facility while only 68.7% schools had useable toilet facility. 75.5% of the schools surveyed had libraries in 2016, a decrease from 78.1% in 2014. The percentage of schools with separate girls’ toilet has increased from 32.9% in 2010 to 61.9% in 2016. 74.1% of schools had drinking water facility and 64.5% of the schools had playground.
Findings
- The study covers a wider view of the Indian Education System. It does not cover the intrinsic issues of every state of India.
- The analysis is done based on secondary data available at various sources. It lacks primary data.
- The researcher has not intended to compare Indian Education System with that of other countries. The solutions are derived largely based on the public view and conclusions of other researchers.
- At the higher education level, there is no uniformity in the syllabuses taught for the same programme. Syllabus revision is done quite often without considering the contemporary requirements of industries
- Due to the perceived notion of inferior quality, Govt Colleges are becoming the last choice for many. Education-seeking migration has become a matter of pride for many families.
Suggestions and recommendations
- Give importance to technology in education. India has to embrace computer and high-speed internet technology. Our educational delivery mechanisms should take the wealth of human capital to the masses. The models of brick and mortar colleges and universities will have to be integrated and interlinked with ICT. The Governments should invest more in technological infrastructure that will ease the knowledge accessibility.
- Encourage innovation and creativity. The system should reward those who deserves highest academic honour. The crammers should not be rewarded. Our testing and marking systems need to be built to recognize original contributions, creativity, problem solving and innovation. Ranks should be awarded accordingly.
- Personalize the education. Indian education system is built on the assumption that if a thing is good for one child, it is good for all. But, one massive education system cannot be suitable to all. Some people are visual learners, others are auditory learners. Some kids learn faster, some do slow. The syllabus should be designed in such a way that every learner’s latent ability is identified and motivated. Hasty and fast learning should be discouraged.
- Train the trainers continuously. A teacher is an entrepreneur and creator. The performance of a teacher should not be restricted to classroom. It needs to be opened up for the world to see with internet. There has to be leaders in teaching positions, not salaried people holding their mantle. Hence, regular training is a necessity.
- Change the aptitude to teach. Teaching jobs are widely regarded as safe, well-paid and risk-free jobs. Most of the teachers do not want to change. As they become experienced, they get septic, and not even think of the nature and need of the students. Understanding the present generation is the necessity. Guidelines should be made in this direction.
- Provide quality education with character. Education without character is abortion and will create divisions in the society. A country that lowers the quality of education and allows score competition in exams will collapse. The mystified doctors, less skilled engineers, cowardly judges, money minded accountants, greedy businessmen, inhuman preachers and ignorant teachers cannot serve for the economy’s growth. They will soon and surely doom the society with their unethical practices which no one can resist.
- Indian Govt needs to invest heavily in infrastructure and teachers’ training. At least 8-10% of India’s GDP must be invested in the education sector.
- Teachers should encourage creativity in students. The latter should be exposed to economic, environmental and societal problems.
- The strength of a class should not be more than 50 at higher education. A child cannot get the required attention of a teacher if the strength is unreasonable.
- The contents such as ethics in life, value building, and understanding of society, patriotism, greatness of leaders and sacrifices of parents need to be covered compulsorily in a subject in schools at every level.
- Quality seminars, conferences and workshops should be organized to train the trainers to cope up with the changing culture and the changing needs of the students and the society.
Conclusion
Education is a country’s lifeline, and it has to be given more importance than defence in any country. There is a dire need for revolutionary changes in India’s education system, not only in the syllabus and pedagogy but also in the attitude towards the test and marks system. India can use its vast human resources productively if the learning system is made effective. As a child is born, it is painted with religion and caste by the cowardly society and is bombarded with all biased thoughts and unruly philosophies. Every child has unlimited potential and it should be allowed to be free from our ill thoughts. It should be taught to reduce inequality. We can do a lot. But we are not working with required seriousness.
If the Govt institutions are failing, it is primarily because of the non-availability or absence of teachers, no headmasters for governance, lack of initiatives by teachers, lack of guidance to students, lack of infrastructure, and increased involvement of politicians and more bureaucratic control. Indifferent parents including Govt college teachers, MPs, MLAs and ministers send their wards to pvt schools. It is a shameful situation. The government will have to work on it seriously.
Though the number of students and programs increases every year, India has failed to produce world class universities both in the private sector or the public sector. The scarcity of quality education should be avoided. The central Govt should allocate enough money to open new schools, colleges and universities, overhaul the entire system and invest in technology and innovation related to the education system. Every child born in this country should have equal opportunity to learn, grow and excel in life with quality education blended with character. A vibrant nation is created by the energetic youth and active media. The youth and media can be positive only if the politicians are honest and responsible.
Bibliography
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- ASER, 2016, Annual Status of Education Report 2016, http://www.asercentre.org/p/289.html
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- Class base, 2016, Education System in India, http://www.classbase.com/countries/India/Education-System
- Indiatoday, 2017, Budget 2017: Education sector analysis, then and now, https://www.indiatoday.in/educationtoday/news/story/budget-2017-education-958329-2017-02-01, February 1.
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