How is the Education System in India?

Jan 6, 2021

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Introduction 

The Modi government has brought changes in the Education System in India. After thirty-four years of National Policy in Education (NPE), a new policy has been introduced in the Indian education system - the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP).

A lot of changes have been made in the current education system in India. Let’s discuss in brief the current education system in India:-

1. The Education System in India is now known as the National Education Policy 2020 after getting approval from The Union Cabinet of India on July 29th, 2020.

2. This Educational Policy is entirely different from the previous education policy, and the main aim of this policy is to bring changes in the lives of every young Indian who will be the future of the Nation.

3. In the NEP 2020, major reforms were made in the structure of the 10+2 schooling system. Now onwards, the education in India will be in a 5+3+3+4 structure.

4. This modern education system in India makes education in all the schools and colleges more resilient and comprehensive by taking into consideration the needs of the 21st century.

5. The combination of several academic disciplines will bring out the distinctive potentialities of every student. 

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Levels of Schooling

Education in India is very well structured, and inexpensive, unlike other developed countries in the world. To know more about what are the different levels of the education system in India, have a look at the below table:-

In the above table, we have clearly shown what the different levels of the education system in India are and tried to provide all the details of the modern education system in India known as The National Educational Policy 2020.

Types of Schools in India

The list of different types of schools in India are as follows:

• Government/Public Schools: In India, the number of government-funded schools is highest compared to other types of schools. But, major drawbacks of the government schools are related to its infrastructure, discipline, efficient faculty members, and many other facilities. Because of these reasons, the reputation of government schools is not too good.

• Private Schools: Parents who can afford the high course fees for their kids always prefer private schools over government schools. All over India, many reputed private schools provide excellent facilities.

• Boarding Schools: The schools where kids can stay and study together are known as boarding schools. In a boarding school, a kid learns to be self-dependent and able to develop their personality from childhood; this is the reason why many parents choose boarding schools for their kids.

• International Schools: Nowadays, these schools are gaining popularity because they emphasize on the overall development of a child; not rigid to teaching only. These schools follow a foreign country syllabus and teach foreign language to the children.

• National Open School: Students who are unable to complete formal studies can pursue higher secondary education from National Open School.

• Co-ed Schools: Schools, where girls and boys can pursue an education in the same environment, are co-ed schools. Private Schools, Public Schools, International Schools, and Boarding schools- all these types of schools can be co-ed schools.

• Either Boys or Girls School: There are many Private Schools, Public Schools, International Schools, and Boarding schools that prefer to offer the course only for a single-gender, either boys or girls. These schools are the opposite of co-ed schools.

• Schools for Specially-abled Children: There are separate schools in India for specially-abled children. These children need special attention and care, so they cannot put together with other children in a normal school.

Quality of Education

The government is now fully focused on the improvement of education quality in the education system in India.

With the National Education Policy 2020, the government is assuming that the quality of education in India will increase, as now onwards, students are free to choose their paths and select their subjects of interests accordingly. Like earlier, there are no compulsory separations between the Science, Arts, and Commerce streams.

Not only this, but there's also no division between extracurricular and curricular activities, or between vocational courses and academic courses. For example, now, Science-pursuing students are not at all bound to study only Science subjects.

They can choose any subjects of their interests that may be from the arts stream/ Commerce stream/extracurricular-curricular activities or vocational stream. This is the major change in the quality of education in India. 

The main aim of this new education policy is to give importance to every subject of various streams like science, arts, commerce, sports, mathematics, and vocational courses in the school.

Issues in the Education System in India

The following are some of the important issues faced in the education system in India and act as barriers to the progress of education in India:

• Insufficient funds: Because of insufficient funds, the infrastructure of educational institutions, laboratories, and libraries have not developed the way it should be developed.

• Less importance to Indian languages: Most of the school's medium of instruction is English. Especially in Science subjects, rural students suffer a lot. Good publications giving importance to Indian languages are missing somewhere.

• The brain-drain phenomena: When deserving, educated, and intelligent students fail to get a preferable job in India, they immediately prefer to go to foreign countries seeking suitable jobs. This is a massive disadvantage for our country; this is the brain-drain phenomenon.

• Lack of literate people: In India, around 35% of people are illiterate. This is almost one-third of the total illiterate people in the world.

• Higher Education is costly: Most higher education courses like MBA, MCA, B.Tech, etc., are very expensive in India. The total fee structure of these professional and technical courses is a minimum of 2 lakhs per semester/ year. 

Initiatives Taken by the Government to Improve the Education System

The Central government has adopted many initiatives to improve the education system in India. 

Some of these initiatives are discussed below:-

• Introduction of interesting learning tools in the classroom: To make learning more interesting, the government has introduced many educational resources in the classroom like video-audio leanings, printing and non-printing materials, periodicals, etc.

• Compulsory B.Ed degree course for aspiring teachers: A B.Ed degree course is a special training course for students who want to become a teacher.
  So, it becomes compulsory for every teacher/student to pursue this course after completing graduation so that they can provide quality education to the school students.

• Online learning materials for teachers and students: The government launched a new platform DIKSHA to provide online learning materials for teachers to upgrade their skills and also for students to improve their knowledge.

• The National Achievement Survey (NAS): NCERT conducts this survey for students of grades 3, 5, 8, and 10. This survey reveals the improvement of students in each subject of learning and their overall achievements.

Conclusion

From the overall perspective, the education system in India is improving at a rapid speed. In comparison with the earlier education system, the modern education system in India is much better.

Now, there are a total of 542 government medical colleges, 3,415 government B. Tech engineering colleges, and many more degree colleges.

Students can prefer to pursue these professional and non-professional courses living in India without having to go abroad for further education.

If you want to know more about the education system in India or if you have any questions regarding the current education system in India, feel free to comment here. We will try our best to reply immediately.