Thoughts on improving the education system

My friend Badri has written up his thoughts on the problems with our current education system in his blog Thoughts in Tamil. His post is in Tamil. For all those others who can't read Tamil, here's an English translation of his post. Badri has incidentally made a conscious choice to blog in Tamil rather than in English.

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The Indian Education system is in great trouble. These are some of the faults I find in the current education system.

• Several children do not even get a basic elementary education.

• The rich and upper middle class in cities find decent quality private schools to send their children to. Even in these schools, getting a pass in the exams is the priority, not learning. Even these schools fail in teaching various arts, and in particular common sense to children.

• Both the private and government schools in smaller towns and villages are uniformly pathetic.

• Even if a student graduates from a higher secondary school, there are not enough colleges. The only hope left to most high school graduates is correspondence education. It is not clear to me whether one can be motivated enough to study through the correspondence course material sitting at home.

• Even if one graduates from college, the graduates are mostly unemployable, because of poor quality course material and teaching in the colleges. I have myself seen a number of such people while interviewing them for various posts in my organization.

Despite all this, several thousand young men and women have been leading our nation forward. On just about all counts of economic indicators including the foreign exchange reserves, "India is Shining". Just imagine where we can be if only we resolved our education related problems?

Here are some of my (not so complete) ideas:

1. Compulsory free education should be made available till Class XII

   The state and central governments should completely absorb the cost of providing free education till 12th standard to every child, irrespective of caste, religion and economic status. This should cover not just school fees, but also free books, food if necessary, uniform clothing and even a place to stay if the parents cannot afford that to their children. Those with money can always opt for their favourite private school, and feed their own children. Alternately, some rich may decide to send their children to the govt. schools.

2. Govt. schools should be run by private entities/entrepreneurs.

   It is very doubtful if the government can manage hiring qualified teachers and provide quality education to children. Like in the USA, the government can opt for building the schools and make them available to private companies on a long-term lease, based on auction. The organization that comes up with the lowest bid and agrees to maintain the best quality education would be chosen to run each school in each locality.

   We need to introduce a concept of 'education credit'. It is an amount equal to the average cost incurred in teaching a child in the privately run Govt. schools. This education credit is made available to every child. The child can either avail of the education by exchanging this credit in the Govt. owned and private operated school, or cash this portion against the fees and other costs incurred by them in a completely private school. This way, the tax payer does not have to feel miffed that his her money is used only to train OTHER children. Panchayat and municipalities must own and manage the school premises and oversee the operation of the private entities running the school.

3. All education above higher secondary school level should be primarily dealt with by private entities.

   If some state governments wish, they can run colleges, but it should be unnecessary. Students should be offered lenient education loans at very low interest rates.These loans are liable to be paid only after the students finish their education and find a job of their own.

   That is, free education until higher secondary; but paid-for education after that. Those who can't afford to pay for this higher education get low-cost and lenient loans. This kind of comfortable educational loans are made available to students in USA.

4. Alternate education must be promoted

   It appears to me that there is no need to teach anyone for more than 3 hours a day till the secondary school. Therefore, the available education infrastructure can be used more effectively through the shift system. Three normal shifts can be run between 0700-1000, 1100-1400 and 1500-1800 hours. An hour gap in between for the children to leave the school and the next set to walk in. In the late nights - from 1900-2200, the facility can be used to provide education to old and unlettered. Facilities such as the building, furniture, library, computer centre, laboratories and play fields can be used very efficiently in this
   manner.

   Further, individual teachers wanting to run their own curriculum can be entertained to use the nearby school facilities including the building, furniture, library, computer centre and laboratories. Like the 'Gurukula' method, a single teacher can lead a group of about 20 children from 1st to 12th standard. The students can write their 10th and 12th standard examination under the National Institute of Open Schooling. Nothing stops those who graduate through this system from joining the available colleges. Through the 'education credit', each student can pay his teacher. This helps the teacher earn a reasonable income and the student is also guaranteed quality infrastructure.

5. College education through correspondence system to be increased

   In each town, "Tutorial" colleges (as they are called in Chennai) can be set up by individuals who enroll their students in a correspondence course run by authorised universities. [This is applicable only to non-professional courses.] The day-to-day training is provided by these Tutorial colleges. The timings can be flexible, allowing for the students to also find a part-time work during the day.

6. Impediments in the way of setting up for-profit private colleges to be removed

   Today, only a charitable trust can set up educational institutions. Therefore, honest entrepreneurs interested in making profits will not get involved in spending their time and setting up quality educational institutions. The result is that only criminals who plunder money illegally in the name of "charitable trusts" get involved in providing education, and make money through capitation fees. To stop this, the government should allow for for-profit companies to set up educational institutions.

   This move will result in considerable capital flowing into the education sector. These colleges so set up will still come under the purview of the education ministries around the country, and so the government can still regulate the fees charges for providing the education. This is akin to regulating the distribution of power in Mumbai and Delhi. The government regulator only decides the upper limit cost per unit of power. Similar regulation now exists in telecom. Therefore it is perfectly possible to bring about the same in education as well.

   I do not claim that these suggestions, if implemented, will remove all problems we have in our education sector. However I am hopeful that they can alleviate the problem considerably.

   
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Comments

[lugon]

Hi

Maybe some people want to try Edward de Bono's "thinking tools" in their schools. They have been shown to improve "self esteem" which in turn apears to turn students into "active learners". You get more learning per hour, if that's what you want.

Also, if students learn to cooperate with others (maybe across countries) maybe, who knows ...

http://www.edwdebono.com (main website)
http://www.edwdebono.com/cortl/ (one lesson a week if you have patience)
http://www.edwdebono.com/cort (results)
http://www.edwdebono.com/cort/repdom.htm (initiative in Dominican Republic, a Spanish-speaking country)
http://www.edwdebono.com/debono/cortcd1.htm (CoRT lessons CD, 1 per school)
http://www.edwdebono.com/debono/shcd1.htm (Six Hats lessons CD, 1 per school)

I hope this helps,

(change the NUMBER for the real thing to write to me)

[Nagendra]

Make all elected officials and all govt employees to send there childeren to the Govt schools. Imagine the Zill parishat Chairman and Dictrict collector send their children to the govt scholl. The Quality of Education will improve.
regards
Nagendra

[Kavita Saxena]

We should provide our children skill- based education a kind of Vocational education which motivates their parents to send them to school with the hope that after completion or while completing the education their ward gets better employement or self employment.
Please dont politicise the education

Kavita

[M. Richard Robert Raa]

Dear sir,
Present eduation system is very bad compare to other countries. now the education field has become a profit motive business in all state in india and no one take care on the welfare of childrens who are really the future citizen of india. we should take some neccessary steps to create a new education trend to the present shinning india!
M. Richard Robert Raa.

[M. Richard Robert Raa]

Dear sir,
Present eduation system is very bad compare to other countries. now the education field has become a profit motive business in all states in india and no one take care on the welfare of childrens who are really the future citizen of india. we should take some neccessary steps to create a new education trend to the present shinning india!
M. Richard Robert Raa.

[M. Richard Robert Raa]

Dear sir,
recently there are a number of parties emerging newly in each corner of the country. there should be some educational techniques or stragites should emergy to solve the problems of our childrens who are facing a lot of problems now . there should be a change in the present education systems include various subjects that really help the students useful in their future life. Communicative based syllabus should be introduce as our students are lack in the communication in english. As English is common man's language now like the mobile phones became the toys of the common man in the todays world. consider this in the mind let us bring out some solutions to those problems ............
M.Richard Robert Raa,
Coimbatore, Tamilnadu

[M. Robert Raa]

Dear sir,
recently there are a number of parties emerging newly in each corner of the country. there should be some educational techniques or stragites should emergy to solve the problems of our childrens who are facing a lot of problems now . there should be a change in the present education systems include various subjects that really help the students useful in their future life. Communicative based syllabus should be introduce as our students are lack in the communication in english. As English is common man's language now like the mobile phones became the toys of the common man in the todays world. consider this in the mind let us bring out some solutions to those problems ............
M.Richard Robert Raa,
Coimbatore, Tamilnadu

[shah]

sir,
the present educational system in india is all about money. the distance between the students learning in the public schools and the private schools are increasing day by day. the greatest problem which a learner in a govt school faces is the lack of motivation. in my opinion we should introduce innovative techniques to improve the situation.

[gopi krishna]

this is very nice

[V.Arvind Kumar]

Dear Sir,

I think Commercilization of Schools and Colleges should be abolished to improve the present Education system

[Ravi]

My comments in response to Badri's original article.
1. Compulsory free education should be made available till Class XII
I am not sure if this is feasible, because the state coffers lack the funding to take on such initiatives. City muncipalities would have to start taxing the residents to generate funds and there lies the problem - Hardly any one pays taxes in India. Same problem for vouchers as well. Cities with low per capita income will have low funding and there will be a gap in the quality of education between the rich and poor cities. In my opinion the state government should pump in more money for improving the educational system and hold the schools accountable for maintaining certain standards and continue to offer education at subsidized rates.

2. Govt. schools should be run by private entities/entrepreneurs

In theory I would agree with this idea, but again there lot of challenges. Leave it up to the government, the schools will be operated by kiths and kins of the local politicians. Even otherwiese, given the reputation of the government schools and authorities, who will be willing to take on such endeavours? What is the incentive? The political system has to be revamped from top down before we can make this a viable option. My suggestion is to make the local residents vote to elect the school authorities. That way, the local residents and responsible citizens will have an incentive to participate and imprve their local educational system. Accountability will also be enforced by the local residents.

3. All education above higher secondary school level should be primarily dealt with by private entities
I completely disagree with this. Some of our best educational institutions in India are goverment run institutions. What should happen is that the state governments should focus on improving the quality of education in these fine institutions and build closer relatiosnhips with industries and promote their schools to obtain charitable endowments.

5. College education through correspondence system to be increased.
In my opinion, distance learing should only be promoted for students in remote areas who do not have access to colleges or infrastructure. Education is not just about obtaining paper degrees. Education is about creating awareness, teach social and moral values, exposure to realities about life and motivating students to acheive more in life and live with a purpose. Correspondence education cannot acheive this.

6. Impediments in the way of setting up for-profit private colleges to be removed.

This is another tricky situation. Establishing institutions by for profit organizations will cause the cost of education to skyrocket. Of course, this will promote some level of competition between the schools which might encourage the school owners to improve quality. But this is a delicate situation and the pros and cons have to be weighed carefully.

I accidentally bumped in to this site and I am glad that there is so much discussion about improving the educational system in India. I think that superior educational system is key to the fiture success of India.

[Hiren Gala]

Education Reforms

Our current institutions are in desperate needs to funding, to improve everything from building to quality of education. The idea of Continuing education is an urgent need today. In fact this can serve as potential revenue for current institutes, as employers can sponsor them. In addition, what we need is complete revamp of our High Education system.

Education should get 7-10% of GDP. Money should go for only primary education and not for secondary and higher engineering college/university, ( IITs and IIMs can easily collect money from sources other then govt.) )Put right Spirited educational reforms.

One of the reason IIT and IIM has reached such great Quality is b'cause they are autonomus. no government control except government gives just money. The admission criteria, course material, examination board to follow, fees, age limit are left for autonomus institution to decide. Lets replicate this success throughout India by giving complete autonomy to primary, secondary, higher, engineering, medical colleges/universities. They will become profit making, self governing, autonomus institutions. No UGC like government body to interfere on schoolbooks or fees by politicians. No more astronomy classes for IIM students at lower fees.

Monopoly that the state sector has in providing school/college education should be opened up to all providers, public and profit making private firms. We have huge demand to educate 300 million people and curremt supply is for less then for 30 million people. Only private, public-private participation can help fill the gap.

Also, we must thank our private tuition classes and individual tutor for providing such a quality of service and generating employment. Without NIIT, Kelkar and other private classes we would not have created the talent, we have now. This institutions have compensated for the poor quality of our state education system. Allow this classes to become college/university to foster competition. Existing colleges can affiliate for distance learning class at this private class with revenue sharing agreement.

All government institutes should be converted to Semi - Private institutes, basically government should not interfere in how much is the fees, what is salaries of professors, what courses can be offered, How many students can be admitted etc... Increase in fees may be regulated to some extent, but should be encouraged to sustain same quality of education. Allow fair Competition and let (market/indian people) decide the fees they are willing to pay. Do not interfere with fees of Education. If we are concerned for Poor People then give them vouchers

The education minister should recommend that “market clearing” fees be charged at all levels of education, and students made to pay on the basis of a “means” test. And students should be allowed to enter a school or college of their choice (via modern voucher systems).

Only poor families should get advantage of government aid, in comparison to current situation where everyone pays low fees. May be low interest loans for some sections make sense.

But what about the poor student? The money earned by charging fees from the rich should go towards a two-tier voucher system for the poor — scholarship for the fees and living expenses. Finally, for girl students, at all levels, the scholarship to be higher.

Forex Reserve of $10Billion for Only primary education and school infrastucture. Not on secondary or higher education. Government should only check autonomy in this autonomus institution. Keep standard guidelines for them to follow and create cometition among them.

Government must make good quality roads to connect schools/colleges to city/villages. School will automatically get developed by Indians, private partnership.

All institutions should be rated for quality of education, Regulating body should put reforms in firm terms with institutions with inferior quality. This way people get information about quality standard of educational institution.

If you are out of job or fired, you are eligible for panchayat level education training program in your field of expertise (the one mentioned as one of the task of panchayat)

Progressively remove reservations based on caste system and put more emphasis on economic conditions of applicant's family to help poorest of the poor.

Allow Private University to enter Indian Market with no pre-restriction. If Stanford, MIT, NJIT like university wants to teach Indian people let them do so. Diversity in Education is good, it fosters creativity of different minds. Remember, we have to teach a billion people and re-train them with advanced skills. Currently, Demand is huge, Supply is Low. 52% of Indian Population is below age 24.

Allow existing Colleges to become University. if they have money let them start teaching quality material of there own to any age group.
Syllabi of all education branches needs to be updated. Basic computer education should become universal.

Autonomus Education institute can provide continuing education and make profit too. employers can easily sponsor such program. Major emphasis should be made on Leadership education, Motivational education, personnal development, public speaking - all this are need of the hour for shining India.

Allow Industry Funding to existing University so that they can do research and development which is not even there currently.

Citizens should be encouraged to save for their children's Higher education from the beginning, if required may be by some Tax incentives.

During Admission take Income-Tax record of the student's family and not only the bona fide certificate(place of birth).
For Unemployed people, give vouchers to retrain them in educational institution of the area of their choice.

Only by above mentioned reforms we will be able to produce not only 2,000 IIT Graduates a year, but 20 Lakh quality graduates in all areas for e.g. Urban management, Public Service, Management, Journalism, Film Production, etc...

In Past IT, Bollywood, Cricket has made us proud. Now our telecom and highways are making us proud. Let us our eduation system make us proud in future. Education in India

[dev]

it is good please send more detail

[Rajamani Sudhakar]

Dear Sir,
Going through all the information on the present eduaction system in india, it a pity, that even after 50+ years of Independance, the government could not stabilize the education system, not to mention the other areas.
The governance should have a face lift. We need able leaders who can initiate the speedy developments in all the areas. The public should cooperate with the govt. action plans for effective implementation of the same. We need to improve our national character.
A indepth study should be initiated by the Govt. or any other appropriate body, to point out the flaws in the current education system , derive the ways and means to set things right in this directon.

[ARUMOY ROY]

Dear Sir,

Through ups and downs our education level has improved over the years. But again it has not developed as much as it should have done and it is inferior in comparison to the foreign countries.The Govt. must look at the rural areas where 70% people of India live. Young boys specially girls should be encouraged to go to school. If possible they should be taught at free of cost as because thier lovely condition (most of them live below the poverty line) is known to all of us.This will really help them.In the cities till the medium of instruction is regional. It can be changed to ENGLISH.
I'm waiting to see these changes happening.
Regards

ARUMOY ROY

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[Account age infotech]

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[devaraj.v]

hello sir,
thank you sir.it is very useful for me.

by devaraj

[lov meena]

i am a student of national institute of design and currently studying the education system in india for the visually disabled in rural areas and how can we make them a part in the present education system like integrated education system and how can we make it a more workable and succesfull.

will send you the conclusion of our study.

[Angelo Benn]

I would like to know if any court in India has passed a vertdict on private tution classes, we run tution classes in our house and there has been a recent objection on us taking tution classes. I would like to challenge that objection.

[tony]

i read your information and i want this must be done. can you suddest me some ways that i can help in this.

[nasima]

I read all the letter.I think you have need quality education and quality Institution.

[nursli]

i agree with all of you guys

[Ramana]

hi

[Ramana]

hi