WHAT AILS THE INDIAN EDUCATION SECTOR

When India is projected as a potential information and knowledge super power at the imminent future, it looks contradictory to discuss about the ailments of India Education System, because it is the same education system that is creating the said achievement. May be our education system lack many advancements and it continues to be traditional, but it cannot be termed as a failure. Neither would be correct to say that our education system hasn't delivered. Practically all of the successful Indians that we see inside and outside India have gone through the Indian education system only. It is only at postgraduate level or at specialization level that these people had undergone study elsewhere such as US, England, Australia etc. So this article moves forward from the thought that we have a good or at least, OK education system within our country. Learning centers such as IIMs, IITs etc have been the pride of India and they continue to deliver world-class, high quality education. All these show that we do know, how to impart best education. But in majority of cases, there are flaws and there exists several lacunae in the system. Addressing and resolving it could help us move forward, to reach the position as one of the best learning systems of the world.

A recent comparison made by Sabeer Bhatia, the founder of Hotmail and the Chief Promoter of Arzoo, between Indian and US education system is worth mentioning here. He mentioned that while Indian education system is knowledge centric, the American system is enquiry centric. Whereas the Indian system accumulates knowledge, the American system centers on the application of knowledge. It shows that the Indian system is theory centric where as the US system is practical oriented. A very distinct difference and we need to dwell on it a little.

Theory Vs. Practical

We follow the traditional method of the 'guru' imparting education and the ‘shishya’ (pupil) absorbing it. The profile of the guru is truly that of a theoretical academician. In our education system, be it primary, secondary or higher studies, there isn't any great stress on the practical application of a theory learnt. We go with the fatalistic assumption that the theory, if put to practice, will work. Mostly we do not try it or test it. I think this is an attitude that we need to change. World over, testing a hypothesis holds high excitement and by doing so, one could acquire a practical sense of doing things right at the first time, every time.

Quality

Teaching was the noblest of profession and the guru is held at the most revered position in our country. With the current economic growth and the possibility of jobs in high-tech areas bringing in very high levels of remuneration, the job of a teacher got a dent. Teaching may be noble but it is not very paying! This led to real dearth of quality teachers in the country. With most of the states in the country opening up the higher education segment, the situation had become very acute indeed. Shortage of qualified, trained, and experienced teachers is leading to a state of affair of low quality students coming out of these new generation institutions. Teaching requires knowledge, communication skills and patience and the current core of teachers lack one or all of these qualities. One goes to teaching when he is not able to get a high paid corporate job and thus teaching had come to being the last resort sort of a career. In these teachers, the students are not able to find role models. Indeed it is an alarming situation.

Research

Other than existing knowledge being repeated time and again, one does not see any new knowledge coming through research. The research activity associated with higher education sector is indeed very shoddy. These ‘researches’ lack originality and many often, authenticity. The writer had gone though the extract of a thesis presented by a professor of a university, as a part of acquiring his doctorate, on the subject of 'Women entrepreneurship’ and was aghast at the poor quality of the research, analysis and conclusion arrived at in the research paper, that too prepared for obtaining a doctorate, after a supposedly longitudinal study. It looked very mundane. At the end of research, no great conclusions or invention are made. It looked that often, the stakeholders do not expect such a thing too. What a pity, lack of research-oriented mindset is a concern area in our education system. At the student level, the questioning and research orientation is not cultivated or encouraged in our institutions. And that culture continues throughout the studies.

Technology Application

Times have indeed changed. The methodologies, tools and systems that were used to teach had undergone radical changes. The advent of technology and its application in learning process had revolutionized the education system world over. When knowledge is made available through all forms of media (audio, text, video, graphics, animation and images) and when it is acquired by the seeker using the panchentriyas, then the knowledge/information become very comprehensive and its retention, absolute. In our primary and secondary education systems (and any often in higher education), technology is seldom applied. It looks like technology based education stays in the hands of few selected institutes and people. Broad basing technology based education is absolutely the need of the hour for India.

The Industry – Academia interaction

The interaction between the industry and educational institutions in India continues at the minimum level whereas the developed nations have thrown open its universities and research facilities to the Industry and vice versa. In India, these are two parallel systems and the twin never meet. Even in professional higher education, the industry interaction of the student is restricted to do small duration Project studies and the too in a peripheral manner. The Industry never tries or tests the acclaimed theories brought out by the academia and neither the institutions bother about it. The institutions never worry about the industry needs when it comes to curriculum preparation and many often continue with the archaic syllabi. The writer had many interactions with of Post Graduate students of Business schools, who are following the syllabi set by respective universities. They still study MBO and haven’t still heard of management methodologies such as Balanced Score Card (BSC), Economic Value add (EVA), Activity Based Costing (ABC) etc. Indeed it is a shame, because all these theories and methodologies actually emanated from academia only. Our educationalists and leaders need to strengthen the industry – institution interaction and make it mutually value adding and a win – win one.

The politics of development

The opportunity of opening up of higher education sector is immediately lapped up by corrupt politician and businessmen. The education as an ‘industry’ is in the formative stages now! The promoters set plenty of these institutions up without any great educational or developmental vision. Most of them feel that getting an ISO certification meets the quality requirements of education. The only vision is making more and more money in less time through means such as capitation fees, donations etc. And these revenues are never spent for acquiring world-class teachers/resources, nor in developing appropriate teaching infrastructures such as labs, research programs, technology application, sophisticated equipments etc. We had already exceeded the time to develop the vision for these institutions to bring about students of all round, world-class standards.

Conclusion

In all, one would like to point out that there isn't any excitement in our education sector. Like any back office operation of companies, our education system loiters in the background and not coming into the forefront. When India is developing and surging forward as an Information technology and knowledge super power, it is time that Indian universities and institutions beckoned students from all over the world or at least, from South Asian and Fast East Asian nations. This calls for introspection, soul searching, brains storming and strategizing with respect to time by educationalists, leaders and authorities at high places. There is very good opportunity to clean up Indian Education Sector, add more value to it and make it at par with world standards.