Manju Tiwari Dr. Jyoti Yadav
Research Scholar Research Guide & Assistant Professor
School of Education School of Education
Suresh Gyan Vihar University, Jaipur Suresh Gyan Vihar University, Jaipur
Abstract:
As a signatory of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), India too has committed to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all children by 2030. Initiatives such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Right to Education (RTE) have given the desired impetus to education system in India. Though significant progress has been made in universalizing elementary education through improvements in enrolment rates, retention and other physical infrastructure across the country but much remains to be done in qualitative terms and learning outcomes as against quantitative terms. The broad focus of the chapter is on the current approaches adopted by India to contextualize Goal 4 pertaining to education of the SDGs in the Indian context by integrating them into the policy initiatives, formulation of New Education Policy and its positive impact on achieving quality education, as SDG 4 emphasizes. The second section examines the trends in education attainments at primary, secondary and tertiary levels in India.
Keywords :- NEP, Education, SSA, RTE.
Introduction
Education means knowledge, this knowledge is not only helpful in making all of us a complete human being, but is also fully capable of building a civilized society and telling its true meaning to humans. Education is a tool that builds the future from the children of the country to the youth. This is the reason that from the beginning of human civilization, work was done to assimilate education into more and more people. In this context, India has been important since ancient times and has been known as a center of education. At present, India is known as one of the largest education systems in the world with about 1.53 million schools, more than 864 universities, 45 central universities including 51 institutions of national importance, including about 23 IITs and 30 NITs. There are more than 300 million students. Despite this, there is still a need to expand the accessibility and quality of education.
Based on the recommendations of the Secondary Education Commission headed by Laxmiswami Mudaliar in 1952, and the Education Commission set up under the chairmanship of Daulat Singh Kothari in 1964, a proposal on education policy was published in 1968, in which ‘committed to national development, character and efficient ‘Aimed to prepare young men and women. A new National Education Policy was implemented in May 1986, which is still ongoing. Meanwhile, a review committee headed by Acharya Ramamurthy in 1990 to review the National Education Policy, and in 1993 Prof. Yashpal Committee was formed.
National Education in India NITIYO KI SAFLTA :
The era of reforms in education is already going on in the country, but this reform was in favor of colonial interests. For example, Macaulay’s Declaration 1835, Wood’s Declaration 1854, Hunter Commission 1882, etc. With this, it was difficult to reach every person with limited resources at that time. After independence, the Radha Krishna Commission was first established in 1948-49 and the Secondary Education Commission or Mudaliar Commission of 1953 with the aim of providing access to education to all and NCERT was established in the year 1961 with a view to focus on the quality of education. Hui.
Significantly, the University Grants Commission was established in 1953 to improve higher education. Following this, the first National Education Policy was adopted in accordance with the recommendations made by the Kothari Education Commission, in which the Integrated Child Development Services Scheme was launched for the proper development of children up to 6 years old.
Realizing the responsibility of both the Center and the state through the 42nd Constitution Amendment in 1976, education was included in the concurrent list.
At the same time, in 1986, the new National Education Policy was adopted, which based on a review by Acharya Ramamurthy Committee in 1992, there was a serious attempt to give a right direction to the Indian education system by making some changes in the National Education Policy. Despite this, the demand for compulsory education continued and there were movements for it from time to time.
For decades, the demand for constitutional status of education has been demanded for every child of the country to get the right to education. The government added a new section to the constitution in 2002 after which the road to RTE i.e. Right to Education opened. Although the Constitution mentioned education earlier, it was not mandatory.
Be aware that according to Article 45, the education of children is the responsibility of the state, but the right to education was not kept within the ambit of the fundamental right. In this context, in 1966, the Kothari Commission recommended the betterment and scope of education.
- In this direction, Article 21A was added to the Constitution in 2002, after which the Right to Education Act came into force on 1 April 2010. Under this, children aged 6-14 years were given the constitutional right to education so that they could get free and compulsory education. It is worth mentioning that after the right to education has become a fundamental right, the situation has improved a lot but this plan is still far behind the target and the government is moving rapidly towards the target.
It is known that before the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the District Primary Education Campaign was started in 1993-94, in which there was a plan to provide education to every child in 272 districts of 18 states across the country, but later it was also in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan itself. Was merged However, in the changing times, there has also been a big change in the education policy of the country. Apart from connecting the children to schools, the present government is also emphasizing on skill based education.
- Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was launched in the year 2000 as an ambitious scheme to put book and pen in the hands of children. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan calls for emphasis on education of girls and especially children. Not only this, it is also the goal to make children technically proficient in changing times through computer education.
CHALLENGES OF NEP:
The government’s attempt to improve the educational structure through the new education policy is a commendable work in itself, but there are many challenges before it which can be described under the following points-
- About one-third of children in India leave school before completing primary education. It is noteworthy that most of the children who are unable to go to school, other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
- There is a shortage of electricity, water, toilets, boundary walls, library, computers etc. in schools and universities, as a result it affects the education system. According to the World Bank’s World Development Report 2018 ‘Learning to Realize Education Promise’, India’s education system is in a worse state.
- The efforts made by the government to improve the education sector are at risk of failing. The reason for this is not to follow the roadmap while making changes in education policy and not to keep all the stakeholders in mind while making policies.
A challenge before the new education system is also to overcome the shortage of teachers. According to the 2017 report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), a large number of schools are running on the confidence of a teacher, which affects the quality of education. According to a recent UGC survey, out of the total sanctioned teaching positions, 35% posts of professor, 46% associate professor posts and 26% assistant professor posts are vacant.
- Another challenge is to increase the quality of higher education. It is noteworthy that very few Indian educational institutions get a place in the top-200 world rankings.
- An important challenge before the education policy is also to implement the formula related to ensuring accountability and performance of professors in universities and colleges. Today, in many universities of the world, the performance of teachers is evaluated based on the performance of their peers and students.
- The trilingual policy in the draft is also presenting a challenge before the new education policy, in which it has been recommended to make Hindi as the third language in addition to mother tongue, contact language, English language in non-Hindi language area.
Objectives to Implement New Education Policy:
- An independent regulatory ‘State School Regulatory Authority’ (SSRA) for school education and a National Higher Education Regulatory Authority for Higher Education will be established.
- Private schools will be free to set their own fees, but they will not arbitrarily increase school fees. It shall be determined by the State School Regulatory Authority for a period of every three years.
- A new apex body ‘National Education Commission’ will be set up under the leadership of the Prime Minister who will be responsible for the development, implementation, evaluation and implementation of the appropriate approach to education on an ongoing basis.
- Along with increasing the number of Indian institutions abroad, the top 200 universities in the world will be allowed to set up branches in India. Thus, the emphasis is on internationalization of higher education.
BENEFITS OF NEP:
- The education system of education policy 2019 has been prepared in such a way that it can connect with the life of every citizen of the country.
- It has been recommended to include Indian knowledge systems in the curriculum, formation of ‘National Education Commission’ and to prevent private schools from arbitrarily increasing fees.
- The Commission has recommended teacher training and the inclusion of all education programs at the level of universities or colleges for comprehensive improvement in the training of teachers.
- The National Education Policy 2019 is designed based on the needs of a rapidly changing society keeping in mind the diversity of Indian people, their traditions, cultures and languages.
Changes in the education system have ensured access to high quality and comprehensive education. This will ensure India’s continued development, as well as support the leadership of economic development, social development, equality and environmental care, scientific advancement and cultural conservation on global forums.
- A three-language policy is proposed in the draft. In which it has been recommended to make Hindi as the third language apart from mother tongue, contact language English in non-Hindi speaking area.
Major Problems Related to Educational Policy:
- Primary Education Problem
- Shortage of schools – there is a shortage of about 6 lakh school rooms in India
- Shortage of teachers – Due to less teachers, it is not possible to pay attention to all the children in such classrooms. The Right to Education Act provides for the appointment of only one teacher for every 35 students. But this target has not been achieved yet.
- Reduction in infrastructure – very few schools like electricity, water, toilets, boundary walls, library, computers are correct. More than 90 percent of public funds in schools are spent on teachers’ salaries and administration.
- Poverty / force labor – Despite the mid-day meal and free education, about 29% of the students leave school without completing their 5th standard.
- Reduction in the quality of education in rural areas – Due to the irresponsible attitude of teachers, the children studying in government schools are not able to increase knowledge. Apart from this, teachers do not want to go to school due to lack of basic facilities in government schools in rural areas. According to ASER (ANNUAL STATUS OF EDUCATION REPORT), the government may have invested in the infrastructure of education sector in rural areas, but has not been successful.
- Secondary Education Problem
- Secondary level education due to lack of schools, non-availability of courses and adequate choice in terms of content.
- Millions of teachers are working on contract and half of them are not even trained
- Only 60 percent of children want to continue beyond 12th standard. Due to family constraints and social conditions, children move towards simple employment.
- Study shows that the pressure to score good in secondary school is increasing the tendency of students to commit suicide very fast.
- Higher Education Problems:
In the year 2017, the Standing Committee on Human Resource Development submitted its report on the challenges and problems facing higher education in India.
- Lack of resources – About 65% of UGC’s budget is used by central universities and their colleges, while state universities and their affiliated colleges get only the remaining 35%.
- Shortage of teachers – According to the UGC, out of the total sanctioned teaching positions, 35% professors, 46% associate professors and around 26% assistant professors posts are vacant. • Responsibility and performance of teachers – There is no mechanism to ensure the responsibility and performance of professors in universities and colleges. • Lack of employable skills – Lack of employable skills has been observed in technical education students.
- Governments are always working to improve education. But such works are not done according to the need of the state, which is a hindrance.
- Quality is a major challenge in higher education in India. Very few Indian educational institutions get a place in the top-200 world rankings.
- India’s higher education system is the third largest higher education system in the world after the US and China. The number of universities in the country has increased by 11.6 percent in the last 50 years, 12.5 percent in colleges, 60 percent in the number of students and 25 percent in the number of teachers. But the difficulty is that despite this, the dream of access to higher education is not being realized.
Conclusion:
The new education policy 2019 indicates a wide change in the education system by the government but it also faces many challenges. It is noteworthy that the task of dealing with these challenges has been done in the past but the achievements have not been commendable. In this context, some suggestions need to be brought here-
Under this policy, government, citizens, social institutions, experts, parents, community members should work at their level to make education campaign successful.
A symbiotic relationship should be established between the education industry and the industry so that an ecosystem of innovations can be created in which vast employment opportunities arise. For this it is necessary that the industry is connected with educational institutions.
In addition, corporate establishments should identify areas of special importance and provide finance to their doctoral and post-doctoral research.
Credit rating agencies, reputed industry organizations, media houses and professional bodies should be encouraged to give ratings to Indian universities and institutions. A strong rating system will increase healthy competition among universities and improve their performance.
Indian universities are still not among the top 100 ranked universities in the world. In this regard, universities and academics should introspect and improve the related standards.
In addition to improving school education, teaching methods, training methods should also be improved.
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