Disparities in the Indian educational system - PowerPoint Presentation

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Disparities in the Indian educational system

Done by Akshaya.VResearch board number 1

Problem statement

The pride of every country , lies in its educational system. But in the case of

india

, this system has a lot of disparities and divisions.

There is no centralized educational board, but a variety of boards, which teach different concepts at different levels of complexity.

This causes a huge intellectual gap, considering the fact that, most universities use standardised tests for their application process.

Comparison between the central boards of education

CBSE

This is the most familiar educational board in India

It is the national board of India.

Focusses more on mathematics and sciences, but not on English.

It adopts a tri language system, where the primary language is English, and the second language is the regional language, whereas the third language can be opted to be either a foreign language or any other language

ICSE

Established on 1956 to adopt Cambridge’s examination system in India

This body, now conducts 3 major exams. I.e. ICSE (Indian certificate secondary education) exam for class 10, ISC (Indian school certificate) exam for class 12, CVE (Certificate for vocational education) exam for class 12,

This focusses mainly on languages, science, math and art.

It has a larger curriculum. And offers both Hindi and English mediums

It has an application oriented style of teaching, which widens the child's thinking process. May follow rote learning too

Inculcates extra curricular activities

The average fee structure of a school that follows the CBSE board is 40,000 per term

Moderate to high standard of teacher training is provided

Has a detailed syllabus and adopts comprehensive style of learning to the point where students find it challenging.

It is western oriented.

Doesn’t coincide with Indian tradition.

Their standards are recognized to be at par with the university of Scotland.

The average fee structure of a school that follows the ICSE board is 70,000 per term

High standard of teacher training is provided.

Features of State Board

Every state has its state board controlled by their own respective educational minister.

The department of education of its state is responsible for framing its own syllabus.

There is no central interference in the framing of state syllabus.

The focus of the syllabi varies from region to region. But, conventionally, not enough attention is given to maths and science

Minimal to no teacher training is given.

A very strict rote learning method is adopted.

The average fee structure of an institution which follows a state board is around 20,000 per term in case of private schools, and virtually free in case of govt. schools

Education mainly revolves around the local languages. Thus, making it less flexible when higher studies or board change comes into picture

Reason for the existence of multiple boards

Education belongs to the concurrent list. This means that, it is the responsibility of both the centre and the state. This explains the prevalence of CBSE and state boards.

Education was placed in the concurrent list as, it was thought by the constitution makers that, if the centre holds all the power over education, there may be a rise in vanishing traditions and cultural identities

The roots of ICSE were sowed in the All India Certificate Examinations Conference was held under the Chairmanship of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Minister for Education in 1952. it was recognised as a board in 1958

The main purpose of the conference was to replace of the overseas Cambridge School Certificate Examination by an All India Examination

The effect of disparity in the standard of education

The different areas of focus of different boards has caused a nation wide imbalance in the quality of education.

The state boards are usually criticized for their concept of

rote learning

, which doesn’t help the students in a practical point of view.

The presence of standardised tests for admittance into colleges is problematic, as not every child is exposed to the same standard of education.

This causes confusion as to, which syllabi should the colleges base their portions on.

The focus on traditional languages in the state board is problematic, as higher education is usually generalised to one specific language.

Because of the differences in the educational systems, the presence of standardised tests has been viewed as

denial of equality

by many groups.

1.

Inequal distribution of educational standards

The presence of many boards and the lack of coordination between the boards creates an acute imbalance in the distribution of knowledge among the students.

While the students of some boards are skilled at the sciences and mathematics, the student of a different board, may not be so strong at the same even though they are given the same qualifications.

The system of judging a students merits based on his marks, fails as it is difficult to score in certain boards, while it is easier to score in some

2. Concept of

rote learning

Rote learning follows “memorisation” technique in its coaching process. This has been researched and proved in-effective

Brings about a lack of interest in education due to monotonous repetition of concepts an methods

Subject is never fully understood. That is, education through rote learning causes poor understanding of concepts

Students gain no practical knowledge

The lack of application based coaching leads to poor performance in standardised tests

3. Presence of standardised tests

Standardised tests are created by keeping in mind that, all those who attend the test have been exposed to equal standards of education.

But the disparity in the standards of education in the boards completely destroy the base above which standardised tests are built.

Thus students, who have been exposed to a better standard of education as seen in central boards, have an edge while competing in standardised tests.

The presence of different syllabi doesn’t give an equal base to the students who attend the standardised tests. Thus students who have been trained with easier syllabus aren’t able to compete with others in a standardised test.

But in the absence of standardised tests, one cannot judge a students ability based on one’s marks as it is easier to score in certain boards as compared to others.

4. Syllabus set in colleges

As seen above, students have been exposed to different syllabi as subjected by their respective boards.

This raises the question of, which syllabus should colleges base their own syllabus on.

This leads colleges to set their portions based on the board, which the majority of its students studied in.

This creates a huge problem for the minority, who face a drastic change in their method of learning, concepts learnt etc

This causes a chain reaction, which affects the minorities' entire college life, and further, his placement opportunities too

5. The creation of a language barrier

Because of the fact that, certain boards mainly promote certain regional languages, and other boards focus more on English and other common languages, a language barrier is created.

This language barrier causes a huge problem, when it affects the students ability to grasp a certain topic in his higher studies, this seriously inhibits the students ability to grow and develop

This language barrier is evident especially in the southern states of India, which refuse to inculcate Hindi as a part of its curriculum

This also affects the students confidence and changes his mentality and his curiousness to learn a specific subject

6. Standardised

tests deny equality?

It is common opinion among the masses that, the presence of standardised tests in India is proof of the existence of educational inequality.

As seen above, the central boards are much more expensive as compared to the state boards and delivers a better quality of education.

From this, one can derive the fact that, if a student is financially strong enough to afford to study in a good board, then he has a better chance in competing in standardised tests.

Thus can one argue that education = money? Well, this is food for thought.

Boom in “coaching institutes”

In recent years, research has stated the standard of standardised tests like JEE,NEET,CLAT have exponentially increased.

One can equate, this rapid increase to the rise in “

coaching institutes”

These institutes demand an abhorrently high fees, and prepare students for these competitive examinations.

Due to the high standards set by the minority of students who are financially strong to attend such coaching, the govt. is forced to increase the standards of these exams, due to the rising average.

This again insinuates the fact that, entering a premier institute = money.

Harmful effects of the current system

The disadvantages of the current system, can be seen very clearly , especially in the southern states of India.

These have been various suicides especially among NEET aspirants, because, they weren’t financially strong enough to undergo special coaching and that the education that they were exposed to wasn’t able to

hel

[p them prepare for these competitive examinations.

The state government, took poor steps to solve this issue. Instead of increasing the standards of education, they started filing petitions to ban NEET examination.

The banning of these examinations will result in sub-standard professionals

Solutions

As a temporary solution, while the gears of the permanent solution is being turned, we have to normalize and standardise the syllabi of all the boards. This will solve the problem of double standards in syllabi. But this cannot solve the lack of coordination between the boards and the different marking schemes adopted by the boards.

The one and only permanent solution to the problem of “the presence of disparity in the educational system of India” is to form a uniform unified board which is able to provide uniform, standard education to all individuals.

But this doesn’t mean that ‘education’ must be shifted to the state list or the union list. Education must remain in the concurrent list to safeguard the minorities tradition. Instead, the state and centre must work together in order to frame a uniform syllabi for children all across India

This will allow standardised tests to work the way they are meant to.

Further, coaching institutes should be either made accessible to everyone. This allows everyone to have equal access to good quality of education and further equalises the playing field in competitive examinations.

The fees in this unified board should also be normalised to suit all economical statuses so as to promote high literacy rate in the country.

The fee, should not exceed 10,000

a term.

THANK YOU