Alarming Facts and Figures!!!

From times immemorial, our country is applauded for having the best education system. US President Obama used to always remark that the American kids should excel in studies like their Indian counterparts.Several Indian kids have participated in international competitions and own laurels. India has produced illustrious educators like Dr.S.Radhakrishnan, Sri.J. Krishnamurty etc. Our education system has undergone reforms and changes. Several social reformers like Mahatma Jyotibha phule and Savitribhai Phule have revolutionized education in our country to reach  the under privileged and  girls.

Our education system has introduced  vocational, technical and information technology courses at the school level.Since  April 2009  education has been made a fundamental right of every child in India. It should be noted that school curriculum has undergone revision many times over the past three decades and  has introduced certain new subjects for the all round development of children.

Thanks to the importance given to education, we have advanced in science, technology and commerce. Many Indian students have participated in international competitions and made our country proud. India has also produced Nobel laureates in different fields of knowledge. Education Industry has helped several other industries to grow simultaneously. They are:publications, school hardwares, coaching classes, school softwares, e learning companies, private tuitions etc.

There is a mushroom growth of public schools and  private schools with different motto. There are umpteen number of residential schools coming up every year in our country. Many private schools offer coaching sessions in music, games, sports to develop special skills in their pupils. They also emphasize on physical education like training children in gym,dance, swimming, and other athletic activities.

Now,there is a tendency in the country to join the kids in the “private” schools where donation, schooling fees etc are very high. In fact, children are removed from government schools even in the rural areas, and admitted in private schools for a better learning environment and learning outcomes.

With the advent of INTERNET, digital learning has become popular among school kids.This has led to the growth of e learning companies that provide online tuitions, home work help, educational CD s, etc. There are several websites offering open educational resources in the form of videos, audios, presentations and e labs.  In addition to that, many coaching institutes and tutorial classes have grown in number to supplement classroom teaching.

Last but not the least, several educational publications are publishing  self study guides, notes, easy last minute preparations etc to make school learning easy. All students between 8 and 16 years have innumerable resources to depend on for learning their school subjects and for writing examinations. The government has also opened National Open Schools for the benefit of earner learners.

There is overall progress and considerable growth in education sector. But at the same time there are several drawbacks in our system. Our examinations are not performance based but they are memory based. Hence, the education system of our country lacks luster and charm. Technology is not fully incorporated in school education. The government is not taking interest and initiative in implementing educational reforms with full force in rural and semi rural areas. Some of the tribal areas are unaware of the reforms in education and the people of those regions are in a sad state. 

One main drawback of our school education is that kids are dropping out of the schools at various levels. This is because, marks based examination system insisting on rote memory is causing fear amongst children. The other drawbacks are diminishing number of government schools and rising cost of school fees in private schools.

Here are certain stunning facts and figures about school education of our country which indicate a grim future for our country and its people.

• ·         Percentage of literates in our country is 75.06%  which is very much below the world average literacy rate of 85%. This indicates 35% of our total  population is still illiterate.
• ·         84.14% of men and 65.46% of women are literate.This indicates the wide gender disparity.
• ·         Number of schools all over India including rural, urban, semi rural, semi urban areas is 13,62,324. This figure includes schools from class 1 to class 12. This figure is low as compared to the population of our country.
• ·         India spends  about 4% of its GDP on education which is very low for the country like India which ranks second in population.
• ·         220 million children go to school every year but only 18 million make it to college. This indicates there are dropout at various levels of education.
• ·         35 million children between 6-14 years are not going to any schools!  They are not even attending an alternative school! This indicates children are doing some kind of labor.
• ·         By the year 2016 there will be approximately, 500 million people with less than five years of schooling. That means two third of the population will lack minimum level of education.
• ·         Only 50% of girls are only enrolled in schools! The rest are doing household chores.
• ·         60 million children are child laborers!
• ·         In 75% of  government run schools, there is only one teacher for several classes.

The serious problems of education sector has  reflected in employment and health sector.

• ·         The total population of our country  is approximately  1182 millions.
• ·         The unemployed are 40 millions.
• ·         The unemployment rate in our country is 9.4%, and it is split out as 10.1% in rural areas, and 7.3% in urban areas. 
• ·         The unemployment rate of males is 8% and  the unemployment rate of females is 14.6%
• ·         The govt. is talking about creating 10 million jobs every year, but requirement is more than 15 million in a year.
• ·         Even if 100 million new jobs are created 170 million will be out of jobs in 2020, this is nearly 30%.
• ·         37.2% of Indians live below the country's national poverty line. That means 400 million people live below poverty line. 
• ·         India is home to 42 percent  underweight children and 31 percent of stunted children.
• ·         300 million people are hungry in our country because of lack of education and job.

These are not simply statistics but the reality!  In our country many children are hungry and they suffer from malnutrition, anemia etc. The contributory factor of disease and hunger is because proper education and schooling is not reaching all the children of our country.

Education of high standard and quality should reach all children of our country to transform our nation into a super power. Todays children are tomorrow's citizens. They should be given proper food, medicines and standard education. Our country should liberalize education and bring back children into the schooling system to curb unemployment, poverty, ill health etc.

Many industrialists and politicians  have entered the education sector. They should open the  strings of their wallet liberally to provide progressive and skill oriented education to children belonging to tribal region and rural areas with the help of technology in their respective regions by building  free schools for them. Those schools should be run with good facilities and best teachers available in the country. National Open Schools should spread their wings more, to all the regions including the backward regions to educate children.

What we require is a trickle down effect of educational reforms and advanced technology.Education should not be a previlege of a few, but the right of all. We require an inclusive growth in education and skill training without which India cannot grow.The poorest of the poor in the remotest part of India should be  also entitled to quality education at no or low cost.