Essay on “What is Wrong with our Education” Complete Essay for Class 9, Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

What is Wrong with our Education 

Education implies cultivation of mind to make life tolerable with the acquisition of skills. It has been a part and parcel of human life since antiquity. Education has become the basic human necessity and that is why everyone is keen to learn and educate himself as education equips him with the knowledge necessary to face the challenges of life. There is an increasing realization all the world over that only through the right type of education can human beings be made good citizens and a better order c f society be built. The real and effective education must be based on ‘he actual environment and the experiences and it must fit the student for the type of work he is expected to do in life.

There has been, currently, a general feeling among the leaders, educationists and thinkers of various disciplines that there is i something wrong in the current system of education. No doubt, a plethora of education commissions and committees have been set-up from time to time to look into the problems of the system and suggest measures for improvements. And a great number of experimentations in the processes of education have been undertaken or some of them are underway, but the real needs of the people and the country have not been fulfilled so far. India is a big country with only two-thirds of her population literate in spite of all the efforts made by the independent India so far.

The concept of universalisation of education was introduced only in recent years. Our expenditure on education is less than three per cent of our Gross Domestic Product, as against the generally accepted norm of six per cent or even above in the developed world. Developing countries like India cannot afford to spend much on education owing to financial constraints. The Government finds it difficult to sustain its education programme owing to a rapid increase in population. Moreover, the Government itself, preoccupied as it generally is, with political issues and the problems of survival in seats of office, do not seem to have the requisite will and inclination to concentrate on this vital problem of the nation, which offers solution to many national and other problems. The Constitution of India lays down specific provisions for universal education and even mentions a deadline, but inadequate expenditures have always been incurred on this important activity in this country. The adult education and mass-education programmes have suffered set-backs just because of the lack of sincere efforts by the implementing machinery or lack of sufficient funds.

It is true that the present crisis in education is also because of the social growth. More and more people now have access to the modern techniques of acquiring knowledge and education. The necessary facilities of education cannot keep pace with the demand. The increase in population and simultaneous awareness among the masses is creating an ever-widening gap between the opportunities and the seekers. The trend of increasing population is unlikely to be modified despite the highly publicized family limitation drives. Obviously there is a need for a far more extensive development in the opportunities of education and training facilities, to ensure a proper balance. It is very difficult to maintain the quality of education when the stress is given more on the quantity. There has been a mushroom growth of technical training institutes throughout the country which cater to the needs of the growing population of aspiring youth but there has been tremendous deterioration in the quality of training and education as less attention is given to this aspect in these institutions because they are more commercial in spirit. This is a glaring ill-effect arising out of the involvement of the Private Sector in advanced education and training. Private sector needs to be encouraged to play a vital role in the higher education but we need a clear and transparent government policy, both at the Centre and in the States because education comes under the concurrent List in the Constitution of India. The regulatory bodies like All India Council of Technical education (AICTE) and the University Grants Commission (UGC) should be more independent and free form the impact of the Government machinery. Only the institutes with full infrastructure required for the course conforming to the national standards should be granted recognition for the course so that it can produce professionals who can compete well in the world market.

Quite relevant to the problems of present system of education in this country is the defective curricula. The syllabi and the pattern of examinations. All of them do not suit neither the students nor the society for which they are going to be prepared. The hue and cry about the curricula and pattern of examinations is so great that some people consider it the real bane of the system and every time when there is a revision of text books and the curricula, the changes worsen the position and do not solve the main problem. It is generally felt that the authorities pay inadequate attention to the problem and are not able to. See through the psychologies of the students and the environment of which they are going to be trained and this symptom of, the general state of confused society in which very few take their duties seriously and everyone thinks only of cash rewards and, therefore, hurries through his assignments. This  of affairs is, in reality, also the result of poor educational standards which has resulted into diminished social and moral among not only the general masses, but also the highly values’  educated and trained professionals.

There is a general tendency with the school authorities to prescribe more and more books for various types of study to the young students. Everyone comments adversely on the sight of young school-going boys and girls carrying bulky loads of books on their backs and usually their backs bent by the load. How can we expect to expedite the process of gaining knowledge by prescribing lots of books for study with no time for these growing children for any recreation or entertainment ? This clearly reflects faulty planning and inadequate thinking. We cannot hope to reform the system of education in such erroneous manner. The process of learning should be a pleasant experience, not a horrible happening which the students today are forced to undergo and which ultimately become the reasons for many youths falling prey to evil ways or resort to strikes and agitations.

The present education policy only ensures that students attend classes regularly, more and more children get admitted and there be less drop-outs. In order to ensure regular attendances, the government has introduced several measures such as the mid-day meals and no failures up to class VII. Here also the stress is on the quantity of students in school, not the quality. Many schools, especially in the rural areas do not have good buildings, teachers and proper teaching aids. The government-run schools in urban areas, which cater to the needs of lower class people generally, also present a bad picture. The buildings are not well-maintained; the staff is not properly trained for the job and there is a common lack of interest in the teaching-learning process in these school. The government is taking measures for regular refresher courses for the teachers and releasing funds for improvement of the infrastructure of these institution but enough is not being done on the ground. There is a clear demarcation found between the rich and the poor in respect of education in big cities. The children of the rich in private-schools, with good infrastructure and teaching environment, big buildings, laboratories, libraries, playgrounds etc., and the poor send their children to ill-equipped government schools. Obviously the children belonging to the high-clan  get a  good quality education and the poor have to be contented with the poor standards all their life. This trend of twin quality education has crept into the small towns and villages also, where small privately run schools are coming with good arrangements and the affluent people prefer to send their children to these schools. Thus the quality of education is becoming expensive day by day as the private schools, even at the basic level, are run by big business tycoons and it produces enormous dividends for them and inaccessible for the common man.

Some people are of the view that education should be completely privatized so that good quality education is available and inefficiency and under-utilization of competent teachers is removed from the education institutions. But there is negative side to the privatization of education. Elitist schools charge exorbitant fees which are beyond the reach of million of Indians. They create a wedge between the haves and have-nots and widen the disparities between the rich and the poor to the betterment of upper classes of society. As such, the solution to problem is, that all basic education should be nationalized and the government should ensure that all schools are equipped well with all facilities so that even the children of the upper crust of the society are to depend on these institutions only. This will naturally improve the standard of these schools as all high-ups in the society including high officials of the government and in business will be interested in improving the condition of schools at this level and make all efforts to weed out the system of all the bottle-necks responsible for their poor performance. Along with the nationalization of basic education, the higher education can be fully privatized to generate funds which can be used to manage the basic education also. The government can easily manage to withdraw itself from the field of higher education and save crores of rupees which are presently spent in the management of big institutions in the field of science, technology and medicine besides management studies and high-technological degrees. The money thus saved can be purposefully used to improve primary and secondary education by making theinstitutions of government at this level, better places for teaching -learning process. After putting in such a health y mechanism in place, there will be a simultaneous change in the curricula or syllabi to suit the interest of the common man. . Education is becoming highly specialized today and the interested students can take the advantage of better facilities provided by the better equipped institution in the private sector. A poor country like India cannot afford to provide such expensive facilities in the higher education free of cost, but an efficient mechanism for over-all supervision of these institutions is essential lest the vested interests should take advantage of the situation and exploit the students for their personal benefits. The governing bodies like UGC and AICTE need to be strengthened by giving them more powers and free from the intervention of the governments from time to time. The most alarming aspect of the present system of education is that besides the most prestigious institutions available in the country imparting all types of higher education in the field of science, technology, medicine, management etc., totally run by the government, a great number of private institutions in the private sector, recognized by the government and affiliated to the prestigious universities, have become big business centers, concerned only with making money. Most of them do not provide even the basic facilities to their students even after charging them lakhs of rupees under various heads. Teaching staff in these institutions is not fully qualified for the purpose as they are not paid full salaries and the libraries, laboratories and workshops are also not properly equipped. It results in a sordid state of affair, in these colleges as they fail to provide the proper learning environment and the result is the students, instead of getting properly educated in their respective fields, somehow manage to pass out and get degrees, which do not qualify them to face the competition and they get frustrated and are forced to work on very low. wages. There is a need to stop such commercialization of education at all levels. This country cannot afford, neither to have a twin system of education at the basic level, nor a defective system of technological studies at the higher level. Unless we are able to put an end to allsuch unhealthy trends in education, and evolve a comprehensive system of education at all levels, we cannot provide both quality and help in achieving the universalisation of education or mass-education in this country. Neither can we make education an expensive item far above the access of common-man, nor can we afford to provide good and quality education to the millions of this country free of cost. A middle path has to be found out, and that also very soon, because every passing day in the prevailing crisis of education is a pain in the heart of the common man as it is he who is the ultimate sufferer in the whole process.