‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’ But, to do so, certain changes are necessary in the education system itself.
Here are some of the changes needed to be done in the higher education system of India:
In India, after 10th board exams, all the pass outs are given the freedom to choose between the three branches i.e. arts, commerce or science. The students who score well are forced to opt for science and choose to become either an engineer or a doctor because it is believed that these are the only two successful career options. We are still living in a world where the science stream tops the stream hierarchy. The intelligence of a student is judged on the basis of the stream he has selected. The students should be introduced to various other career options and their choices should not be made limited to just science and commerce stream. There are around 2,000 courses on the SWAYAM portal; students can easily access them to learn new concepts.
‘Is it a part of the syllabus?’ is the common question asked by the students before learning any new concept or topic. Why so? Because that is how our system is working. The focus of learning in higher education should not be restricted to a specific limited syllabus, or the coverage of syllabus for the purpose of examination, or assessment of teachers' performance, or limited to a particular reference book. Students should be encouraged to learn more and more concepts and acquire an all round knowledge.
“Marks is just a number” But still our education system is more geared towards teaching and testing knowledge at every level instead of teaching skills. This, in turn, leads to underperforming students. Every student in our education system studies for marks. Marks cannot be the only criteria to test a student’s knowledge. Studying and learning does not mean memorizing. The system should help the students to focus on seeking knowledge and understanding the concepts.
“Give a man a fish and you feed him one day, teach him how to catch fishes and you feed him for a lifetime.” This means knowledge is above all, however it is largely forgotten after the semester exams are over. The educational institutions must lay their emphasis on conceptual learning rather than rote learning. This will enhance the retention rate of the education imparted.
What we find is that the professors teach a concept at an institute, gives notes of the concept, or provide a reference book to the students, and then ask the same theory in the examination. What will the student do? The student will not care to understand the concept. He will not put in the efforts required, because he now has an easier alternative of memorizing the concept and writing it in the answer sheet. He also gets an A+ for doing so, which encourages him to repeat the same in the next exam. The type of questions that appear in the question papers need to be changed. Also, nowadays, it is been observed that the students find it cool to study the night before the exam and the ones who genuinely study are mocked and looked down upon. The concept of summative assessment (year end or semester end examination) must be done away with and be replaced with continuous formative assessment of knowledge of the students.
Earlier, teaching was considered to be of the highest rank in India. Teacher called as ‘GURU’ was considered equal to the god. Is it the same today? People have considered teaching as the last alternative, as a source of income. In today’s fast-changing world, we do need smart educators as well. We need leaders, entrepreneurs in teaching positions, not salaried people trying to hold on to their mantle. In India, schools are investing up to 20% of their budget on teacher and administrator training. Teachers play the most important role in a teaching institution; hence they should be given the best training.
The main purpose of learning things is to apply it in the real world for the betterment of the society. Just knowing the theoretical concepts without knowing it applications is of no use. ‘Education is not learning of facts but the training of mind to think’. Hence the focus needs to change from imbibing theory to application of knowledge.
There should be a massive technology infrastructure for education. The outdated models of brick and mortar schools and colleges now need to be replaced by the efficient educational delivery mechanisms that can actually take the wealth of human knowledge to the masses. We need to realize that one teaching method cannot be beneficial for everyone in a class of 30. Some can learn at a faster pace and some at a slower pace. So, we do need personalized learning in this respect. For this, we can implement some of the technologies like artificial intelligence and chatbots which can help teachers in giving education to the students effectively.
India needs to provide the seats in colleges to the deserved instead of the ones reserved. The ones with higher caste and yet under poverty are at a loss because of this system. 22.5% of the available seats are reserved for the SC, STs in the central-government funded higher education institutions. In India, education is not available universally and reservation is a major issue. In order to emerge as a country built on a knowledge economy, driven by highly educated people, we do need to make the best education so universally available that reservation will lose its entire meaning. For example, online education does not have any reservation because it scales. So, this is the best way to get rid of the reservation and make it inconsequential.
Apart from academics, sports and other soft skills should also be given equal importance. Co-Curricular Activities not just boost confidence but also enhance the experience of a student. There will be an increase in the capacity of the students to emphatically confront the practical situations in the near future. They instill various skills like leadership, sportsmanship, teamwork, practical solidarity as well as productive thinking. It is important for the overall development of personality of the student and makes his/her life meaningful to the real world.
In higher educational institutes Industrial co-operation must be there for the development of curriculum, organizing expert lectures, internships, live projects, career counseling and placements. There is a need to focus on the graduate students by providing them such courses in which they can achieve excellence, gain deeper knowledge of subject so that they will get jobs after recruitment in the companies which would reduce unnecessary rush to the higher education.
You must be remembering a scene from the movie 3 idiots where a student called Joy was failed because he was working on a new machine instead of submitting his assignment. This is what is happening in almost every college of India. The students should be encouraged for innovations instead of burdening them from the write ups and assignments, where most of the students just copy the assignments.
People consider that education is just about becoming a big, rich person. But this is not the case. Students should be taught about the real purpose of education. Life is much beyond money and our success can’t be measured in terms of how much money we have. But it should be noted that ‘the true purpose of education is to make minds and not careers’.
Higher educational institutes need to improve quality, reputation and establish credibility through student exchange, faculty exchange programs, and other collaborations with high-quality national and international higher educational institutes. Also, instead of having a thousand colleges of not so good quality, there should be a minimum required number of institutes with high quality education.
