The past and current state of education in India

Half of India’s 1 billion population (~500 million) are in the 5 to 24 age bracket, and over 27% of the population is under the age of 14. No country has more young people.

education system in india past and present

India has more than 1.5 million schools, with over 250 million students, making it the largest school system in the world.  

However, India’s education system comes with its many on-going challenges.

The problems with India’s education system

Let’s look at a few basic facts pertaining to India’s educational system.

1) Poor access to high-quality education

India’s education system has drastically expanded and undergone various changes since independence in 1947, including creating a more homogeneous education system throughout the nation, making education a fundamental right of every child , and clamping down on unlicensed schools.

The tertiary (i.e. any level of education pursued beyond high school) student population increased from 5.7 million in 1996 to 37.4 million in 2019.

education system in india past and present

The number of universities grew from 190 in 1990 to 993 in 2019.

education system in india past and present

18,000 new colleges were established between 2008 and 2016. That’s roughly six new colleges a day!

Despite many advances, participation rates continue to be low, especially in rural areas and among lower castes and other disadvantaged groups. The average student in Western countries like the US or Germany gets 13 years of schooling, compared to just 5.4 years in India .

Moreover, the tertiary gross enrollment ratio (GER) in India is 29%. Compare this to the US which has 88% , Brazil 50% , China 54% , and Russia 85% . The global average tertiary GER is 36%, and India falls well below that.

education system in india past and present

The Indian government wants to increase the GER but faces many challenges in expanding access to education. For example, the India Brand Equity Foundation estimates that an additional 200,000 schools, 700 universities, 35,000 colleges, and 40 million seats in vocational training centers will need to be built to keep up with the country’s rapid population growth.

Moreover, India struggles with severe funding problems, leading to a shortage of seats available at public schools. Public education spending in India trails the other four BRICS countries’ economies (Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa).

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Notably, this number has gone up to 4.43% of GDP as of 2018, which is a step in the right direction, but still not enough.

Because of poor funding, India’s public schools have undertrained faculty, poor infrastructure, and outdated curricula. They also have little access to technology, which puts public schools well below international standards.

India scores second to last among 50 countries in the ranking of national systems of higher education.

education system in india past and present

This inequity has led to a majority of students enrolling in private schools – 78% of Indian colleges are privately owned, and these private schools cater to 66% of college students in India. Beyond colleges, the same trend can be seen across all school levels.

education system in india past and present

‍ 2) Fear of exams instead of Real learning

I remember my own experience going to school in India from the age of four to eight (before I moved to the US). School was heavily focused on memorization and exams, rather than exploration and learning.

The combined research output of 39 federally funded Indian universities is less than that of Stanford alone. Research and innovation investment in India is only 0.69% of GDP as compared to 2.8% in the US, 2.1% in China , 4.3% in Israel and 4.2% in South Korea.

This reveals that scientific research is not incentivized. The school systems are structured around students’ passing exams and achieving the highest “marks,” rather than true learning.

3) Suboptimal Pupil-to-Teacher ratio

The teacher-to-student ratio in India is below that of other BRIC countries, resulting in low personalization of lessons.

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These are just a handful of the many challenges Indian school systems face. However, that’s not to say that everything is doom and gloom. India's unique situation (largest student population but suboptimal educational system) presents a lot of opportunities for growth and change. And best of all, India is well aware of this and is taking all the right steps.

Growth of Distance Education

Even though the education system has a lot of room for improvement, the country was early to embrace remote education as a means to increase access to education to rural areas.

India established IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) in 1975, a remote learning school. It is now India’s largest university, with more than three million students.

Another example is NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning) which is a joint initiative MOOC by the top 7 institutions of India and has been a massively successful initiative by the government of India.

Distance learning has continued to grow in the past couple of decades. There are now 15 universities and 200 higher education institutions that offer distance learning in India. The number of distance-learning students grew from 2.74 million in 2006 to 4.2 million in 2011, accounting for 11% of all higher education enrollments, of which 44% are female.

Distance learning will continue to provide a promising alternative to in-person schools, and is expected to grow at 41% CAGR between 2016-2021.

The UGC , which is a body of the Ministry of Education in India, is responsible for quality assurance of distance-learning schools.

Government efforts to improve education in Education

There are also many efforts being made by the government to improve access and quality of education, such as the Foreign Education Providers Bill and The National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill .

More importantly, in July 2020, the government launched the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) which implements sweeping changes across all education levels in India.

First off, the NEP changes the existing 10+2 structure of school education to a 5+3+3+4 structure (similar to the US).

education system in india past and present

Moreover, the policy aims to shift from an examination-based learning toward a play and discovery based style of learning with an emphasis on the scientific method and critical thinking. Instead of rote memorization that is commonplace today in Indian schools, the focus will be on real understanding and learning how to learn.

Another big reform the NEP aims to make is to promote multilingualism. Students will learn three languages, based on the student’s regions and personal choice, as long as at least two of the three languages are native to India.

The NEP also aims massively upgrade its teacher training programs, as well many other sweeping changes, which you can read in full here. ‍

Overall, the NEP aims to achieve 50% GER by 2030 (vs. 29% today!) and increase public expenditures on education from 4.43% of GDP today to 6% of GDP as soon as possible. Clearly, the government is ambitious and audacious in its attempts to turn India into a global knowledge superpower.

For what's its worth, the US education expenditure as % of GDP grew from 2.9% to 6% 1950 to 1970.

education system in india past and present

Subsequently, the 1980s to 2000s was a prosperous period for the US. Perhaps India’s story will look similar?

Bringing Silicon Valley to Education in India

Beyond what the Government is doing to improve access and quality of education in India, there is something even more powerful at India’s disposal: startups

Using technology to improve both access and quality of education makes obvious sense. Private companies have an opportunity to tap into this market and make a massive impact to advance the population.

And it is happening! Ed Tech in India has silently exploded in the last couple years. The biggest Ed Tech start-up in India is BYJU , a learning app that helps children interactively learn Math, English and a variety of subjects through stories featuring Disney and Pixar characters.

education system in india past and present

2020 has been an unexpected blessing for Ed Tech companies like BYJU. When the pandemic started, BYJU made all their apps free. They went from 40 million to 65 million subscribers in the first four months of the pandemic. More than four million of these users are annual paid subscribers, and 80% of paid users renew their subscriptions . And 60% of BYJU’s students come from outside of the bigger cities, where access to education is not as readily available.

They have been growing at least 100% year over year since 2015, and made $1B in revenue and $150M in profit in 2020.

BYJU raised $500 million in capital earlier this year, making it the second-most valuable business in India today.

Less than two months after it raised the $500 million, BYJU closed another $200 million in a fresh round of funding, bringing the company’s valuation to $12 billion.

Given the surge in remote learning in 2020, BYJU is now rapidly trying to offer more subjects and grades and serve more markets. They made a big acquisition this year of another Ed Tech start-up called WhiteHat Jr., which will help them further expand their offerings.

And just this week, they acquired Aakash Education Services for $1 billion.

BYJU is not the only Ed Tech company that is thriving in India. Unacademy , for example, is India’s second most valued Ed Tech startup. It started as online test prep for government job entrance exams, and has since expanded to test prep for other Indian competitive exams. The app has over 135K paying users and a $500M valuation.

Besides BYJU and Unacademy, there are a number of others, including Vedantu , toppr , Simplilearn , InterviewBit , Classplus , and doubtnut .

education system in india past and present

Overall, there is a lot of optimism about Ed Tech in India. Makes sense, given that Indians highly value education and are willing to spend money on it. 

education system in india past and present

Online learning is going mainstream and there is no going back. This is the perfect opportunity for education in India to leapfrog the western world (just like it did with the internet and digital payments ).

Ed Tech startups give India the opportunity to improve access and quality of education, beyond the efforts the government is already making. Given that India is now the world’s fastest-growing major economy , outpacing China’s in terms of growth rate, modernizing its education system will give India a competitive advantage.

education system in india past and present

But there’s a catch

However, modernizing education isn’t enough. People also need to be employed. Unfortunately, the employment prospects of graduates in India remains dire.

Indian authorities report that 60% of engineering graduates remain unemployed . Moreover, the youth unemployment rate continues to skyrocket:

education system in india past and present

The lack of access to high-quality education and jobs has always been a key driver for students to leave India to seek education elsewhere. The number of Indian international students enrolled in degree programs abroad doubled from 134,880 students in 2004 to 278,383 in 2017.

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Obviously, this talent drain is not something the Indian government probably wants.

So it’s not just about fixing education, but also about creating jobs in the local markets. Given the rise of technology startups in India in the past decade , I have high hopes for job growth for engineering graduates. But we will have to wait and see :)

Final note: I did my best to fact-check all assumptions in this post. If you find any erroneous data or assumptions, please let me know and I will look into it. Thank you!

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Home > Books > Education at the Intersection of Globalization and Technology

Indian Education: Ancient, Medieval and Modern

Submitted: 03 July 2020 Reviewed: 17 July 2020 Published: 27 October 2020

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.93420

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Education at the Intersection of Globalization and Technology

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Education is a platform in which young generations are trained and make them future-ready. Education provides knowledge and skills which help the person to be employable. The Indian education system is very popular and diversified among other countries’ education systems due to its change in the evolution from ancient to the modern education system. During the ancient and medieval periods of education, students were trained by teachers in such a manner that they can survive and live in that era. After independence, there is a tremendous growth in the Indian education system providing teaching and training in all aspects, but it does not satisfy the global demands of the market. This chapter focuses on teaching methodology, curriculum, characteristics, methods of learning, aims of the Indian education system during the ancient and medieval period and how it differed in today’s modern education and what are the things that our today’s modern education need to learn and implement from ancient and medieval education. The mentioned points are used to differentiate ancient, medieval, and modern education with advantages and disadvantages. Through this chapter, students, teachers will get to know the difference in the education system and what else to be adapted in the future to overcome all the problems.

Author Information

Mangesh m. ghonge *.

  • Department of Computer Engineering, Sandip Institute of Technology and Research Centre, Nashik, Maharashtra, India

Aniket Singh

*Address all correspondence to: [email protected]

1. Introduction

Technological improvement has boosted the economic growth in India. Science and technology have an important role in the economic development of India. Compared to other developed countries, India has more youth manpower. Proper education will play a significant role in making youth future-ready and increasing economic growth by providing skilled persons which will also boost industrial development. In the modern era of education, every institution or university is adapting new teaching methods using their teaching methodologies. Indian education is the biggest and well-known education systems in the world. During ancient education, there were 5 big well-known universities like Takshashila, Nalanda, Vallabhi, etc., which focus on the all-round development of students and those in the medieval period there exists 2 institutions madrasah and maqtabs which mostly focus on building student religious and leaders of the future. In modern education, there are well known autonomous institutes like IITs and IIMs which are famous all around the world.

During ancient education, students live away from their parents, their education comprises of subjects like physical education, mental education, politics, economics, etc. They were shaped in a way that they can live in any condition considering how difficult the situation will be? Medieval education also followed the same protocol as ancient education in spite that their education mostly focuses on religion. In today’s modern era of big institutes like the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Management (IIMs), everything is changed like the living standard of students, curriculum, all-round development. The principle objective of the student has been to just achieve its goal and be successful. Only the big institutes like IITs, IIMs, and some other private and aided universities have adopted modern methods of learning. There is a difference in curriculum, teaching methods, and living standards of students in every institute. The syllabus of the current education system is not industry-oriented and also not according to new upcoming trends. The main objective of education is mostly theoretical and not practically implemented [ 1 ].

The main purpose of this paper is to convey what all the things need to adopt in our current education system from ancient and medieval times and also some new trends associated with it. The paper is mainly categorized into three sections Ancient, Medieval and Modern education system, including sub-sections such as curriculum, method of learning, the aim of education, characteristics of education, educational institutes, higher educational institutes, advantages, and disadvantages of the particular education system.

2. Ancient education

During the ancient period, two systems of education were developed, Vedic, and Buddhist. The medium of language during the Vedic system was Sanskrit, while those in the Buddhist system were pali. During those times the education was of Vedas, Brahmanas, Upnishads, and Dharmasutras. From the Rigveda onwards, our ancient education started with the objective of developing the students not only in the outer body but also on the inner body. The ancient education focused on imparting ethics like humility, truthfulness, discipline, self-reliance, and respecting all creations to the students. The education was mostly imparted in ashrams, gurukuls, temples, houses. Sometimes pujaris of the temples used to teach students. The education system of ancient India has some special features and uniqueness which was not found in any other ancient education system of the other countries. The education was mostly given in forests under the blue sky, which keeps the student’s mind fresh and alive. During ancient times people used to live a simple life and doing their work with devotion and hard work [ 2 ].

2.1 Aim of education

The main objective of education was to equip the students with a good quality of education. The education mostly focused on the enrichment of culture, character, and personality, development, and cultivation of noble ideals. The objective was gaining the mental, physical, and intellectual personality of students, to make the students future-ready and survive in any situation [ 3 ].

2.2 Characteristics of education

During the ancient period, the state government and the people did not interfere in designing curriculum, payments of fees, regulation of teaching hours. There was a strong bonding between teacher and student. Every student was allotted with one teacher and more emphasis was given to the student-teacher relationship, each student used to meet teachers personally to learn and gain instructions from them. During ancient times, royal families, as well as kings of states, used to donate their wealth to improve the education system and quality. The syllabus was designed in accordance with the demands of that era. At that time students used to leave their houses and went to live with their gurus until their education was completed. During the early Vedic period, women’s education was also given more emphasis. The education focuses on the physical and mental development of students. The course duration was about 10–12 years, as there were no books so students used to memorize all things, memory played a crucial role during learning. The education was imparted in forests away from cities and peoples to give students a pleasant and silent environment of study.

2.3 Curriculum

Curriculum plays an essential role in the education system. It was dynamic and not static; it was made up of different stages. The fundamental goal of building a good curriculum was to develop students physically and mentally. The curriculum consists of four Vedas, six vedangas, Upnishads, darshanas, Puranas, Tarka Shastra. The six vedangas were Shiksha, Chhandas, Vyakarana, Nirukta, Jyotisha, and Kalpawhile the darshanas were Nyaya, Baiseshika, Yoga, Vedanta, Sankhya, Mimasa. Algebra, Geometry, and grammar were also given more importance at that time. Panini was famous in the domain of grammar at that time. The curriculum of the Buddhist system consists of pitakas, Abhidharma, and sutras. Besides this medicine, Vedas were also given importance. Hindu learning was a part of Buddhist learning, although more emphasis was given to Buddhist learning. Both the systems were going hand in hand at that time. The education was totally through orals and debates, and the exams were conducted every year. The education system of the ancient period focused on subjects like warfare, military, politics, religion.

2.4 Methods of learning

At that time books were not there, so students had the habit to learn and memorize all the things taught in the class, and teachers also helped them in memorizing.

The students used to deep dive into the concepts taught by their teachers and explore new methods to learn it.

Listening, Contemplation, and concentrated contemplation were some new methods of exploring the way of learning.

The teachers used the storytelling methods to teach the students.

Students used to ask questions about the topics taught by the teachers and these topics were discussed and then answered to the students.

The education of that time mainly focused on practical knowledge of the topics taught in the class.

The students got plenty of knowledge through seminars and debates conducted at frequent intervals.

2.5 Educational institutions

Gurukul was the hometown of teachers where students come after completing their initiation ceremony and learn until the completion of their study. The parishads or academies were the places of higher learning and education where students learn through discussions and debates. Goshti or conferences were the places where the kings of the states used to invite scholars from every institute to meet and exchange their views. Ashramas or hermitages were the other learning centers where students from various parts of the country used to come and learn from saints and sages. Vidyapeeth was the place of spiritual learning founded by great Acharya, Sri Shankara in places like Sringeri, Kanchi, Dwarka, and Puri, etc. Agraharas was an institution of Brahmins in villages where they used to teach. Viharas were the educational institutions founded by Buddhists where the students were taught the subjects related to Buddhism and philosophy.

2.6 Higher educational institutions

Takshashila or Taxila: Takshashila was the famous center of learning, including religion and teaching of Buddhism in ancient times. It was famous for his higher education learning comprising of subjects like ancient scriptures, law, medicine, sociology, astronomy, military science, and 18 silpas, etc. The well-known scholars from the university were great grammarian Panini, he was an expert in his subject of grammar and published his work on Ashtadhyayi, Chanakya who is skilled in statecraft both studied here. Students from Kashi, Kosala, Magadha, and also from different countries flocked into the university despite a long and arduous journey. Takshashila was an ancient Indian city currently situated in north-western Pakistan was the well-known center of learning and has been declared as an archeological site and world heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1980.

Nalanda: When Xuan Zang came to Nalanda it was called Nala, which was the center of learning in many subjects. The students used to come here from different parts of the country and the world to study here. Different subjects were taught, including the Vedas, fine arts, medicine, mathematics, and astronomy. Xuan Zang itself became the student of Yogashastra. Nalanda which is currently situated in Rajgir, Bihar, India was also declared as a world heritage site by UNESCO. The other famous institutes around ancient times were Vallabhi, Vikramshila, Ujjain, and Benaras.

2.7 Advantages

The system focuses on the all-round development of students.

More emphasis was given to practical knowledge rather than theoretical knowledge.

The students were not just involved in bringing the ranks, but their main focus was on knowledge.

Classrooms were built-in forests which provide a pleasant study environment to the students.

There was no pressure laid on students related to studies so that they can learn effectively.

The government did not interfere with the formation of curriculum, kings at that time helped in the development of education.

2.8 Disadvantages

Women were not admitted to the Gurukuls.

There was caste discrimination as only Kshatriya was allowed, Eklavya was not given admission to the Gurukul.

3. Medieval education

During the eighth century Anno Domini (A.D) a huge number of Mohammadian invaded India. Mahmud Ghaznavi captured India and set up a large number of schools and libraries in the country by the looted wealth. Later Muslim leaders established their permanent empire in India, they brought a new system of education. The ancient education system was drastically changed. The Arabs and the Turks bought some new cultures, traditions, and institutions in India, in that the most remarkable change was the Islamic pattern of education which was different from the Buddhist and Brahmanic education system. The medieval age, education system primarily focused on the Islamic and Mughal System.

3.1 Aim of education

The main objective of education during the medieval period was the spread of knowledge and the propagation of Islam. The objective behind this era of education was to spread Islamic education its principles, and social conventions. The purpose of the education system was to make people religious minded [ 4 ].

3.2 Characteristics of education

The rulers helped in the spread and development of education. They helped in the establishment of different educational institutes and funded it, big landlords also gave them some wealth in the development of institutes. There was no control of rulers over the educational institutes and also to their management. The student-teacher relation was also good like the Buddhist and Brahmanic period, although students did not live with their teachers at that time. Teachers took interest in learning, at that time teachers were used to teaching students individually.

3.3 Curriculum

During that time books were not there, therefore the students were used to write on taktis. The stress was laid on teaching the student from the beginning that is teaching them first alphabets and then words. Calligraphy and grammar were the most important subjects taught during those days. Students also learned “paharas”(multiple of numbers), and also they memorized it while learning. Arabic and Persian were the main languages of communication and these languages were important for the students who wanted to get higher posts. The recitation of the Quran was made compulsory, the students used to learn the Quran by heart as this was an important part of their curriculum. The students at their early ages were taught to recite the first 13 chapters of the Quran as a poem. Ibn Sina, an Islamic Persian scholar, and a teacher write that students during the age of 14 should be given the choice of selecting their favorite subjects for masters, for example, reading, manual skills, literature, medicine, geometry, trade, and commerce. There were two types of education during medieval times like secular and religious education. Religious education consists study of the Quran, Mohammad, and his invasions Islamic laws and Islamic history. The secular education consists of the study of Arabic literature, grammar, history, philosophy, mathematics, geography, politics, economics, Greek language, and agriculture.

3.4 Methods of learning

Orals, discussions, and recitations of the lesson taught were the main methods of learning at that age.

Emperor Akbar encouraged the students to focus more on reading and writing and to reform the scripts. He wanted the education system to be systematic and advised teachers to first teach students about the knowledge of alphabets, then words-knowledge, and then sentence formation.

More emphasis was given on practical education.

There was no half-yearly or annual examination fixed for students, but the students were evaluated based on practical situations of life.

3.5 Educational institutions

Maktabs:-Maktabs were the center of the primary education for the children of general people. Along with religious education, students were also taught subjects like reading, writing, and arithmetic. They were also taught some romantic literature of Persian example, Laila-Majnu, Yusuf-Julekha, etc. Along with practical education, letter writing applications, and accountancy were also taught in Maktabs.

Madrasas:- After completing the primary education in Maktabs, the students were sent to the Madarsas for higher education. Madarsas were the centers of higher learning and Emperor Akbar did remarkable development in the education of the medieval era. Along with religious and practical education, Akbar stopped the tradition of the Islamic religion and instructed to teach Hinduism and philosophy in many Madrasas. The subjects such as medicine, history, geography, economics, political science, astrology, philosophy, and mathematics were taught in Madarsas. Akbar made subjects like Vedanta, Jurisprudence, and Patanjali compulsory for Sanskrit students.

3.6 Important educational centers

Delhi: Nasiruddin established Madarsa -i-Nasiria under the reign of the Shiraz Allauddin Khilji and established many Madarsas with renowned teachers in them. Mughal emperor Humayun established many big institutions of astronomy and geography in Delhi. He also introduced institutions where subjects like Arabic, Persian, Grammar, Philosophy, and Astronomy was taught.

Agra: Sikandar Lodi established many Madarsas and Maktabs in Agra and attracted many students from other countries to come and study. Akbar made Agra the center of culture, fine arts, and crafts.

Jaunpur: Sher Shah Suri completed his education in one of the educational institutes of Jaunpur city. The main subjects of teaching were political science, warfare, history, and philosophy, Ibrahim Sharki set up many Madarsas in Jaunpur.

Bidar: Mohammad Gawan had established many Madarsas and Maktabs in this city and it became the famous center of learning. The city consists of a library that contains 3000 books on subjects like Islamic theology, culture, philosophy, medical science, astronomy, history, and agriculture.

3.7 Advantages

Practical education was given more importance, students and teacher’s relations were good. Students were taught from the basics and rulers also supported the development of education.

3.8 Disadvantages

Religious and Islamic education was given more importance.

The student aimed to focus on leadership for ruling the country.

4. Modern education

In the middle of the medieval age, the British invaded India and started to capture it. The modern education was introduced during the British empire. In the 1830s Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay introduced the English language. The subjects and the syllabus were limited to some extent, the main aim of modern education of the British was to spread Christianity. As time passed education started to develop and entered into the modern era that is in the twenty-first century, the era of science, technology, and innovations. And the demand and the need for education stills remain the same as it was in ancient and medieval times. In the modern era of science and technology, the industrial sector is increasing day by day. As demand increases our education sector also needs to change and adapt to that environment [ 5 , 6 ].

4.1 Aim of education

The objective of modern education was to inculcate values in students such as equality, secularism, education for all, and environmental protection, etc. To understand the culture as well as people of our country, every student must be provided at least a minimum level of education and also to provide education to the people who cannot afford it, to prepare the students with the ever-increasing demands.

4.2 Characteristics of education

The student-teacher relations remained the same as it was in ancient and medieval, but students did not live in the teacher’s house. As technology is increasing day by day, the education sector is also following the trend of technology by teaching the students through online lectures and Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). In Aviation and the medical sector, more emphasis is on practical knowledge as compared to other sectors. Women’s education is giving more importance, and the Government has launched many programs to encourage women’s education. In the modern era electronics gadgets like projectors, Light Emitting Diode (LED), and computers are used to teach the students. The Government has established many programs and there are many organizations that promote education in India.

4.3 Curriculum

In modern education along with studies, the emphasis is given on extracurricular activities and sports for all-round development of students.

4.4 Methods of learning

Students mostly learn concepts through online platforms like YouTube, Coursera, and Udemy.

Students refer to the notes given by the teacher’s side by side while learning online.

During class hours doubts are solved through discussions, debates, etc.

Pupils were assessed based on mid-sem written exams and practical exams to check their practical knowledge.

4.5 Educational institutions

Schools: Schools are the educational institutes where children are sent for their primary education. There are many private and government schools situated in India, primary education means education from Nursery to 10th standard. Children at their early ages are sent to schools to learn poems, grammar, prayers, alphabets, etc. besides this, the other subjects taught in the schools are English, mathematics, science, history, geography, and other regional languages. Schools are situated inside the city, also there are many cultural programs and sports events conducted in schools for the students to develop their interpersonal and physical skills. Private schools are run by organizations and the principal manages the academics and cultural activities in schools.

Colleges: After completing primary education from schools, students are sent to colleges for secondary education. After primary education, students are required to give entrance exams to take entry into colleges and according to the marks scored in entrance exams students are allotted colleges. In some states, during college, they are advised to choose a stream from science and commerce and then further carry on their secondary education. College education consists of 11th and 12th standard. Different subjects taught in secondary education according to their streams are physics, chemistry, geometry, algebra, accounts, and many other regional languages.

University : After the secondary education, students are required to give the entrance exams like Joint Engineering Entrance (JEE) and other state-level exams to take admissions in universities. Students are given choices to choose a stream like a computer, electronics, civil, and Mechanical and then start their career in it. The University provides undergraduate and postgraduate course comprising of course duration of 4 and 3 years, different universities in India are Savitribai Phule Pune University, Mumbai University, and many other aided non-aided and private universities. There are many cultural and sports events conducted in universities for giving students some time to joy and relax from studies.

4.6 Higher educational institutions

Indian Institute of Technology: It is one of the greatest universities in India for higher education like undergraduate, postgraduation, and many more streams. There is a total of 23 IIT colleges in India, every year lakhs of students compete to take admissions in these IIT’s. JEE-Mains and JEE-Advance are the two entrance examinations to take admission in these IIT’s, according to the All India Rank (AIR) and marks students are allotted IIT’s. Due to its high level of educational teaching and curriculum, IIT is famous all around the world.

The other top universities are Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), National Institute of Technology (NIT), Indian Institute of Science (IISC).

4.7 Advantages

Use of technology in learning, students is learning free-lancing and many other new technologies.

Many programs and missions have started to increase the employment of India.

Top class universities and colleges with good infrastructure and environment.

4.8 Disadvantages

Interference of government in education, management, and syllabus.

Lack of quality teaching as well as the environment in government schools and colleges.

Increase in fees of schools and colleges of private institutes.

Lack of practical knowledge orientation.

Due to the increase in fees, the family, which is below the poverty line cannot afford education and hence there is an increase in the number of laborers in India.

Lack of connectivity of the students who lived in rural areas.

5. Conclusion

In the modern era, industries and technology are increasing day by day. Every industry sector is looking for a person who best suits their industry. With the ever-increasing demand for industrial sectors, our current education system also needs to be upgraded. In universities, students are learning just for competing with each other to come first, no practical knowledge is gained. There is a lot of pressure and burden of work and studies on them, due to this student are committing suicide. Our education system needs to learn from ancient and medieval education system regarding the implementation of practical knowledge, student-teacher relations, ways of life student lived in that age, the contribution of kings towards the education, there was no stress laid on students and much more. The future of industries and commercial sectors will be very tough and ever demanding, so our government has to provide such an education system which will bring all-round development in students and make them future-ready and also teach them to live in any critical situation.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no ‘conflict of interest’.

  • 1. Glukhov VV, Vasetskaya NO. Improving the teaching quality with a smart-education system. In: 2017 IEEE VI Forum Strategies Partnership of Universities and Enterprises of Hi-Tech Branches (Science. Education. Innovations) (SPUE). 2017
  • 2. Ahmed A, Ahmed HA. A proposed model of education system using cloud computing. In: 2018 3rd International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering, Sciences and Technology (ICEEST). 2018
  • 3. Available from: http://www.vkmaheshwari.com/WP/?p=512
  • 4. Available from: https://www.sociologygroup.com/indian-education-system-features-pros-cons/
  • 5. Jayapalan N. History of Education in India; 1996
  • 6. Available from: http://digitaltk.com/indian-education-system-advantages-disadvantages/

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Education System in India: Past and Present (Image, PDF)

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education system in india

Education System in Ancient India (Vedic Era and Later)

  • The education was mostly imparted in ashrams, gurukuls, temples, houses. Mainly focused on the enrichment of culture, character, and personality, development, and cultivation of noble ideals.
  • The education was totally through orals and debates focused on subjects like warfare, military, politics, religion.
  • Students went to viharas and universities for higher knowledge of fine arts, medicine, mathematics, science, astronomy, politics, and the art of warfare.

Education System in Medieval India

  • The Indian education system continued in the form of ashrams, temples, and indigenous schools. 
  • The ancient education system was drastically changed after the Islamic invasion. During the medieval period, maktabas and madrassas became part of the education system. Religious and Islamic education was given more importance.
  • Education consists of the study of Islam, the study of Arabic literature, grammar, history, philosophy, mathematics, geography, politics, economics, Greek language, and agriculture.

Education System in Pre-Colonial and Colonial India

  • During the pre-colonial period, the education system was mostly the religious and spiritual form of education.
  • After the British invasion, modern education was introduced. The subjects and the syllabus were limited to some extent, the main aim of modern education of the British was to spread Christianity.
  • Later, a number of modern schools, colleges, and universities were opened by Britishers to propagate modern education among Indians. Subjects in the English language started to become popular.

Education System in Modern India

  • Today, Free and compulsory education is provided as a fundamental right  The whole curriculum of a student is divided into three sections primary, secondary, and graduation.
  • The objective of modern education is to inculcate values in students such as equality, secularism, education for all, knowledge of science and technology, and environmental protection, etc.
  • The extensive use of modern technologies in teaching methodologies, better higher education, and scientific research is driving India to become a major Economical Power of the World.

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Education in India – A Detailed Analysis

Last updated on July 24, 2024 by ClearIAS Team

Education

This article is a detailed analysis of the Education System of India.

The post covers various aspects of the problems faced by the Indian Education sector, the Constitutional provisions related to education, and the education policies adopted by modern India.

Also read: Learning Poverty

Table of Contents

History of Education in India

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India has a rich tradition of imparting knowledge.

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The ‘gurukul’ was a type of education system in ancient India with shishya (students) living with the guru in the same house. Nalanda has the oldest university system of education in the world. Students from across the world were attracted to Indian knowledge systems.

Many branches of the knowledge system had their origin in India. Education was considered a higher virtue in ancient India.

However, the renaissance and scientific thinking as happened in Europe didn’t happen in India at that time.

The British who took control of the Indian affairs by that time had different priorities. Education in British India initially lagged a lot.

However, later, the British established the modern education system still followed in India. They replaced age-old systems of education in the country with English ways . 

Still, the education system in India needs a lot of reforms.

Also read: Examination System in India

Current Status of Education in India: Data from Census 2011

Literacy Rate Trend in India

  • Literacy rate in India as per Census 2011:  74%.
  • Literacy rate: Male: 82.1%; Female: 65.5%
  • Kerala tops the rankings, followed by Delhi, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.
  • Bihar is the lowest among states, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, etc., however, they are improving their position.
  • Bihar has a literacy rate of 63.8%, and that of women is 53.3%.
  • Literacy rates for both adults as well as youths have increased, still, the absolute number of illiterates in India is as much as India’s population was at the time of independence.
  • The gender gap in terms of literacy began to narrow first in 1991 and the pace has accelerated, however still lags far behind the global female literacy rate of 7% (UNESCO 2015).
  • There are large state variations in the gender gap.
  • However, during 2001 – 2011, the male literacy rate increased by 6 percentage points but female literacy increased by nearly 12 percentage points. Achievement in female literacy in Bihar is noteworthy: from 33% in 2001 to 53% in 2011.
  • Be that as it may, India is still lagging behind the world  literacy rate of 86.3%(UNESCO 2015).  A major group of states lies in the average rank i.e. just above the national level of 64.8 percent.  

Indian Education System: The Present Pyramidal Structure

The Indian education system can broadly be considered as a pyramidal structure:

  • Pre-primary level: 5-6 years of age.
  • Primary (elementary) level: 6-14 years of age. Elementary-level education is guaranteed by our constitution under Article 21 A . For this level, the government has introduced Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) under the Right To Education(RTE) Act.
  • Secondary level: Age group between 14-18. For this level, the government has extended SSA to secondary education in the form of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan .
  • Higher education: generally of three levels: UG→ PG→ MPhil/PhD. To cater to the requirements of higher education, the government has introduced Rashtriya Uchhattar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA).

Read: Examination System in India

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) related to Education

Goal 4 of SDG : Education for all – ensures equitable, inclusive, and quality education along with the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.

Provisions in the Indian Constitution related to Education

  • Under  Article 45 in DPSP , it was mentioned that the government should provide free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14 years within 10 years from the commencement of the Constitution. As this was not achieved, Article 21A was introduced by  the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2002 , making elementary education a fundamental right rather than a directive principle. Article 45 was amended to provide for early childhood care and education to children below the age of six years.
  • To implement Article 21A, the government legislated the RTE Act. Under this act, SSA – Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan – got a further impetus. SSA aims to provide Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE) in a time-bound manner.
  • SSA has been operational since 2000-2001. Its roots go back to 1993-1994 when the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was launched. However, under the RTE Act, it got legal backing.

RTE Act 2009

  • 86th Amendment Act 2002 introduced Article 21-A, which provides for free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right.
  • The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act was enacted to implement this fundamental right.

Provisions of the RTE Act

  • ‘Compulsory education’ means an obligation of the government to provide free elementary education and ensure compulsory admission, attendance, and completion of  elementary education.
  • Provision for a non-admitted child to be admitted to an age-appropriate class.
  • Rational deployment of teachers, ensuring that there is no urban-rural imbalance in their postings.
  • Prohibition of deployment of teachers for non-educational work, other than services like decennial census, elections, etc.
  • It prohibits (a) physical punishment and mental harassment (b) screening procedures for admission of children (c) capitation fees (d) private tuition by teachers (e) running of schools without recognition.
  • Development of curriculum in consonance with the values enshrined in the constitution, ensuring all-around development of the child, building a system of child-friendly and child-centered learning.
  • To further inclusiveness, 25% reservation is provided for disadvantaged students in private schools.

Criticisms of the RTE Act

  • Even though the RTE + SSA have increased access to schools, resulting in a high enrollment rate, dropout rates increased in tandem. However, there is inadequate attention given to this scenario.
  • There is a fear of financial burden on the government for teacher recruitment and training.
  • The grey area of teacher transfer is also not helping the cause.
  • Since all state holidays are not relevant for all localities, such a calendar preparation by local authorities can increase attendance and can also encourage local panchayats to take ownership of schools.
  • RTE students in private schools are paying extra fees as the schools claim that the government fund provided for the same is not adequate.
  • Most private schools treat RTE as charity and demand that the onus of universalizing education should be on the government’s head rather than putting pressure on them.
  • 70% of students are in government schools. So it must be fixed in priority, by providing infrastructure , teacher quality , and targeted   learning  for children from  disadvantaged  groups to provide an equitable education system.
  • Under the RTE Act, till class 8, students should not be failed in exams. This is called the No detention policy. It had reduced dropout rates.
  • There is growing criticism of the policy resulting in reducing the quality of elementary education. Hence the RTE Act was amended to scrap the policy.
  • RTE Act prioritized schooling of children only from the age of 6, thus ignoring pre-school education. Kothari Commission had recommended the establishment of a center for the development of pre-primary education in each district.
  • District Information System for Education (DISE) report states that 30% of primary and 15% of upper primary schools have higher PTRs.
  • According to the Economic Survey 2018-19, the PTR at the national level for primary schools is 23 and 27 for secondary schools. Thus PTR appears to be satisfactory, as there are sufficient teachers. However, the main issue is a balanced deployment of teachers based on student strength.
  • Even though the Student-Classroom ratio (SCR) improved in almost all of the States, there is disparity across the country.

Modern Education in India: The Evolution of the System through various policies

The British government had introduced modern education in India. From Macaulay’s minutes to Wood’s dispatch to several commissions like the Sadler Commission, 1904 Indian education policy, etc. built the foundation of the Indian education system during the colonial period.

Radhakrishnan committee

In 1948-49, the University Education Commission was constituted under Radhakrishnan . It molded the education system based on the needs of an independent India. The pre-Independent Indian education value system was catering to colonial masters. There was a need to replace Macaulayism  with the Indian value system.  ( Macaulayism is the policy of eliminating indigenous culture through the planned substitution of the alien culture of a colonizing power via the education system). Some of the values mentioned in the commission were:

  • Wisdom and Knowledge 
  • Aims of the Social Order : the desired social order for which youths are being educated.
  • Love for higher values in life
  • Training for Leadership

The Independent Indian education system developed along the lines of this value framework. In the present times, where there are imminent threats of political ideologies hijacking the pedagogy of education and commercialization of education eroding value systems, it is appreciable to dust off the values promulgated by the commission. A recent controversial circular by the Central University of Kerala (CUK), directing that research topics for Ph.D. students must be by ‘national priorities’, and research in ‘irrelevant topics’ and ‘privilege areas’ must be discouraged, is a case in point.

Kothari commission

If the Radhakrishnan committee charted out the value system of the Indian education system, it was the Kothari Commission that provided the basic framework of the same. The commission provided for:

  • Standardization of educational system on 10+2+3 pattern.
  • Emphasized the need to make work experience and social/national service an integral part of education.
  • Linking of colleges to several schools in the neighborhood.
  • Equalization of opportunities to all and to achieve social and national integration .
  • Neighborhood school system without social or religious segregation and a s chool complex system integrating  primary and secondary levels of education.
  • Establishment of Indian Education Service.
  • On-the-job training of the teaching staff and efforts to raise the status of the teachers to attract talents into the profession.
  • To raise expenditure on education from 2.9% of the GDP to 6% by 1985.

This committee report paved the way for the National Educational Policy 1968 which provided the base and roadmap for further development of the education system in India.

National Educational Policy 1968

  • The policy provided for “radical restructuring” and  equalization of educational opportunities to achieve national integration and greater cultural and economic development.
  • Increase public expenditure on education to 6% of GDP.
  • Provide for better training and qualification of teachers.
  • Three-language formula : state governments should implement the study of a modern Indian language, preferably one of the southern languages, apart from Hindi and English in the Hindi-speaking states, and of Hindi along with the regional language and English in the non-Hindi-speaking states. Hindi was encouraged uniformly to promote a common language for all Indians.

National Educational Policy 1985

  • The policy aimed at the removal of disparities and to equalize educational opportunities, especially for women, SC and ST.
  • Launching of “Operation Blackboard”  to improve primary schools nationwide.
  • IGNOU, the Open University, was formed.
  • Adoption of the “rural university” model , based on the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, to promote economic and social development at the grassroots level in rural India.

T.S.R.Subramanium committee report

  • ECCE is inconsistent across states. So all government schools should have facilities for pre-primary education, which would facilitate pre-school education by the government instead of the private sector.
  • The policy of no detention should be upheld only till class five and not till class eight.
  • There is a steep rise in teacher shortage, absenteeism, and grievances.
  • Need to constitute an Autonomous Teacher Recruitment Board.
  • Four years integrated B.Ed. the course should be introduced.
  • There is an inadequate integration of information technology (IT) and the education sector.
  • The National Skills Qualification Framework should be scaled up.
  • The choice of vocational courses should be in line with local opportunities and resources . 
  • Bringing formal certification for vocational education at par with conventional education certificates.
  • All India Education Service.
  • Existing separate laws governing individual regulators in higher education should be replaced by the said act.
  • The role of existing regulatory bodies like UGC and AICTE should be revised.
  • National Accreditation Board (NAB) subsuming the existing accreditation bodies.

Kasturirangan Report On School Education (Draft National Education Policy)

For restructuring the education system in India, the government is preparing to roll out a New Education Policy that will cater to Indian needs in the 4th Industrial Revolution by making use of its demographic dividend. Committee for Draft National Education Policy (chaired by Dr. K. Kasturirangan) submitted its report on May 31, 2019.

You can read about the National Education Policy 2020 in detail here .

School Education: 

  • Low accessibility.
  • The curriculum doesn’t meet the developmental needs of children.
  • Lack of qualified and trained teachers.
  • Substandard pedagogy.
  • Currently, most early childhood education is delivered through anganwadis and private preschools. However, there has been less focus on the educational aspects of early childhood.
  • Guidelines for up to three-year-old children.
  • Educational framework for three to eight-year-old children.
  • This would be implemented by improving and expanding the Anganwadi system and co-locating anganwadis with primary schools.
  • Expanding the ambit of the Act to all children between the ages of three to 18 years, thus including early childhood education and secondary school education.
  • There should be no detention of children till class eight. Instead, schools must ensure that children are achieving age-appropriate learning levels.
  • The current structure of school education is to be restructured based on the development needs of students.
  • 10+2+3 structure to be replaced by 5-3-3-4 design comprising: (i) five years of foundational stage (three years of pre-primary school and classes one and two), (ii) three years of preparatory stage (classes three to five), (iii) three years of middle stage (classes six to eight), and (iv) four years of secondary stage (classes nine to 12).
  • The current education system solely focuses on rote learning. The curriculum load should be reduced to its essential core content.
  • Force students to concentrate only on a few subjects.
  • Do not test learning in a formative manner.
  • Cause stress among students.
  • To track students’ progress throughout their school experience, State Census Examinations in classes three, five, and eight should be established.
  • Restructure the board examinations to test only the core concept. These board examinations will be on a range of subjects. The students can choose their subjects and the semester when they want to take these board exams. The in-school final examinations may be replaced by these board examinations.
  • Although establishing primary schools in every habitation has increased access to education, it has led to the development of very small schools making it operationally complex. Hence the multiple public schools should be brought together to form a school complex .
  • A complex will consist of one secondary school (classes nine to twelve) and all the public schools in its neighborhood that offer education from pre-primary to class eight.
  • These will also include anganwadis, vocational education facilities, and an adult education center.
  • Each school complex will be a semi-autonomous unit providing integrated education across all stages from early childhood to secondary education.
  • This will ensure that resources such as infrastructure and trained teachers can be efficiently shared across a school complex.
  • A steep rise in a teacher shortage, lack of professionally qualified teachers, and deployment of teachers for non-educational purposes have plagued the system.
  • Teachers should be deployed with a particular school complex for at least five to seven years.
  • They will not be allowed to participate in any non-teaching activities during school hours.
  • Existing B.Ed. the program will be replaced by a four-year integrated B.Ed. program that combines high-quality content, pedagogy, and practical training. An integrated continuous professional development will also be developed for all subjects.
  • Separating the regulation of schools from aspects such as policymaking, school operations, and academic development.
  • Independent State School Regulatory Authority for each state will prescribe basic uniform standards for public and private schools.
  • The Department of Education of the State will formulate policy and conduct monitoring and supervision.

Higher Education

  • According to the All India Survey on Higher Education , the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education in India has increased from 20.8% in 2011-12 to 25.8% in 2017-18. Lack of access is a major reason behind the low intake of higher education. The policy aims to increase GER to 50% by 2035.
  • Multiple regulators with overlapping mandates reduce the autonomy of higher educational institutions and create an environment of dependency and centralized decision-making.
  • The National Higher Education Regulatory Authority (NHERA) should replace the existing individual regulators in higher education. Thus the role of all professional councils such as AICTE would be limited to setting standards for professional practice. The role of the UGC will be limited to providing grants.
  • Separate the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) from the UGC into an independent and autonomous body. It will function as the top-level accreditor and will issue licenses to different accreditation institutions. All existing higher education institutions should be accredited by 2030.
  • Replacing the current system of establishing higher educational institutions by Parliament or state legislatures. Instead, institutions can be set up through a Higher Education Institution Charter from NHERA.
  • Research universities focus equally on research and teaching.
  • Universities focus primarily on teaching.
  • Colleges focus only on teaching at undergraduate levels.
  • All such institutions will gradually move towards full autonomy.
  • Total investment in research and innovation in India has declined from 0.84% of GDP in 2008 to 0.69% in 2014. India also lags behind many nations in the number of researchers, patents, and publications.
  • NRF will act as an autonomous body for funding, mentoring, and building the capacity for quality research.
  • Undergraduate programs should be made interdisciplinary by redesigning their curriculum to include: a common core curriculum; and one/two area(s) of specialization.
  • Introduce four-year undergraduate programs in Liberal Arts.
  • By the next five years, five Indian Institutes of Liberal Arts must be set up as model multidisciplinary liberal arts institutions.
  • Poor service conditions and heavy teaching loads, augmented by a lack of autonomy and no clear career progression system, have resulted in low faculty motivation.
  • Introduction of a Continuous Professional Development program and permanent employment track system for faculty in all higher education institutions by 2030.
  • The student-teacher ratio of not more than 30:1 must be ensured.
  • All higher education institutions must have complete autonomy on curricular, pedagogical, and resource-related matters.

Read: Institutions of Eminence Scheme

Additional Key Focus Areas:

Additional key focus areas are (1) Technology in Education (2) Vocational Education (3) Adult Education and (4) the Promotion of Indian Languages.

Technology in Education

  • Improving the classroom process of teaching, learning, and evaluation
  • Aiding teacher training.
  • Improving access to education.
  • Improving the overall planning, administration, and management of the entire education system.
  • Electrification of all educational institutions paves the way for technology induction.
  • An autonomous body, the National Education Technology Forum, set up under the Mission, will facilitate decision-making on the use of technology.
  • Single online digital repository to make available copyright-free educational resources in multiple languages.

Vocational Education

  • Less than 5% of the workforce in the age group of 19-24 receives vocational education in India, in contrast to 52% in the USA, 75% in Germany and 96% in South Korea.
  • Vocational courses : All school students must receive vocational education in at least one vocation in grades 9 to 12.
  • Higher Education Institutions must offer vocational courses that are integrated into undergraduate education programs.
  • The draft Policy targets to offer vocational education to up to 50% of the total enrolment in higher education institutions by 2025, up from the present level of enrolment of below 10%.
  • National Committee for the Integration of Vocational Education for charting out plans for the above objectives.

Adult Education

As per Census 2011, India had a total of 26.5 crore adult non-literate (15 years and above).

  • Establishing an autonomous  Central Institute of Adult Education as a constituent unit of NCERT. It will develop a National Curriculum Framework for adult education.
  • Adult Education Centers will be included within the school complexes.
  • Relevant courses are made available at the National Institute of Open Schooling.
  • National Adult Tutors Programme to build a cadre of adult education instructors and managers.

Education and Indian Languages

  • The medium of instruction must be the mother tongue until grade 5, and preferably until grade 8.
  • 3 language formula be continued and flexibility in the implementation of the formula should be provided. Implementation of the formula needs to be strengthened, particularly in Hindi-speaking states. Schools in Hindi-speaking areas should also teach Indian languages from other parts of India for national integration.
  • To promote Indian languages, a National Institute for Pali, Persian, and Prakrit will be set up.
  • The mandate of the Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology will be expanded to include all fields and disciplines to strengthen vocabulary in Indian languages.

Transforming Education

The policy talked about the synergistic functioning of India’s education system, to deliver equity and excellence at all levels, from vision to implementation, led by a new Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog.

Education Governance

Revitalize education governance by bringing in synergy and coordination among the different ministries, departments, and agencies.

  • Constitute the National Education Commission or Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog, as an apex body for education headed by the Prime Minister. It would be responsible for developing, implementing, evaluating, and revising the vision of education and overseeing the implementation and functioning of bodies including the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), National Higher Education Regulatory Authority, and National Research Foundation.
  • The Ministry of Human Resources and Development must be renamed the Ministry of Education to bring the focus back on education.

Financing Education

  • The Draft Policy reaffirmed the commitment to spending 6% of GDP as a public investment in education.
  • The draft Policy seeks to double the public investment in education from the current 10% of total public expenditure to 20% in the next 10 years. 5% will be utilized for higher education, 2% in school education, and 1.4% for early childhood care and education.
  • There should be optimal and timely utilization of funds through the institutional development plans and by plugging loopholes in the disbursement of funds.

Criticism of the New Education Policy of India

  • The New Education Policy lacks operational details.
  • It is not clear from where the funding will be sourced.
  • Enough importance is not given to innovation, startup culture or economic principles to be added to the curriculum.
  • One-size-fits for all states can’t be a solution as each state in India is diverse in its educational needs. Controversy on NEET has shown this.
  • With technological advancement and the democratization of knowledge, the policy should have focused more on how to teach rather than what to teach.
  • Economic Survey 2017-18 mentioned the perils of the distinction between research institutions and universities in higher education. The policy recommendation of three distinct higher education institutions of research universities, teaching universities, and teaching colleges will further augment the gap between research and universities.
  • The draft policy is silent on the Institutions of Eminence and agencies like the Higher Education Funding Agency.
  • The role of Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog should be defined clearly. What would be its role vis-a-vis existing regulators? Also, there are criticisms from some quarters that RSA will open the door to the politicization of education.
  • Earlier the 3-language formula proposed by the draft policy made Hindi compulsory in non-Hindi speaking states. However, after the furor, the proposal was removed.
  • Even though the policy talks about bringing “unrepresented groups” into school and focusing on educationally lagging “ special education zones” , it doesn’t comprehensively address the inequalities prevalent in the system. It misses methods to bridge the gaps between rich and poor children.
  • The policy proposes to remove the provision mandating that primary schools be within stipulated distance from students’ homes and common minimum infrastructure and facility standards that should be met by all schools. If a common minimum standard is not specified, it will create an environment where quality in some schools will fall further thus augmenting the inequalities between schools across the country.

India’s education history is rich with ambitious policies failing at the altar of inadequate implementation of the same. In the absence of a handholding mechanism for states to embark on the path-breaking reforms mentioned in the policy and that too in a short time, will be too much to ask.

Funding requirements and governance architecture pose major challenges in the implementation of the policy. Political commitment is required to increase funding. RTE Act expansion to include preschool should keep in mind the present infrastructure inadequacies and teacher vacancies.

Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog may face administrative problems and turf battles. Also, it will raise questions on the role of new bodies like the National Medical Council.

The recent controversy on 3 language formula shows the sensitivity of language education in India and care should be taken to appreciate the emotional overtures while implementing the same.

Politically acceptability, social desirability, technological feasibility, financial viability, administratively doability, and judicially tenability are 6 pillars that will impact the implementation of the policy.

Be that as it may, the new education policy aims to address the challenges of (i) access, (ii) equity, (iii) quality, (iv) affordability, and (v) accountability faced by the current education system. It aims to revitalize and equip the education system to meet the challenges of the 21st century and 4th industrial revolution rather than catering to 19th and 20th century needs of industrialization. Also, India is on the cusp of a demographic dividend, rather than entered into this phase. So the education system catering to these needs is not a luxury that we hope for but rather a dire need at this moment in Indian history.

The Problems associated with the Education System in India

HRD ministry: Over 1.4 million schools and 50,000 higher educational institutions are operating in India. Out of 907 universities, there are 399 state universities, 126 deemed-to-be universities, 48 central and 334 private universities.

  • Even after more than a hundred years of “ Gokhale’s Bill”1911, where universal primary education was originally mooted, India is yet to achieve this goal.
  • China had achieved it in the 1970s. As per Census 2011, over 26% of India’s population is still illiterate, compared to 4% in China. About 50% of India’s population has only primary education or less, compared to 38% in China. The 13% of the population with tertiary education at the upper end in India is comparable with China.
  • Progress has been made in respect of female participation up to secondary level and GER for girls has exceeded that of boys.
  • But the girl’s enrollment rate is lower than that of boys at the higher education level.
  • A gap is visible across social categories in terms of enrollment rate at the higher education level.
  • According to NSSO’s 71st round (2014), drop-out rates are very high for boys at the secondary school level. Reasons for the same are economic activities, lack of interest in education, and financial constraints.
  • The transition rate from secondary school to senior secondary and further to higher education is very low.

Despite these highly ambitious education policies and elaborate deliberations on the same, the outcomes are rather shaky. Major criticisms and shortcomings of these policies and their implementations are:

  • Half the population is crowded at the bottom, either illiterate or with only primary education. Meanwhile, a disproportionately large segment is at the upper end with tertiary education.
  • The 2015 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) reflects this deteriorating quality. The report opines that deficits in foundational reading and arithmetic skills are   cumulative, which leaves students grossly   handicapped for further education .
  • India had fared poorly in the Programme for International Student Assessment  (PISA) test in 2008, and 09.
  • Education policies in India are focused on inputs rather than on learning outcomes.
  • Teacher shortages.
  • Local politics.
  • Corruption in teacher appointment.
  • Defects in teacher training.
  • Socio-cultural factors like caste division, and cynical attitude towards the teaching profession.
  • There is no accountability, as there is a guaranteed lifetime job independent of performance.
  • From 1952-2012 , education expenditure as a percentage of total government expenditure increased from 7.92 to 11.7, and as a percentage of GDP increased from 0.64 to 3.31. But it has still not reached 6% of GDP, as was recommended by the Kothari Commission way back in 1964.
  • Expenditure by the government on elementary education is more than tertiary level, but expenditure per student is more in tertiary. So there is a need to increase expenditure in all segments.
  • All India survey on higher education has shown that in West Bengal Muslim students in universities are very low. Lack of education at the primary and secondary levels is said to be the main reason.
  • Even though Article 15(4),(5) provides reservations for SC, ST, and OBC in higher education institutions , the Economic Survey 2018-19 points out their inadequate representation in these institutions.
  • The suicide of Rohit Vemula, a Ph.D. scholar at the University of Hyderabad, in 2016 had brought forward the discrimination still existing in these institutions.
  • Also, the representation of teachers at these levels is skewed against the backward class in spite of reservations. Article 16(4) provides for reservations of backward class in jobs.
  • At the school level, poor children are primarily concentrated in government schools. The poor quality of government schools thus disproportionately affects these children and creates a vicious cycle of illiteracy.
  • At the higher education level, the situation is more critical. One reason for the introduction of the National Medical Commission Bill is to curb the exorbitant fees charged by medical colleges.
  • Youths coming out of the higher education system in India are not employable, as they lack relevant industry-level skills.
  • India’s long-standing neglect of primary and secondary education has limited access to quality basic education. No skill development program can succeed without an underlying foundation of basic education.
  • National Policy on  Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 (PMKVY) has shown disappointing results.
  • Budget 2019-20  stated that the government enables about 10 million youth to take up industry-relevant skill training through the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). The  Budget has also increased focus on  ‘new-age skills’  like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, 3D Printing, Virtual Reality, and Robotic.
  • Currently, B Tech courses in AI are offered mostly in premier institutions only.
  • The budget 2019-20 proposed the National Sports Education Board for the development of sportspersons under the  Khelo India program (2017).

Now we will look at each rung of the education ladder in India.

Early childhood education

  • Early childhood education (ECE) is needed for  cognitive development in the early stage.
  • Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)  has a component for providing ECE through Anganwadis . But lack of effective regulation in this sector is eroding the quality of ECE.
  • There is a National Early Childhood Care and Education Policy 2013 . However, the policy has not been properly implemented.
  • There are multiple service providers but there is no clarity in the types of services provided.
  • The sprawling of an unregulated private channel, both organized and unorganized, which is also spreading to rural areas, has led to inequitable access, uneven quality, and commercialization of ECE.
  • Both Anganwadis and private schools focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic rather than cognitive and conceptual development.
  • There is a decline in the quality and training of teachers.
  • S.R. Subramanian’s committee report has brought focus to the quality deterioration in this sector.

Primary level

  • There is an increasing trend of parents choosing private schools for the primary level. However, there is variable quality in private schools. Also, fees vary from school to school and are on the higher side.
  • Eschew rigid curricula and make them more cognitive and flexible. There should be a broader cognitive approach than rote learning.
  • There is a need for activity-based learning. Teachers should teach at the right level, rather than teaching for the average learner.
  • The government has launched Padhe Bharat Bade Bharat –  targeting early reading and writing. The twin-track  approach of comprehension and math is the main focus.
  • There is a supply-side problem . The government is pumping funds through government schools thus increasing the number of schools and thus enrollment. However, quality and inclusiveness have dropped and dropout rates increased. These lead to poor learning outcomes.

School Complex

  • RTE and SSA have resulted in over-access but low-quality primary-level education. Now the aim should be to integrate these into school complexes, as mentioned by the Kasturirangan committee report, thus rationalizing the number of schools in an area.
  • The ‘Adarsh’ integrated school system of Rajasthan is an example of a school complex system . Here one school provides classes from l to XII under one principal. There is one such school in every gram panchayat.
  • This is an efficient way to solve teacher shortages and also to address the shortages of secondary schools. It can also address the problem of resource scarcity by integrating and rationalizing resources.
  • Inclusive learning can be furthered through school.
  • Also, these complexes can act as a pivot around which new reforms in education can be implemented.

Secondary level

ASER Rural 2017: In 2017, ASER changed the age group of the survey from primary level to secondary level. The report mentions the following:

  • Enrollment is low in this age group. There is a high digital divide at this level. Low quality also persists at this level. There is a high amount of absenteeism as well.
  • There is a need to expand RTE to cover the 14-18 age groups.
  • To realize the demographic dividend, skill education for these groups is necessary.

Economic Survey 2018-19 points out that Indian demography is changing and it requires more quality secondary education system rather than merely an increasing number of primary-level schools.

Private fees

  • The vagueness in the judgment regarding ‘reasonable surplus’ and ‘commercialization’ of education has watered down the outcome of the judgment.
  • There are state laws for capping fees. However, implementation problems and litigation make them ineffective.
  • CAG report mentioned misreporting and mismanagement by private schools. So laws should address this problem through stricter inspection, penalties, etc.

Higher education

There is an increasing number of higher education institutions but their quality is questionable, effectively making ‘islands of excellence amidst the sea of mediocrity. Increased accessibility to a low-quality higher education system has made democratization of mediocrity.

Raghuram Rajan, the ex-RBI governor, argued that India needs idea factories and universities by leveraging India’s inherent strengths like tolerance, diversity, etc. He said that there is a need for strong accreditation agencies and continuing education.

Problems of the higher education system in India

  • There is a dual problem of both quality and quantity. The gross enrollment ratio (GER) in higher education is only 24.5.
  • Even though education policy had an elitist bias in favor of higher education, the state of the same is much worse than the state of school education. Unlike school education, there is no national survey of the learning levels of college students.
  • The desired levels of research and internationalization of Indian campuses remain weak points.
  • Also, there is a low philanthropic investment in this sector. This creates an exclusive dependency on government funding by universities. This, in turn, reduces the autonomy and vision of these universities.
  • Privatization of higher education has not been led by philanthropy but the commercial interest that does not have a symbiotic relationship with the vision of universities.
  • These have led to inadequate human capacity, shoddy infrastructure, and weak institutions. Recommendations of the Narayana Murthy committee,  on the role of the corporate sector in higher education, have not been implemented and thus channeling of CSR funds to higher education remains inadequate.
  • Banks and financial institutions are not giving adequate attention to this area. Giving PSL status to these institutions can be considered.
  • Indian higher education system is of a linear model with very little focus on specialization.
  • UGC and AICTE act more as controllers of education than facilitators.
  • Due to the mushrooming of colleges at a higher rate since the 1980s , there is a regulatory sprawl in higher education.
  • Poor governance , with mindless  over-regulation , is widespread in this sector. Educational institutions responded to this with claims of academic and institutional autonomy for themselves, which was mostly a smokescreen for a culture of sloth in these institutions.
  • There is a concentration of powers, as these regulatory institutions control all aspects like accreditation, curriculum setting, professional standard-setting, funding, etc.
  • Compartmentalization and fragmentation of the knowledge system.
  • Disconnect with society.
  • Overemphasis on entrance tests.
  • Absence of innovation in learning methods.
  • Corrosion of autonomy of universities.
  • For long basic disciplines across the physical and social sciences and humanities were ignored.
  • However, the Economic Survey 2017-18 mentioned that there is an increase in Ph.D. enrolment in India in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) due to efforts by the government to increase the number and quantum of fellowships. However, there are still fewer researchers in India in comparison to other countries.
  • Budget 2019-20 proposes ‘Study in India’  with a focus on bringing foreign students to higher educational institutions in India to make India a “hub of higher education.”
  • Higher education institutions are used as rewards for loyalists and channels of graft by political parties in power.
  • Indian higher education system is plagued by unregulated and shoddy coaching institutions. The coaching industry makes around Rs. 24000 crores a year in India. Proper regulation of the same is required.

Research and development (R&D)

Economic Survey 2017-18 stated: “To transform from net consumer to net producer of knowledge, India should invest in educating its youth in science and mathematics, reform the way R&D is conducted, engage the private sector and the Indian diaspora, and take a more mission-driven approach in areas such as dark matter, genomics, energy storage, agriculture, and mathematics and cyber-physical systems”.

  • Although Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) is consistently increasing, as a fraction of GDP it has been stagnant between 0.6-0.7  percent of GDP over the past two decades.
  • The universities play a relatively small role in the research activities in India. There is a disconnection between research institutes and universities. This results in the compartmentalization of research activities and teaching into two separate silos.
  • The  separation of research from teaching leads to a situation where universities  have students but need additional faculty support, while research institutes have qualified faculty but are starved of young students.
  • India was, at one point, spending more on R&D as a percentage of GDP than countries like China – but currently, India under-spends on R&D.
  • Doubling of R&D spending is necessary and much of the increase should come from the private sector and universities.

The need of the hour

  • It is imperative to improve math and cognitive skills at the school level to make a difference at a higher level.
  • There is a need to expand R&D in India and to go beyond paper presentations and patents to a broader contribution of providing value for society.
  • There is also a need to encourage Investigator-led Research for funding science research.  Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) 2008,  a statutory body of DST, is a step in the right direction.
  • 50:50 partnerships with SERB for industry-relevant research under the Ucchatar Avishkar Yojana (UAY) is the right way to go forward.
  • It would strengthen state universities and provide knowledge in areas specific to a state.
  • National Research Foundation,  to fund, coordinate, and promote research at the college level, is proposed by the Kasturirangan report. It is reiterated in Budget 2019-20 : NRF will ensure the overall research ecosystem in the country is strengthened with a focus on areas relevant to national priorities without duplication of effort and expenditure. The funds available with all Ministries will be integrated into NRF.
  • Link national labs to universities and create new knowledge ecosystems. Together they can link up with the commercial sectors and help develop industrial clusters.
  • National Mission on Dark Matter
  • National Mission on Genomics
  • National Mission on Energy Storage Systems
  • National Mission on Mathematics
  • National Mission on Cyber-Physical Systems
  • National Mission on Agriculture
  • Ramanujan Fellowship Scheme.
  • Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research ( INSPIRE ) Faculty Scheme.
  • Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship.
  • Visiting Advanced Joint Research Faculty Scheme ( VAJRA ).
  • Improve the culture of research thus ‘ ease of doing research’. There is a need for less hierarchical governance systems that encourage risk-taking and curiosity in the pursuit of excellence.
  • Greater public engagement of the science and research establishment is needed. A greater effort at science communication  is needed.

Government initiatives on higher education

The government is trying to revitalize the Indian higher education system and for this many initiatives have been launched. Let’s discuss the importance of them.

National Testing Agency (NTA) 2017

  • NTA was set up for conducting entrance exams in higher educational institutions. It is based on the recommendations of the Ashok Mishra committee on IIT entrance 2015.
  • It will conduct JEE, NEET, National Eligibility Test (NET), Common Management Admission Test (CMAT), and Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT).
  • It will provide diversity and plurality in higher education. It will also ensure independence and transparency in conducting the exams.
  • However, it should be ensured that the computer-based test should not lead to further exploitation of rural students.
  • NEET stands for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test . It is for admissions in medical courses by replacing a plethora of medical entrance tests with one national-level test.
  • Supreme Court had said that NEET should be the sole basis for admission to medical courses.
  • There is a controversy about whether urban and CBSE students will dominate NEET. The government should pay heed to this criticism.
  • In Tamil Nadu doctors serving in rural areas get weightage in PG admission. NEET will effectively dislodge this system.
  • This controversy brought forward the conflict between the fair and transparent system of admission to curb the commercialization of medical education and the socioeconomic goals of the state, which in the case of Tamil Nadu includes ensuring enough doctors for rural areas.
  • Controversy on NEET has brought the following question to the limelight: should uniformity be thrust upon a country with such vast disparity and diversity? The political leadership should iron out the differences and produce a suitable admission policy. This task should not be left to the judiciary.
  • Be that as it may, states can’t remain insulated from the need to upgrade their education standard.

RUSA: Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan 2013

  • About 94 % of students in higher education study in 369 State universities, whereas less than 6% of students study in 150 Centrally-funded institutions.
  • 11th 5-year plan  (2007-12) opined that the center’s bias towards premier central institutions had skewed funding for these institutions mainly and thus neglected state-level institutions.
  • State investment in higher education was declining. UGC’s system of direct release of funds to State institutions bypassing State governments also leads to a sense of alienation for the states.
  • RUSA tried to correct this bias. The scheme aims at financing state institutions concerning their governance and performance.
  • RUSA has shown the result in increasing the performance of state institutions and changing the way regulators function for the good. State Higher Education Council(SHEC)  made medium-long-term state perspective plans.
  • Cabinet in 2018 decided to continue the scheme. A renewed focus by the center on RUSA will be a success only if it is impartially administered and states are willing to heed the advice of SHEC.

HECI: Higher Education Commission of India bill

  • On the recommendation of the Yashpal Committee 2010 for renovation and rejuvenation of higher education, the National Commission on Higher Education and Research bill was introduced but was not passed.
  • HECI was proposed to act as an overarching regulator of higher education by replacing UGC, which will maintain academic standards, approve new educational institutions, etc. but with no funding powers.
  • Draft Higher Education Commission of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act) Bill, 2018 was introduced in 2018. Budget 2019-20 proposed to bring a bill on HECI this year.
  • The draft bill had separated funding and placed it under MHRD. This was criticized for the fear of increasing political control and reducing the autonomy of universities.

IoE: Institutions of Eminence 2017

  • Around 2005, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the QS World University Rankings started, and in 2009 the Academic Ranking of World Universities started. From India, only the Indian Institute of Science was included in the top 500 every year. This prompted the government to introduce NIRF and IoE.
  • Under IoE, UGC was tasked to select 10 government universities and 10 private ones as IoE. These would be given autonomy in operations.
  • Selected government institutions would be provided with ₹1,000 crore over five years.
  • The IoE tag is expected to help them achieve the world’s top 500 higher education institutions in a decade and later into the top 100.
  • Institutes among the top 50 in the National Institute Ranking Framework rankings or in the top 500 in international ratings were eligible.
  • The model for the sector remains dependent on state patronage.
  • Entry into the global education race could now become an overriding concern when many systemic issues are plaguing the sector.
  • Funding only for public institutions is discriminatory.
  • Humanities institutions were neglected.
  • Transparency in the selection process, and the public sharing of benchmarks and guidelines. The furor over the selection of Jio Institute, even before it functioned, had attracted many eyeballs and criticisms.
  • Separate category to include sectoral institutions like IIM.

National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2015

NIRF is a methodology adopted by the MHRD to rank higher education institutions in India.

  • NIRF is common for public and private institutions as well as state and central institutions. Comparison of state-level colleges with central and private colleges may lead to a vicious cycle of low funding, poor performance, and low ranks among state-level institutions because of the resource gap.
  • So performance index values should be normalized concerning investments and resources that have gone into that institution. Also should consider making another ranking system for state-level institutions.

HEFA: Higher Education Financing Agency 2018

Introduced in Budget 2018-19, HEFA is a joint venture of MHRD and Canara Bank

  • With an initial capital base of Rs 1,000 crores, it will act as a not-for-profit organization that will leverage funds from the market and supplement them with donations and CSR funds. These funds will be used to finance improvement in infrastructure in top institutions.
  • It has been tasked with raising ₹1 lakh crore to finance infrastructure improvements in higher education by 2022.

 Foreign Education Providers Bill 2013 

  • There is no account of programs delivered by foreign universities in India. Inadequate regulation has led to low-quality courses offered in this sector.
  • The foreign Institution bill was not been able to pass in Parliament. However,

EQUIP report has mentioned the revival of this bill.

There are many other schemes and initiatives like SWAYAM, which offers open online courses from Class IX to post-graduation free of cost, GIAN and IMPRINT which are primarily focused on elite institutes like IITs and IISc.

APAAR: One Nation One Student ID Card

The Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) is a transformative initiative introduced in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) of 2020 and the National Credit and Qualifications Framework (NCrF).

It aims to provide a unified and accessible academic experience for students across India by assigning a unique and permanent 12-digit ID to every student, consolidating their academic achievements in one place.

Other Major Issues connected with the Education sector in India

The Indian education sector is also affected by other issues like the politicization of campuses, gender parity problems, poor-quality standards, etc.

Politicization of campuses

  • JP movement had provided an impetus to the politicization of students.
  • In Indian higher education institutions, university politics has become a launchpad for political ambitions.
  • Though campus politics is vital for democracy, as it makes students better citizens, the negative side of the politicization of campuses has been visible across Indian campuses. Recent incidents at Kerala University are a case in point.
  • One of the most important problems of student politics in India is that it acts as an appendage to political parties without having an independent identity or autonomy.

Gender Parity

  • By parents → who send boys to private and girls to government schools. Economic Survey 2018-19: enrollment of girls is higher than that of boys in government schools but the pattern gets reversed in private schools. The gender gap in enrollment in private schools has consistently increased across age groups.
  • By teachers → who reinforced the belief that boys are quick learners.
  • Girls are eased out of school to work on home chores or get married.
  • Economic Survey 2018-19 opines that BBBP has been a success and proposes to extend the cause of Gender equality by coining the slogan of BADLAV (Beti Aapki Dhan Lakshmi Aur Vijay-Lakshmi) to enhance the contribution of women in the workforce and the economy.
  • For ranking states based on gender disparity, Digital Gender Atlas for Advancing Girl’s Education was launched by MHRD.
  • In higher education, gender disparities still prevail in enrollment.
  • Efforts by the Government through programs like Beti Padhao, and Beti Bachao, the GPI has improved substantially at the primary and secondary levels of enrolment.

Quality of education

Learning outcomes are not assessed in India as numerical outcomes. The 12th Five-Year Plan noted the need for measuring and improving learning outcomes.

  • Children of illiterate parents can’t supplement school studies at home and also can’t afford expensive tuition, leading to a vicious cycle of illiteracy.
  • From 2014 to 2018, there was a gradual improvement in both basic literacy and numeracy for Class III students but only a quarter of them are at grade level (ability to read and do basic operations like subtraction of Class II level).
  • The report also shows that 1 out of 4 children leaving Class VIII are without basic reading skills (ability to read at least a Class II level).

Government initiatives

  • Central Rules under the RTE Act were amended in February 2017 to include the defined class-wise and subject-wise learning outcomes.
  • Nationwide sub-program of SSA to improve comprehensive early reading, writing, and early mathematics programs for children in Classes I and II.

Teacher Training

  • Teachers play the most critical role in a student’s achievement.
  • The need is for better incentives for teachers, investments in teacher capacity through stronger training programs, and addressing the problems in the teaching-learning process.
  • However, teachers in India, especially in government schools, are considered a cog in the way to efficient governance. There is an inadequate focus on their motivation and skill updation.
  • NCERT study shows that there is no systematic incorporation of teacher feedback into designing pieces of training. Also, there is no mechanism to check whether this training is translated into classroom performance.
  • These results in de-professionalizing the teaching profession and curb a teacher’s “internal responsibility” — the sense of duty to the job.
  • World Development Report on Education (2018) opined that both teaching skills and motivation matter. Individually targeted continued training is important. In line with this, MHRD and the National Council for Teacher Education launched the National Teacher Platform, or Diksha in 2017 . It is a one-stop solution to address teacher competency gaps.
  • However, the current training through Diksha follows a one-size-fits-all approach. Even though the platform is designed to democratize both access to and creation of content by teachers, its real benefits are in the ability to provide continuous professional development which complements existing physical training.
  • This technology-enabled platform allows training to become a continuous activity rather than an annual event and also creates a feedback loop ensuring the effectiveness of the material.
  • Diksha has the potential to re-engineer in-service teacher training in India. It is important to create good content and also to ensure technology consumption by teachers, the role of headmasters in promoting teachers’ professional development, etc.

As India participates in the PISA in 2021, it is to be made sure that we recognize the importance of teachers and their role in education outcomes.

Private Schools vs Public Schools: The Big Debate in Education

At least 30% of students between the 6-14 age groups are in the private sector.

  • There is an increasing perception that the quality of teaching in private schools is better than that of public schools. Thus there is a clamour for increasing the number of private schools and simultaneously limiting public spending on government schools.
  • However, the claim on the quality of private schools is debatable as there is a wide disparity of the same among these schools.

Research paper by Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, professor of education and international development at the Institute of Education, London, offers insights into private-public school education in India:

  • The paper points out that between 2010-11 and 2015-16, the average enrolment in government schools declined from 122 to 108 students per school, while in private schools it rose from 202 to 208.
  • Nevertheless, according to the District Information System for Education (DISE), 65% of all school-going children, 113 million, get their education from government schools.
  • The study points out that the migration to private schools is due to the belief among parents that these schools offer better value for money in terms of quality.
  • IndiaSpend, in 2016, reported that despite the Rs 1.16 lakh crore spent on SSA, the quality of learning declined between 2009 and 2014. It also points out that less than one in five elementary school teachers in India are trained. Also, the contractual teachers, who are high in number in government schools, are likely to be less motivated and accountable.
  • Preference for private school tutoring is there.
  • The quality of schools varies between states. In 2016, in Kerala, the proportion of children enrolled in primary government schools increased from 40.6% in 2014 to 49.9% according to ASER 2016.
  • States with better-functioning government schools have more expensive private schools as there is no market for the ‘low-fee’ budget private schools. Around 80% of private schools in India are ‘low’ fee schools.
  • ASER 2016 has shown small improvements in learning outcomes in government schools.
  • Between 2010-11 and 2015-16, the number of private schools grew by 35% – to 0.30 million. On the other hand, the number of government schools grew only by 1%, to 1.04 million. The migration out of government schools has left many of these economically unviable.
  • Government teachers in India earn four times that of China but don’t perform as well. Up to 80% of India’s public expenditure on education is spent on teachers. There is a need to link teacher salaries to their accountability.
  • However, the salary of private teachers is very low compared to their government counterparts. This is due to the “bureaucratically-set high ‘minimum wage’, which is being influenced by strong unions of government school teachers.
  • Another reason for the low salary of private school teachers is that the private education sector offers salaries based on market factors of demand and supply. Since 10.5% of graduates are unemployed in India, there is a high supply of teachers.
  • Rather than merely increasing the budget outlay for education, the need is to revise the Education policy for better accountability and monitoring mechanisms.
  • Gandhi argued that a Public-private partnership (PPP) model may be the solution, with public sector funding and private resources for education, since reforming the present system may not be politically feasible.

Rather than debating about private versus public schools, the focus should be to  enable the private sector to set up more schools under the scrutiny of regulatory authorities. There is no point in driving off the private initiative in schooling given the limited resources of the states. Private investment should be encouraged but made accountable for quality and conduct.

The above discussion showed the challenges of the Indian education system. A workforce that India wants to create in this digital age requires reforms in education at all levels. UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2016 opined that India is expected to achieve universal primary education in 2050. India is 50 years late in achieving its global education commitments. If the nation wants fundamental changes in the education system, it has to meet the 2030 SDG targets on education. There is an urgent requirement for greater evolution in education in India.

Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP): How to transform Education in India?

EQUIP is a  five-year vision plan on education, released by MHRD, by  the Prime Minister’s decision to create a five-year vision plan for each Ministry.

The EQUIP project is crafted by ten expert groups led by experts within and outside the government:

  • Group 1: Strategies for expanding access
  • Group 2: Towards global best teaching/learning process
  • Group 3: Promoting Excellence
  • Group 4: Governance reforms
  • Group 5: Assessment, Accreditation, and Ranking Systems
  • Group 6: Promotion of research and innovation
  • Group 7: Employability and Entrepreneurship
  • Group 8: Using Technology for Better Reach
  • Group 9: Internationalisation
  • Group 10: Financing Higher Education

The groups have suggested initiatives to transform the education system completely. The goals set by the groups are:

  • Double GER in higher education and resolve the geographically and socially skewed access to higher education institutions.
  • Upgrade the quality of education to global standards.
  • Position at least 50 Indian institutions among the top 1000 global universities.
  • Introduce governance reforms in higher education for well-administered campuses.
  • Accreditation of all institutions as an assurance of quality.
  • Promote Research and Innovation ecosystems for positioning India in the top three countries in the world in matters of knowledge creation.
  • Double the employability of the students passing out of higher education.
  • Harness education technology for expanding the reach and improving pedagogy.
  • Promote India as a global study destination.
  • Achieve a quantum increase in investment in higher education.

We can see that each of the above goals has been known to us for a long time. The problem is its implementation. The political class and all other stakeholders should come together to achieve these goals. The plethora of government initiatives on higher education is a sure sign of the importance given by the political class in the reform of the education system of India. Let’s hope that a new dawn of Indian education is around the corner which will bring back the glory of ancient times when India was the centre of knowledge production.

As the Economic Survey 2016-17 points out, lack of health, malnourishment, etc. affects the cognitive ability of children. This will, in turn, have a detrimental effect on their future educational prospects. This leads to a vicious cycle of inter-generational illiteracy, poor health, and ultimately poverty. So education and health are complementary to each other and reforms in one sector should invariably be preceded and followed by reforms in other sectors. Human development as a whole can be considered as a wholesome development and we must appreciate the interlinkages of each section of human capital formation, be it health, education, digital literacy, skills, etc.

Also read: PM-USHA

In the larger domain of human capital , education, and skill development have a big role.

Census 2011 data on literacy gives us a quick perspective on the current status of education. However, education is not just about literacy.

RTE act acts as a cornerstone for Indian education. Nevertheless, it is the various education policies, charted out since Independence, which led to the historical evolution of the education system in India.

The results of these policies can be said to be mixed. There is still a lot of room for improvement.

There are various government initiatives targeting each level of the education system in India. The higher Education System is given a greater focus these days.

The latest update in the education sector is the Kasturirangan report or draft new education policy . It captures the need of the hour for reforming education.

The modern Indian education system is crying for a revamp. The draft New Education Policy (NEP) is the right moment to take stock of its history, achievements, and misgivings to chart out a futuristic education plan for 21st-century India.

Also read:  Education in state list: Should it be restored?

Article by  Sethu  Krishnan M, curated by ClearIAS Team

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Reader Interactions

education system in india past and present

November 27, 2019 at 10:33 pm

Wow what the largest matter of education is?. Very nice thank u sir

education system in india past and present

November 28, 2019 at 12:09 pm

Nice article but it is too long we need around 400 words which explains education in india,challenges,way forward only It is very hard to remember and segrate from given imp because all points look like imp please try to make it around 400 words only

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November 28, 2019 at 2:00 pm

@MKM – The aim was to cover almost everything about Education in India as a comprehensive post. The post covers: (a) History of Education in India (b) Current Status of Education in India: Data from Census 2011 (c) RTE Act (d) Various Educational Policies in the past (e) The New National Educational Policy (NEP) (f) The Problems associated with the Education System in India (g) Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP): How to transform Education in India?

Though ClearIAS prefers short and crisp articles, for important areas like Education, we felt a detailed write-up would be useful.

Thank you for your feedback. We will continue to create concise articles as well.

education system in india past and present

November 28, 2019 at 12:35 pm

Good Source thank you Team.

education system in india past and present

November 28, 2019 at 1:56 pm

education system in india past and present

November 28, 2019 at 2:41 pm

November 29, 2019 at 7:45 am

This is a very nice and comprehensive information on education.

education system in india past and present

November 29, 2019 at 2:21 pm

Such a nice article sir thank you..

education system in india past and present

December 16, 2019 at 5:31 pm

education system in india past and present

March 30, 2020 at 12:48 pm

Sir,a small corrrection regarding literacy rate ranking, Kerala (93%)tops its followed by Lakshadweep(92 %), Mizoram (91 %) , Tripura (87.7 %) and Goa (87.4 %) as 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th places repectively according to 2011 census.

education system in india past and present

June 16, 2020 at 12:20 am

Excellent Work

education system in india past and present

August 31, 2020 at 1:14 pm

Thank you vry much team.🤗 You provide excellent data ,analysis,facts,etc…evrything at one doc.

November 16, 2020 at 10:47 pm

Absolutely amazing stuff. Can’t believe.. Thanks from the bottom of my heart ❤️❤️

education system in india past and present

May 27, 2021 at 12:38 pm

Great article about Education ​very informative thanks for sharing

education system in india past and present

May 31, 2021 at 11:55 pm

Well and easy to understand…thank u for the team

education system in india past and present

September 12, 2021 at 10:37 am

Very good and such a broad information thank u 💖.. Lots of love

education system in india past and present

December 16, 2021 at 11:10 am

Need to update with current data eg how much percentage of school/ children get access of online education in pandemic Era COVID challanges others family support etc thank

January 28, 2022 at 10:32 am

Thank you so much for your birthday support

education system in india past and present

February 27, 2022 at 5:33 pm

good information

June 10, 2022 at 3:00 pm

Nice article very informative…traditional classroom study should be changed into a smart classroom online

education system in india past and present

July 14, 2022 at 8:55 pm

education system in india past and present

December 18, 2022 at 1:05 am

Absolute coverage article, Kindly keep it up for your determined spectators.

education system in india past and present

May 28, 2023 at 9:10 pm

desserstation on education/slums/miagration par hindi me pdf mil sakta hai

January 23, 2024 at 8:06 pm

The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of India’s education system, highlighting its pyramid structure and alignment with Sustainable Development Goals. Constitutional provisions like Article 21A and the RTE Act aim for universal education. However, the RTE Act faces criticism. To enhance educational outcomes, addressing these concerns and ensuring effective implementation are imperative. Schools in Pataudi Gurgaon focus on quality, inclusivity, and overcoming criticisms can lead Indian education to new heights. Thank You Samriddhi Sharma

February 7, 2024 at 7:44 pm

It’s crucial to delve into the challenges confronting the Indian education sector and understand the constitutional framework and policies guiding it. Exploring these aspects sheds light on the complexities and opportunities within the system. However, it’s equally important to consider how these discussions translate into action at the grassroots level, especially in local communities like Rajajinagar, Bangalore. How are schools in rajajinagar bangaloreaddressing these systemic issues and implementing reforms to ensure quality education for all students? This intersection of policy discourse and on-the-ground realities is where meaningful change happens.

March 8, 2024 at 6:22 am

Is there any data on how many states provide free education to girls till grade X and how many provide it till grade XII?

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Educational Systems in India: Past and Present

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education system in india past and present

  • Amita Gupta  

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India is the world’s largest democracy with about 1.08 billion people and a civilization that spans more than 5,000 years. At the time of independence in 1947, after the almost 300-year-long British rule, India was divided into two separate countries, India and Pakistan. This separation occurred due to differences between the Hindu and Muslim political leaders at that time, and the partitioning of India by the departing British administrators is a period of great sadness, violence, and bloodshed in the history of the subcontinent. Pakistan emerged as an independent nation consisting of West Pakistan (on the western border of India) and East Pakistan (on the eastern side bordering the Indian state of West Bengal). In 1971, further conflicts resulted in another geographical and political division, with East Pakistan claiming independence and emerging as yet another separate country now known as Bangladesh.

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Gupta, A. (2006). Educational Systems in India: Past and Present. In: Early Childhood Education, Postcolonial Theory, and Teaching Practices in India. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780312376345_3

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UNESCO launches 2021 State of the Education Report for India: No Teacher, No Class

education system in india past and present

New Delhi, 5 October 2021: Today, on the occasion of World Teacher’s Day, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched its 2021 State of the Education Report (SOER) for India: “No Teacher, No Class” .  

This publication is the annual flagship report of UNESCO New Delhi and it is based on extensive research. 

This third edition of the State of Education Report, focused on the theme of teachers, teaching and teacher education, underscores that the work of teaching is complex. It   attempts to provide an understanding of key aspects of the teaching profession, provides a profile of the 9.6 million teaching workforce, as well as the challenges of their intricate teaching routine and their professional development. 

The National Education Policy (NEP) , adopted in 2020, acknowledges teachers as crucial elements in the learning process, while stressing the importance of their recruitment, continuous professional development, good work environment and service conditions. 

With an in-depth analysis of the current state of teachers in India, highlighting best practices, the UNESCO State of the Education report for India 2021 aims to serve as a reference for enhancing the implementation of the NEP and towards the realization of the SDG.4 target 4c on teachers.

The report also looks at teachers’ experience of ICT and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the teaching profession. The ongoing pandemic has drawn attention to the centrality of the profession and the importance of quality of teaching. During this unprecedented health crisis, most teachers were found to have positive attitudes and beliefs about integrating technology in education, even though they perceived a lack of professional skills.   

The report concludes with a set of ten action-oriented recommendations to address the challenges facing the teaching profession in India, and thus help achieve the NEP 2020 vision and objective – “Ensuring quality education for all in the country”. 

The ten recommendations are: 

  • Improve the terms of employment of teachers in both public and private schools
  • Increase the number of teachers and improve working conditions in North Eastern states, rural areas and 'aspirational districts' 
  • Recognize teachers as frontline workers 
  • Increase the number of physical education, music, art, vocational education, early childhood and special education teachers. 
  • Value the professional autonomy of teachers
  • Build teachers' career pathways
  • Restructure pre-service professional development and strengthen curricular and pedagogical reform
  • Support communities of practice
  • Provide teachers with meaningful ICT training
  • Develop teaching governance through consultative processes, based on mutual accountability

The substance of the Report has been developed by an expert team of researchers in the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, under the guidance of the UNESCO Office in New Delhi.  

To illustrate the report, the following audio-visual package is also available free of copyright :

1.     Summary video underlining the recommendations of the Report  2.    Short capsules

  • Recognize teachers as frontline workers
  • Increase the number of teachers in physical education, music, art, vocational education, early childhood and special education

3.    Teasers 

  • What qualities do you look for in a good teacher - Student voices
  • What qualities do you look for in a good teacher – Teacher voices  

Note to the Editors UNESCO has made the supply of well-trained, supported and qualified teachers one of its top priorities. This focus has been reinforced by Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education through the Education 2030 Framework for Action .    UNESCO hosts the International Task Force on Teachers  (link is external) for Education 2030 and they work together to address the “teacher gap” as well as tackle the issues raised in target 4.c and in the Incheon Declaration , which specifically calls for Member States to “ensure that teachers and educators are empowered, adequately recruited, well-trained, professionally qualified, motivated and supported within well-resourced, efficient and effectively governed systems”.

Previous editions

  • N for Nose: State of the Education Report for India, 2019
  • Vocational Education First: State of the Education Report for India, 2020

About UNESCO

UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It seeks to build peace through international cooperation in Education, the Sciences and Culture. UNESCO's programmes contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals defined in Agenda 2030, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015.

In this spirit, UNESCO develops educational tools to help people live as global citizens free of hate and intolerance. UNESCO works so that each child and citizen has access to quality education. By promoting cultural heritage and the equal dignity of all cultures, UNESCO strengthens bonds among nations. UNESCO fosters scientific programmes and policies as platforms for development and cooperation. UNESCO stands up for freedom of expression, as a fundamental right and a key condition for democracy and development. Serving as a laboratory of ideas, UNESCO helps countries adopt international standards and manages programmes that foster the free flow of ideas and knowledge sharing.

Follow UNESCO New Delhi on Twitter , Instagram and Facebook

For more information, please contact :

Nicole Bella, Head of Education Sector and Programme Specialist E-mail: n.bella@unesco.org  

Rekha Beri, Public Information Officer E-mail: r.beri@unesco.org    

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  • IAS Preparation
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Major Issues in the Indian Education System

The Indian Education System has its share of issues and challenges which need to be resolved to provide better and improved education to children, who are the future of the country. Over the years, a lot has changed in the Indian education system but still, there are many loopholes and problems which need to be resolved. 

In this article, we shall discuss in detail the issues and challenges with the Indian Education System and a few counter solutions to overcome these challenges. Also discussed are a few schemes which have been initiated by the Government for the improved education of students across the country. 

Aspirants preparing for the upcoming IAS Exam must carefully go through this article. 

Education System in India – Issues Download PDF Here

Start your UPSC Exam Preparation now and ace the upcoming examination with the help of links given below:

About the Indian Education System

A major shift in the education system can be observed from the pre and post-British rule till today in India. Initially, children were educated in Gurukuls which was later modified and the modern education system was introduced. 

After India became independent, the constitution committed six fundamental rights, of which one was the Right to Education. It allowed free education for every child up between the ages of 6 and 14 years. 

The education system is mainly divided into pre-primary, primary, elementary and secondary education, which is followed by higher studies. 

However, there are many drawbacks and loopholes in this system which if curbed can work for the overall development of the country. 

To know in detail about the Right to Education Act (RTE) , aspirants can visit the linked article.

Current Issues in Education in India

Discussed below are the current issues with the Education system in India:

  • Expenditure on education – More funds should be allotted for the development of the education system in India. In the past few years, many beneficial steps have been taken in this direction and if the same is continued India may soon overcome the current challenges.
  • Gross enrolment pattern – As followed by the UN must also be adopted by India.
  • Capacity utilisation – The world now needs creative minds and the Government must encourage schools to boost the students and utilise their capacities to the max and not let their ideas go unheard.
  • Infrastructure facilities – Better infrastructure must be provided especially in Government schools. Since the Government is now focussing on digital education, they must undertake steps to provide all necessary facilities in the Government schools and rural areas as well.
  • PPP model – Well-designed PPPs can create models of innovation for the school system in India. Thus the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model must be taken into consideration.
  • Student-teacher ratio – The number of students in search of proper education is way more in comparison to the teachers and faculty available. Thus, qualified teachers must be appointed to impart knowledge to the future of the country.
  • Accreditation and branding – quality standards.
  • Students studying abroad – Many students choose to study abroad because of these issues in the Indian education system. The concerned authorities must work on them and students must also choose to stay, learn in India and empower the country through their knowledge.

UPSC and other Government exam aspirants can also refer to the links given below for exam preparation:

Indian Education System Problems and Solutions

There are a few simple solutions which can help in overcoming the problems with the India Education System:

  • Innovations required – India is moving towards digital education. This will help in budding the innovative minds of students and the youth of the country. This will bring a transformation in the Indian education system and the authorities and Government must encourage and boost the young minds to focus on overall development rather than just the book-learning.
  • Quality of education – There is a major difference in the quality of education being provided in the rural and urban areas of the country. Steps must be taken to standardize the quality of education across India so that everyone can get equal and unbiased knowledge and opportunities to grow.
  • Making education affordable – There are Government schools and educational Institutions which are affordable but lack in terms of infrastructure and quality. On the other hand, there are various private education institutions which demand high fees and have better infrastructure and equipment to study. This disparity must be worked upon and the Government must make education affordable and accessible for all. 

Schemes & Campaigns to Boost Education System in India

Given below is a list of Government schemes introduced to enhance the education system in India:

  • Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan – Launched in 2001 to promote ‘Education for All’, strengthening the existing infrastructure of schools and construction of new schools. To know in details about the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) , visit the linked article.
  • National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level – It is a focused intervention of the Government of India, to reach the “Hardest to Reach” girls, especially those not in school. Read more at Elementary Education: Moving Towards RTE And Quality Improvement.
  • Mid-Day Meal Scheme – It is one meal that is provided to all children enrolled in government schools, government-aided schools, local body schools, special training centres (STC), madrasas and maktabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Visit the Mid Day Meal Scheme page to learn more.
  • Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan – It is a flagship scheme aiming at enhancing secondary education and increasing the enrolment rate by providing a secondary school within a reasonable distance of every home.
  • Scheme for Infrastructure Development in Minority Institutes – The scheme would facilitate the education of minorities by augmenting and strengthening school infrastructure in Minority Institutions to expand facilities for formal education to children of minority communities.
  • Beti Bachao Beti Padhao – The scheme to promote girl child education in India. Visit the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana page to learn more about the BBBP campaign.

Aspirants can get the detailed UPSC Syllabus for the prelims and mains examination at the linked article and start their exam preparation accordingly. 

Frequently Asked Questions about Indian Education System

What are some of the problems that beset the indian education system, how effective is the indian education system.

For any further updates, candidates can visit BYJU’S and get the latest study material and preparation strategy. 

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Education System in India: Everything You Need To Know

Manali Ganguly Image

Manali Ganguly ,

Jul 9, 2024

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The education system in India has evolved in the past few years to accommodate a more logical and practical approach towards education. The Indian education system can be roughly divided into the pre-primary, primary, secondary, higher secondary, graduate and postgraduate levels.

Education System in India: Everything You Need To Know

Education System in India: The education system in India has evolved over the years and plays an important role in shaping not just the careers of the students but their lives as well. The Indian education system is divided into several levels, including pre-primary, primary level, secondary, higher secondary, graduate and postgraduate levels.

In India, the education system is state-run. There are centralised boards as well as state boards to which the schools are affiliated. After the higher secondary level, education is imparted in colleges and universities, where the courses are bifurcated into academic, professional, and vocational courses.

An in-depth study of the complete system is crucial for a clearer understanding.

Table of Contents

History of the Education System in India

Stages of education in india, central and state school education boards in india, education schemes in india, challenges faced by the education system in india, literacy rate in india, right to education act (rte).

The education system in India that we see today is said to have come down since the Rig Vedic times. In the early period, Mathematics was the only subject through which education was imparted, implying a logical approach to learning.

In the latter period, subjects that were included to be taught were Pali grammar, Buddhist literature, social values and logic. Education was free in those times.

For the Hindu society, education was imparted in pathshalas or gurukuls where the students had to stay and serve the ‘guru’ or the teacher and learn their lessons. At the same time, in a Muslim society, there were Madrasas and Maqtabs.

When India became a British colony, initially the East India Company did not think of working on or improving the education system in India. It was later that the missionaries coming from Europe introduced Western education in the country. The Sergeant Commission and the Hunter Commission are the commissions that were set up by the British to improve the quality of education in India.

There was immense improvement in the Indian system of education in the postcolonial period. The modern education system in India can be segmented into four distinctive layers roughly. They are primary, secondary, higher secondary and higher education.

Modern India made it mandatory to educate children in the age group of 6 years to 14 years. Higher education refers to the education after completing the higher secondary level. The graduate, postgraduate, doctoral and postdoctoral levels constitute the higher education in the country.

Also Read: Indian Education System vs Foreign Education System

New Education Policy

The New Education Policy has made several amendments to the education system in India. The moderations made in the system have been mentioned in the section below:

  • The foundational stage of education runs for 5 years. The age group covered in this segment is 3 years to 8 years.
  • The preparatory stage runs for 3 years. The age group covered in this stage is 8 years to 11 years, which ideally corresponds to classes 5 to 8.
  • The middle stage of education is between the age group of 11 years to 14 years. The classes covered are 6 to 8.
  • The secondary stage is between 14 years and 16 years which includes classes 9 and 10.
  • The higher secondary stage is between 16 years and 18 years which corresponds to the higher secondary classes of 11 and 12.
  • There's no restriction on choosing the combination of subjects. Students can choose subjects across streams.

Also Read: What is Quality Education? Meaning and Importance

The education system in India is divided into the pre-primary level, the primary or the elementary level, the secondary level, the higher secondary level, the graduate level, the postgraduate level, and the doctoral and postdoctoral levels. The description for each level can be found below.

  • Pre-Primary Level: This stage covers the education of children between 3 and 6 years of age. While terminology may differ for different regions and schools, this stage mostly starts from the playgroup and ends with upper kindergarten.
  • Primary Level: This is a relatively longer stage and covers classes 1 to 8 in school. Classes 1 to 5 constitute the primary level and classes 6 to 8 constitute the upper primary level.
  • Secondary Level: This stage is constituted by classes 9 and 10 in school.
  • Higher Secondary Level: This stage includes classes 11 and 12 in school.
  • Graduate Level: This stage includes 3 years of degree courses which are done in the college.
  • Postgraduate Level: The postgraduate stage can be done in colleges or universities.
  • Doctoral and Postdoctoral Levels: The doctoral and postdoctoral levels require research and are done at the universities.

Also Read: Types of Education: Formal, Informal & Non-Formal     

There are a number of education boards in India apart from the state education boards. The central boards are CBSE, CISCE, and NIOS. Each of these boards has a separate set of curriculum for teaching as well as conducting exams.

The centrally operating education boards in India are the following:

  • Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE)
  • Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)
  • National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS)

The state-run education boards in India can be found below:

  • Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB)
  • Punjab School Education Board (PSEB)
  • Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE)
  • Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education (JKBOSE)
  • Board of High School and Intermediate Education Uttar Pradesh
  • Chhattisgarh Board of Secondary Education (CGBSE)
  • Board of Secondary Education Rajasthan (RBSE)
  • Haryana Board of School Education (HBSE)
  • Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBOSE)
  • Andhra Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (BSEAP)
  • Andhra Pradesh Board of Intermediate Education (BIEAP)
  • West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE)
  • Maharashtra State Board Of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE)
  • Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSEB)

Also Read: CBSE vs State Boards: Which is Better?

The education system in India has witnessed the introduction of various kinds of educational schemes aiming at improving the quality of education among the targeted population. All such schemes that have been introduced and implemented to improve the education system and therefore the literacy rate are mentioned below:

  • Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (2009): This act was passed in 2009 to make education compulsory for all children aged between 6 and 14 years.
  • Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC): This scheme was introduced to aid in the development and promotion of a conducive ecosystem in the higher educational institutes for conducting research by way of communication and exchange of ideas with foreign nations.
  • National Educational Alliance for Technology (NEAT): This scheme is aimed at improving the quality of education in higher educational institutes.
  • Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA): This scheme was introduced in 2013 by the then Ministry of Education. This scheme is sponsored by the Centre to facilitate strategic development in the higher educational institutes of the country.
  • NISHTHA 2.0: This scheme was introduced to train the teachers as per the requirement to support logical and critical thinking in students.
  • Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM-SHRI) Yojana: This scheme has been introduced by the Government of India to facilitate better learning in 14,000 schools located countrywide. The aim is to improve and uplift the education in these schools to bring them at par with the other centrally-controlled and state-controlled schools in the country.
  • Mid-Day Meal Scheme: This system was renamed the PM Poshan or Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman in September 2021. This scheme offers lunch to the children from classes 1 to 8 in the government-run schools.
  • PRAGYATA: This scheme issues an advisory in the form of guidelines, created by the NCERT, to the schools for digital education.
  • Samagra Shiksha: This scheme merges together the schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Teacher Education (TE), and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA). This scheme covers the pre-primary to the higher secondary level of education in the schools. The scheme fosters equal and all-inclusive education in the schools.

Also Read: Women Education in India: Importance, Welfare Schemes, and Benefits

Despite the all-round development of the education system in India, there are a few challenges faced by the system. Corrective measures can help in dealing with the challenges and bring the education system of India to par with the top-ranking systems in the world.

The challenges faced by the system are:

  • Lack of Infrastructure: The lack of infrastructure in most of the schools in rural areas leads to insufficient development of the students in terms of learning.
  • Rote Learning Methods: This is one of the major drawbacks of the Indian education system. As compared to the top-ranking countries, in terms of education, the education system in India lies behind because of the rote learning techniques. The ways of teaching in most of the schools are rather outdated, despite digital platforms being used in a few. Stressing on rote learning fails to instil interest in the students thereby leading to a half-hearted knowledge.
  • Lack of Practical Application: Most of the lessons imparted in the school level lack any demonstration or practical application. This leads to insufficient knowledge among the students which hinders their educational growth in the long run.
  • Expensive Education: The top private schools rank among the best schools in the country. However, the expenses are sky reaching which makes it not just difficult but impossible for most of the population to afford these schools.
  • Teacher-to-Student Ratio: This is a factor that is constantly hindering proper learning among the students. The class strengths are quite high which makes it difficult for the teachers to pay attention to individual students and address their needs.

Also Read: 5 Advantages And Disadvantages Of Online Education

The education system in India is controlled and supervised by three central committees - University Grants Commission (UGC). National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). There exists a Ministry of Education in each state. There are more than 37000 colleges and 700 universities in India.

The literacy rate in India for seven-year-olds and above is 74.04%. The male literacy rate stands at 82.14% while the female literacy rate in India is 65.46%. The GER or General Enrolment Ratio for higher education in India stands at 26.30%. The GER is a metric that represents the percentage of people in the age group of 18 years to 23 years going for higher education.

Also Read: 10 Ways to Balance Student Life And Academics

The Right to Education Act was enacted on Aug 4, 2009, and came into force in Apr 2010. This is an Act of the Parliament of India to safeguard the rights of children to education free of cost. As per the act, the children are entitled to receive free and compulsory education from 6 years of age to 14 years of age.

The Right to Education Act makes it mandatory for children to receive fundamental education irrespective of caste, creed or gender. The Act lists the norms that the schools must abide by while imparting elementary education to the children of the specified age group.

Also Read: Best Career Options for Girl in India

What is meant by the 5-3-4-4 education system?

Which state ranks at no. 1 for education in India?

What are the 4As of Education?

Is LKG and UKG compulsory in India?

At what rank does India stand in the world in terms of education?

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Education System India Explained – New Edu Policy 2024

College Vidya Team Feb 1, 2024 61.6K Reads

India is among the traditionally rich countries in terms of imparting knowledge and education with universities like Nalanda – the oldest university system of education in the world. The education system since then has evolved a lot in India. From Gurukuls, to modern schools, to online colleges, there have been some massive changes in the education system in India. 

In this blog, we will be discussing about education system in india this evolution, from history, to present and what lies in the future. We will also discuss the changes in the new National Education Policy (NEP) and how it plans to reform the current education system for a brighter future. 

Education in India- Facts & Statistics

Under the amendment made in 2020 in the India’s Right to Education Act (2020), free and compulsory education is to be ensured to each and every child in the age group of 3-18, which was earlier 6-14 before the amendment of 2020.

Following are some of the statistics (as of 2020) related to the education system in India 

  • 26% of the Indian population which is roughly around 1.39 billion is in the age group of 0-14 years that fall under the primary education sector. 
  • 18% of the Indian population which is approximately 500 million is in the age group of 15-24 years that fall under the secondary and higher education sector. 
  • The adult (15+ years) literacy rate in India is 69.3%, out of which adult male literacy is 78.8% and adult female literacy is 59.3%. 
  • Kerala is the Indian state with the highest rate of literacy .
  • University of Delhi is the most popular higher education institution in India followed by IIT Bombay. 
  • In the 2019 English Proficiency Index, India was ranked as 34th among 100 nations.   

Future Aims for Education System in India  

  • India has joined the United Nation’s E9 Initiative  in April 2021. The purpose of this initiative is to encourage digital learning, targeting the marginalised, especially girls.
  • In the Union Budget of 2021-22 , the Govt. of India has allocated a budget of $7.56 billion for school education and $5.28 billion for higher education. 
  • It is estimated that by 2030 more than 20 Indian higher education universities will be among top 200 universities globally. It is also estimated that India will be among the world’s top 5 countries in the field of Research and Development (R & D) with an annual spend of $140 billion.

Brief History of Education System In India

Traditionally, education in the Indian subcontinent was mostly reserved for the upper-caste. However, the evolution of education has bridged this gap and now education is a right to all irrespective of the caste, social class or any other differentiating factors.   

The ‘Gurukula’ was the first education system in India dating back to 5000 BC. In this education system, a student (shishya) who wished to study would go to a teacher (Guru) and request for admission. If accepted, the student stays with the teacher in the teacher’s house. Apart from learning from the Guru, the student helps in all of the house chores as well which helps in developing an emotional bond between them.  

The Guru teaches important subjects like science and mathematics. However, they also put equal emphasis on subjects like Philosophy and Metaphysics. The mode of communication was Sanskrit. The education was practical and linked to nature and real life situations rather than just reading books and memorising information. The aim was for a holistic development of the students including their cognitive, mental, physical, and spiritual wellness. 

Another plus point of this education was that rather than focusing on memorising books, the focus was actually on developing human values of the students. Values like empathy, self-reliance, creativity, right behaviour, strong moral values, and ethical behaviours were encouraged so that the students could practically implement knowledge to find solutions to real-world problems. 

There were broadly six aims of education given at Gurukuls for the students and these are: 

  • Understand Brahma (God) and acquire supreme knowledge 
  • Character development 
  • All-rounded holistic development 
  • Social virtues like only speaking truth and refraining from deceit and falsehood
  • Spiritual development 
  • Cultural education 

The Gurukul system of education was replaced by the modern school system brought to India in 1830 by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay. This system introduced classroom learning where the link with nature as well as the close emotional bond between the teacher and student was broken. The primary focus of this system was on Science and Mathematics subjects like Philosophy, Ethics & Moral Values, Metaphysics, etc being deemed unnecessary. The medium of communication was also changed to English. 

This education system continued and evolved and is still prevalent in India. However, this 10+2 education system was recently replaced by the 5+3+3+4 system with various other modifications such as equal focus on practical and theoretical knowledge, multidisciplinary subject choices, use of technology and digital education.  

This blog from here on will be specifically about this evolved and new education system introduced by the new National Education Policy 2020 . 

Key Highlights of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020

  • The school board examinations will encourage knowledge and application based learning. 
  • School curriculum will be focused more on core concepts and the pedagogy will introduce more practical learning. 
  • The 10+2 school system will be replaced by the 5+3+3+4 school system 
  • Introduction of vocational education from 6th grade. 
  • Except for the medical and law colleges, all the other higher education institutions will be governed by a single umbrella body and the same set of regulatory norms, academic standards, and accreditations will be set in place for both private and public higher education institutions. 
  • Higher education will be multidisciplinary with an aim of all universities to become multidisciplinary by 2040. 
  • There will be multiple exit options in the undergraduate degree which means that if a student exits the UG course after 1 year, they will get a certificate, if they exit after 2 years, they will get a diploma, and they will get the degree after completion of 3/4 years.  

What is the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 of India? 

Until July 2020, India was following the age old 10+2 schooling system according to which, you get a Secondary School Certificate (SSC) after completing 10th standard and the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) after completing 12th standard. 

This 10+2 system has been replaced with the 5+3+3+4 system in the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. These divisions have been made in accordance with the cognitive development stages of a child. Following is how these divisions are made according to the age criteria. 

  • Foundation Stage (3-8 years)
  • Preparatory Stage (8-11 years) 
  • Middle Stage (11-14 years) 
  • Secondary Stage (14-18 years) 

The government has also emphasised on bringing STEM education early on in schools as there is a huge gap in the supply and demand of skilled professionals in this field.  

Following are some of the important points included in the new policy for school education

  • All levels of school education will be singularly regulated 
  • There will be a new and revised curriculum for the early childhood care and education
  • The school curriculum and the pedagogy of teaching will be reformed towards being more progressive and focused on overall development of students. 
  • Apart from Hindi and English, the medium of instruction will be in regional/local languages up to class 5th or 8th to promote regional languages. 
  • The new assessment system will be more competency based rather than just theory based. 
  • There will be some changes in the recruitment process of teachers as it will become more transparent. The promotions will also be based on merit henceforth. 

New Changes In the Higher Education System In India

Following are some of the most important changes introduced in the higher education sector in India. 

  • NEP 2020 aims at increasing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) from 26.3% to 50% by 2035.
  • The policy has largely focused on introducing flexible, holistic, as well as multidisciplinary undergraduate courses with multiple exit options. 
  • There will be a single and comprehensive governing body called the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) to coordinate all of higher education except for law and medical fields.   
  • Higher education will introduce all types of occupational education as a fundamental part to promote vocational education. 
  • Aim to promote public investment in the Indian education sector. 
  • Promoting open and distance learning which will in turn increase the GER. 
  • Emphasis on the promotion of digital and online education. 

Online Education System In India

The reason why even the government has been focusing on promoting online education is because of the many advantages that accompany. It is time that we move on from the age-old traditional education system brought by Macaulay. 

Online education sort of breaks stereotypes of the 6 hour long classroom education system. Online education focuses more on the practicality of the learnings received by the students. The emphasis is on acquiring skills rather than just memorising what is written in the books. 

Advantages of Online Learning

Following are the advantages of the online education system in India and how it is important and prevalent according to the current times 

  • Flexibility

Online education allows you to complete your entire higher education course (UG & PG) in the online mode which means you can complete the entire course from your home. 

Online colleges offer various flexible options like all the live lectures are recorded so that students can attend either the live lectures or watch the recordings later if by any chance they miss it. This type of flexibility is possible only in the online mode. 

Another flexible option that you get in online education is that you can take more time to complete your degree course. For instance if you are pursuing a 3 year online bachelor’s degree, many online colleges allow you to complete it in 4-5 years. So, the duration of the course in the online mode increases. 

  • Affordability 

The online courses are much more affordable as compared to the offline regular courses. This is because offline courses charge you many other fees apart from the tuition fee, including the infrastructure related facilities they offer. However, in an online course you do not have to pay such charges. You only have to pay the tuition, exam fee, and a one-time registration fee. 

Apart from the college fee, you save on other expenses also as you do not have to travel to the college everyday or move to a different city and stay at the hostel or some other accommodation, and hence you save on the living expenses as well. 

  • Diverse Options 

Online education not just offers the conventional courses, but also industry relevant courses, in-demand skill based courses, and job-oriented courses. 

For instance, cyber security is a branch of computer science that has great demand and amazing job opportunities. However, in India there is a huge scarcity of cyber security experts. This is because there are no dedicated courses for cyber security. There are courses only for Computer Science, Computer Applications, and Information Technology, which are broad subjects. 

However, in the online mode, there are various certificate, diploma, UG, and PG courses that are dedicated to such in-demand subjects. There are online courses exclusively for subjects like cyber security, data science , business analytics, artificial intelligence & machine learning, and many more. 

LMS stands for Learning Management System . It is a software or an application that works as a virtual classroom and makes online learning possible in a much more efficient way. Now, the advantage of LMS is that it elevates your ease of learning. How? 

For instance, in offline classes, if you miss college one day, then you will not be able to access the lectures of that day in future. However, in online classes, the live lectures are recorded and saved in the LMS. The LMS allows you to view those recorded lectures at any time and as many times as the student pleases. 

  • Time Management 

Time is the greatest wealth anyone can have. In an online course, you save a lot of time as you do not have to go to college. You are at great advantage if you use this time judiciously. 

By using the time judiciously means that you can utilise the time that you saved in upskilling yourselves. You can take up another skill-based short-term course which is related to the online course that you are already pursuing. 

Another very good option is that you can start working, either an internship or a job (preferably relevant to the course you are pursuing). This way you will not just gain monetary benefits but also work experience which will be a great asset to your CV. 

Open Learning and Distance Education System In India

The government has emphasised on the importance of open and distance education as it is estimated to play a crucial role in increasing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER). 

The government has set measures to improve the open and distance learning infrastructure such as blended online courses, digital repositories, funding of researches, improving student services, maintaining the standards of imparting quality education, and more such measures.    

Best Online Colleges in India 

Given below are some of the top online colleges in India currently operating and offering diverse online courses. 

Best Online Colleges in india

 
 
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (Online)   
 

Best Open and Distance Colleges In India 

Open and distance colleges have been around in India for quite some time. However, as technology is evolving, so is education. Hence, recently many open and distance colleges have come up with better and evolved open and distance courses using technology by creating a blend of online and distance education. 

Given below are some of the top and most reputed open and distance colleges in India

Best Open and Distance Colleges in India 

 
 
   

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

⭐ what is nep.

NEP stands for the National Education Policy. This policy is drafted by the Ministry of Education (MoE), Govt. of India. The policy mentions and describes all the norms, rules, regulations, and guidelines regarding education in India at all levels.

⭐ What are the changes in the new education policy of 2020?

Some major changes according to the new education policy, the 10+2 school education system will be replaced by the 5+3+3+4 system. The policy also has emphasised on the promotion of online as well as open and distance education.

⭐ What are the main features of higher education in the new NEP 2020?

In higher education there will be an exit policy which will allow students to exit from a degree course at any point of time with a certificate if exit is after 1 year, a diploma after 2 years, and degree after 3/4 years. Read the above blog to know other main features.

⭐ Is online education the future?

With the recent pandemic and epidemics, the necessity of online education has come forth. Even the government of India in its new National Education Policy (NEP) has emphasised a lot on the importance of online education and how it is going to change the future of education in India. The policy has laid down various measures regarding the use of technology in education.

⭐ How will NEP affect online and distance education?

The government has been working towards encouraging online education as well as distance education. According to the new NEP, open and distance education will play a vital role in increasing the GER in higher education, while the government will work in the area of online education which will help give access to education to even the marginalised.

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India's Education Examination System (From Pre Independence to the Present)

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Current Education System in India

education system in india past and present

  • Updated on  
  • Feb 9, 2023

Current Education System in India

Rooted in the ancient learnings of Vedas and Puranas, the Indian education system has come a long way from the old-school Gurukuls to the new-age hi-tech academic institutions. Though the constitution of India primarily gave the authority of the educational apparatus of the country to the state, the introduction of a constitutional amendment in 1976 added the role of the national government for suggesting school education policies and programmes with the state still having some freedom over the implementation of programs. The school system of the country has a total of four levels, i.e. lower primary, upper primary, high and higher secondary. Though the educational system can still be improved in a variety of ways, the country has strived to bring significant changes through initiatives such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan as well as the Right to Education Act. With this blog, we will take a comprehensive look at some of the prevalent features of the current education system in India and how it can be improved.

This Blog Includes:

Goals for pedagogy, grading system , abridging the gap: secondary & post-secondary education, embracing the role of technology in education, advent of international private schools, availability of a wide range of short-term courses, specialised programs, emphasis on extra-curricular activities, varied scholarship opportunities, issues in the current education system in india.

The main goal behind designing the curriculum for schools is to inculcate a structural approach that aims to inform students about the salient features of our rich cultural heritage, egalitarianism, democracy, and secularism. In the current education system in India, central emphasis is put on the study of the Indian freedom movements, constitutional publications and other essential topics that focus on imparting students with the knowledge of national identity as well as the glorious history of the country. Further, the curriculums also incorporate the study of diverse cultures in India along with a range of basic academic disciplines as well as official and regional languages.

In the current education system in India, the vitality of the grading system is emphasized. The students in schools and colleges are not just tested based on their learning abilities but also on their acquired knowledge and skills as well as their performance in extracurricular activities . This system is implemented in order to emphasize the importance of the overall growth of the child to broaden their horizons. 

There is a pivotal need to lessen the gap present between the education that is provided at a school level and the senior secondary level that is provided at the post-secondary level. When it comes to schooling, the current education system in India is finite and limited to the foundational knowledge rudimentary to understand basic academic disciplines such as Mathematics , Science , and Social Science , amongst others. When students complete their senior secondary education, they are generally asked to select from degree and diploma courses which are more specialised and that’s why most of them feel confused about what to study after 12th . Thus, there is an essential need to abridge this gap so that students can sort out their interests during their schooling journey which would further assist them in selecting the right undergraduate course after the 12th.

The academic institutions in India, be it primary, secondary or higher education, are embracing advanced technologies in facilitating learning and bringing a revolutionary change to the same-old classroom teaching. Many schools have brought tablets into their traditional classrooms to make learning an engaging and interesting process by teaching kids through digital applications. From a multitude of distance learning programs to online learning management systems such as the School of Open Learning by Delhi University as well as MOOCs, Indian universities and colleges are also rigorously incorporating digital platforms to help every individual attain higher education regardless of the constraints they are facing.

Must Read: How Is Technology Changing the Face of Education ?

As modernization has found its way into the current education system of India, the introduction of international private schools is a prominent change brought to the sector. These schools aim at preparing students to compete at a global level with the outer world and seek international opportunities. Though the fees and admission criteria are evidently more complex than public schools, international schools have become a top choice for most of the parents of higher strata as well as the middle class striving to provide their kids with global exposure.

In the spirit of innovation, new diplomas and vocational courses , have been introduced to give the students a basic idea of what to expect out of a degree course as well as provide them with the necessary grounding for skill-based education. These courses incorporate uniquely designed curriculums that support vocational training and polishing the skills of students in a particular field. So, if you are someone who is looking for a course that will directly lead to conversion to a well-paying job and gives you instant professional occupancy, you should definitely explore diploma courses after the 12th . Thus, through these short-term courses, the chief goal of the current education system in India is to foster learning-focused pedagogy while promoting skill-based training programs.

The Government of India has launched several specialised courses and training programs for housewives, industrial labourers and workers in order to promote educational opportunities for people of all ages. These programs include livelihood schemes aimed at boosting the presence of skilled manpower as well as aimed at the motto of women empowerment . Further, in the current education system in India, the government is offering plentiful training courses under its varied departments and ministries of Agriculture , the Food Processing Industry, Health and Family Welfare, Human Resource Development, Information Technology, and Rural Development, amongst others.

Know All About Rural Development Courses !

Whether at the school or college level, essential importance is being given to extra-curricular activities to ensure the wholesome development of every student. In the current education system of India, schools and universities rapidly encourage students to take part in co-curricular activities such as sports , cultural and varied other endeavours which are frequently added to their study curriculum. Their participation in extra-curricular activities helps them furnish their future prospects. Further, degree programs are also formulated while ensuring that students are given the requisite practical exposure to the field of study they want to explore!

Check Out: Types of Co-curricular Activities

Special attention is also being paid towards providing enough opportunities to help deserving students with scholarships and education loans that can provide them with suitable financial assistance for their academic journey. Schemes such as Aga Khan Scholarship , Pratibha Scholarship , LIC Scholarship , and Dhirubhai Ambani Scholarship , amongst others, offer much-needed financial to meritorious students wanting to pursue secondary and higher education in the country as well as abroad.

The following are the current concerns with the Indian educational system:

  • Education spending: More money needs to be set aside for the expansion of India’s educational system. Numerous positive steps have been made in this direction over the past few years, and if they are kept up, India may soon be able to overcome its current difficulties.
  • India needs to adopt the UN’s gross enrolment pattern as well.
  • Utilizing students’ capacities to the full is important because the world now needs creative thinkers , and the government should encourage educators to do just that.
  • Infrastructure facilities should be improved, particularly in government schools. Government must take action to provide all necessary facilities in government schools and rural areas since they are currently focusing on digital education.
  • Model PPP – PPPs that are well-designed can produce innovative school systems in India. Consequently, the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model needs to be considered.
  • The ratio of students to teachers : In comparison to the number of teachers and faculty members available, there are significantly more students seeking a proper education. As a result, trained educators must be hired to educate the nation’s future.
  • Standards for quality in branding and accreditation
  • Students studying abroad: Due to these problems with the Indian educational system, many students opt to study abroad . The relevant authorities must address them, and students must decide to remain in India to continue their education and strengthen the nation through their knowledge.

India has the third-largest education and development sector in the world, behind China and the United States . It is abundantly clear from the discussion above that the current educational system in India is more theory-focused than career-focused. It emphasises theory and exams more. The Indian educational system, however, has undergone a significant change as a result of the new education policy, in 2020. The division of stages has been changed as a result of the new National Education Policy (NEP) so that it now reflects the typical stages of mental development that children go through. It has grown lively and skill-focused. India has a 69.3 per cent adult literacy rate. More than 20 universities from India’s higher education system are anticipated to rank among the top 200 worldwide by the year 2030.

In India, where there are 500 million people, 18% of them are between the ages of 15 and 24 and are enrolled in secondary and higher education. In India, the adult literacy rate (15+ years) is 69.3%, with adult males having a literacy rate of 78.8% and adult females having a literacy rate of 59.3%.

India’s 21st-century modern-age education system is made up of a new method of learning that includes online education, skill-development programmes, digital learning platforms, a grading system, the use of educational technology in the classrooms, and a recently introduced New Education Policy!

Here are the top 5 issues that the Indian Education system is facing: Lack of a budget. Too much pressure on Grades. Too much competition. Not Focusing on Overall Growth. Lack of Training.

Thus, the current education system in India is still immensely far behind those of top countries such as the USA and the UK and there is still a lot of scope for improvement. If you are planning to continue your academic journey abroad, you can always get in touch with our Leverage Edu experts and we’ll provide you with suitable guidance in choosing an ideal course and university as well as throughout the whole application process thus assisting you in getting successfully shortlisted into the institution of your choice.

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The article is well structured and describes the ongoing stage of the education system. It gives a brief understanding which is well written and well pointed in each and every point.Thank you such an insightful article.

Hi, We are glad that you liked our blog on Current Education System in India.

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Study of past and present education system in India

Profile image of Mohit Kumar

2012, International Journal of Physical and Social Sciences

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IAEME Publication

From the ancient period Indians have enjoyed the reputation of being a learned people. Some of the early Hindu and Buddhist centre of learning such as Taxila and Nalanda university were the very famous institution during that time. Education in the beginning was confined to the priestly class with teaching of traditional elements such as religion, logic etc. Then Islamic education introduced in India with the establishment of the Islamic empires and Mqtabas and Madrasas became the seats of learning. The advent of British in India opened a new era in the field of education and the vast changes and development of Indian education had mainly occurred during British era.They brought a new system of education to India which was different from earlier education system.During the British period, education was first ignored but later a series of measures continuing throughout the early half of the 20th century ultimately laid the foundation of education in modern India. They organized the Indian education system and introduced modern scientific learning in India. As a result India had been preceded to a new era under British. In this paper an attempt is made to analyse critically the development of education in India during British period.

education system in india past and present

Yudhisthir Mishra

Aniket Singh

Education is a platform in which young generations are trained and make them future-ready. Education provides knowledge and skills which help the person to be employable. The Indian education system is very popular and diversified among other countries’ education systems due to its change in the evolution from ancient to the modern education system. During the ancient and medieval periods of education, students were trained by teachers in such a manner that they can survive and live in that era. After independence, there is a tremendous growth in the Indian education system providing teaching and training in all aspects, but it does not satisfy the global demands of the market. This chapter focuses on teaching methodology, curriculum, characteristics, methods of learning, aims of the Indian education system during the ancient and medieval period and how it differed in today’s modern education and what are the things that our today’s modern education need to learn and implement from ...

Patricia Colenzio

This paper is compilation of the state of education system during pre-independence period of India. It elaborates education system as mentioned in different period like Upnishshadic, Bhudhist, Medieval, modern as well as the system being followed at ancient University like Taxila and Nalanda. It examines the education in Mughals period. The educational developments under British rule have been investigated as well Lord Macaulay's Minute

Nauman Tahir

International Res Jour Managt Socio Human

Education as a process is as old as the progression of human race. Knowledge and skills related to processes of fulfilling basic human needs were passed on from one generation to another. Thereafter with the growth of civilization the need of formal education for the development of the individual as well as the society was realized and gradually education was institutionalized. Education has not remained stagnant, but with the passing of time, it has undergone great changes. The growth of education shall be studied through its different periods, namely Vedic period, Buddhist period and medieval period.

Dr. Javed Kalhoro

This article aims at analyzing the historical background of education system in the Indian subcontinent and tries to find out if there has been any concept of religious education before partitionwhichcontinuedin Pakistan after independence. In the wake of 9/11 attacks, Pakistan took take a strong posture towards religious (Islamic) ideology and the education syllabus in the country. Historically, the government of Pakistan had mostly used Islamic ideology as the symbolism in its education syllabus in order to promote a community that practices and follows the laws of Islam, based on Quran and Sunnah. Even the overall culture of Pakistan provides a glimpse of Islamic traditions and values than of its diverse history.

International Journal of Advanced Research

Parikshit Layek

Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, morals, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include teaching, training, storytelling, discussion and directed research. In ancient India, both formal and informal ways of education system existed. Indigenous education was imparted at home, in temples, Pathshalas, Tolas, Chatuspadis and Gurukuls. There were people in homes, villages and temples who guided young children in imbibing pious ways of life. A Gurukula or Gurukulam is a type of education system in ancient India with Shishya (students or disciples) living near or with the guru, in the same house. At the end of ones education, a Shishya offers the Gurudakshina before leaving the Gurukula.Over a period of time two system of education developed, the Vedic and the Buddhist. As the name indicates in the former system Vedas, Vedanta, Upanishads and other allied subjects were taught while in the latter system, thoughts of all th...

Vijay Bedekar

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Study of past and present education system in India

  • Published 2012
  • Education, History
  • International Journal of Physical and Social Sciences

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Challenges and progress in the Indian education system

Structure S

The education system in India has undergone significant changes over the past few decades. Despite its long history of learning and knowledge, the Indian education system has faced numerous challenges, including unequal access to education, outdated curricula, and inadequate funding. Despite these challenges, however, the education system in India has made great strides in recent years, and the country is now home to a large number of well-respected universities and colleges.

One of the main challenges facing the education system in India is unequal access to education. Despite the country’s rapid economic growth and increasing prosperity, many rural and underprivileged communities still lack access to quality education. This inequality is reflected in the low literacy rates in these areas, as well as in the high dropout rates for students from these communities.

Another challenge facing the education system in India is outdated curricula. In many cases, the curricula used in schools and colleges are not in line with the latest developments in technology and society. This can result in students being ill-prepared for the demands of the modern workplace and can limit their future career prospects.

In addition to these challenges, the education system in India also faces a lack of funding. Despite the government’s commitment to education, many schools and colleges still lack the resources they need to provide quality education to their students. This includes funding for basic facilities, such as classrooms and libraries, as well as funding for the development of new curricula and the training of teachers.

Despite these challenges, however, the education system in India has made great strides in recent years. Many universities and colleges have modernized their curricula to better reflect the needs of the modern workforce, and the government has increased its funding for education. Additionally, new initiatives, such as the Right to Education Act, have been introduced to increase access to education for all Indian citizens, regardless of their background or income.

In conclusion, the education system in India faces many challenges, including unequal access to education, outdated curricula, and inadequate funding. Despite these challenges, however, the country is home to a growing number of well-respected universities and colleges, and the government has made significant progress in addressing the challenges facing the education system. With continued investment in education, India has the potential to become a leading center of learning and knowledge and to provide quality education to all of its citizens.

education system in india past and present

great. nothing here is surprising and i assume majority of the india (infact world) population is well aware of the current standing of the indian edu...

education system in india past and present

a well put argument i must say. you have outlined the technical fallacies of the indian education system. now while that stands true i believe that th...

the indian education system faces both challenges and progress. challenges include access disparities, outdated curricula, and teacher shortages. howe...

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education system in india past and present

Neeraj Kumar is a skilled and dedicated teacher with a strong background in structural engineering. He holds a Master's degree in Structural Engineering and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the classroom. As a teacher at Gateway College of Architecture and Design, he is dedicated to inspiring and educating the next generation of architects. In his role as an educator, he is known for his ability to effectively communicate complex concepts in a clear and engaging manner. He is passionate about helping his students develop a deep understanding of the material and empowering them to reach their full potential. When he's not in the classroom, he is always on the lookout for new opportunities to explore and expand his knowledge. His personal interests include staying current with the latest developments in the field and seeking out new experiences that challenge and inspire him.

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Essay on Indian Education System for Students and Children

500+ words essay on indian education system for students and children.

The Indian education system is quite an old education system that still exists. It has produced so many genius minds that are making India proud all over the world. However, while it is one of the oldest systems, it is still not that developed when compared to others, which are in fact newer. This is so as the other countries have gone through growth and advancement, but the Indian education system is still stuck in old age. It faces a lot of problems that need to be sorted to let it reach its full potential.

Essay on Indian Education System

Problems with Indian Education System

Our Indian education system faces a lot of problems that do not let it prosper and help other children succeed in life . The biggest problem which it has to face is the poor grading system. It judges the intelligence of a student on the basis of academics which is in the form of exam papers. That is very unfair to students who are good in their overall performance but not that good at specific subjects.

Moreover, they only strive to get good marks not paying attention to understanding what is taught. In other words, this encourages getting good marks through mugging up and not actually grasping the concept efficiently.

Furthermore, we see how the Indian education system focuses on theory more. Only a little percentage is given for practical. This makes them run after the bookish knowledge and not actually applying it to the real world. This practice makes them perplexed when they go out in the real world due to lack of practical knowledge.

Most importantly, the Indian education system does not emphasize enough on the importance of sports and arts. Students are always asked to study all the time where they get no time for other activities like sports and arts.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

How Can We Improve Indian Education System?

As the Indian Education System is facing so many problems, we need to come up with effective solutions so it improves and creates a brighter future for students . We can start by focusing on the skill development of the students. The schools and colleges must not only focus on the ranks and grades but on the analytical and creative skills of children.

In addition, subjects must not be merely taught theoretically but with practical. This will help in a better understanding of the subject without them having to mug up the whole thing due to lack of practical knowledge. Also, the syllabus must be updated with the changing times and not follow the old age pattern.

Other than that, the government and private colleges must now increase the payroll of teachers. As they clearly deserve more than what they offer. To save money, the schools hire teachers who are not qualified enough. This creates a very bad classroom environment and learning. They must be hired if they are fit for the job and not because they are working at a lesser salary.

In conclusion, the Indian education system must change for the better. It must give the students equal opportunities to shine better in the future. We need to let go of the old and traditional ways and enhance the teaching standards so our youth can get create a better world.

FAQs on Indian Education System

Q.1 What problems does the Indian Education System face?

A.1 Indian education is very old and outdated. It judges students on the basis of marks and grades ignoring the overall performance of the student. It focuses on academics side-lining arts and sports.

Q.2 How can we improve the Indian education system?

A.2 The colleges and schools must hire well and qualified teachers. They must help students to understand the concept instead of merely mugging up the whole subject.

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    Education is a platform in which young generations are trained and make them future-ready. Education provides knowledge and skills which help the person to be employable. The Indian education system is very popular and diversified among other countries' education systems due to its change in the evolution from ancient to the modern education system. During the ancient and medieval periods of ...

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    Literacy rate in India as per Census 2011: 74%. Literacy rate: Male: 82.1%; Female: 65.5%. Kerala tops the rankings, followed by Delhi, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu. Bihar is the lowest among states, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, etc., however, they are improving their position.

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    The Indian education system has gone through many phases. Great effort has been put to shape up the present scenario of education system. The journey from Gurukuls to IITs had many ups and downs. But each phase has its own pros and cons. The aim of this research is to study ancient as well as present education system in India.

  22. Study of past and present education system in India

    1 Excerpt. India has the second largest education system in the world. The Indian education system has gone through many phases. Great effort has been put to shape up the present scenario of education system. The journey from Gurukuls to IITs had many ups and downs. But each phase has its own pros and cons.

  23. Challenges and progress in the Indian education system

    The education system in India has undergone significant changes over the past few decades. Despite its long history of learning and knowledge, the Indian education system has faced numerous ...

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    FAQs on Indian Education System. Q.1 What problems does the Indian Education System face? A.1 Indian education is very old and outdated. It judges students on the basis of marks and grades ignoring the overall performance of the student. It focuses on academics side-lining arts and sports.

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