Where does Indian education system lag behind?
Undoubtedly, it’s a bitter truth to unravel that the graph of educational development in India is not as appreciable as it needs to be in a scenario where several countries are scrambling for becoming the best in this regard. The students in India do not lack in talent, toil and temerity to meet any educational challenge successfully, but what obstruct them from doing so is the decrepit system of education and lack of will to compete with the world. Some factors are there that have put the education system at the lower rungs of academic ladders.
Rote Learning and Cramming
Rote learning and cramming only on what will help to pass the exams have spoiled the proper studies of the students. They try to mug up the lessons—questions-answers in a way that is word-by-word like memorising of poems and dialogues in dramas. Fortunately, if they happen to remember them well in their examination hall, they answer them and score good marks but they continue to be lagging behind in attainment of knowledge of the same subject. Why because they touch only those questions which are suggested as the important ones by their teachers, parents or immediate mentors.
Pressure to score good marks
Inviting pressure and being the victim of pressure constantly built by parents and teachers to score good marks in the examination make the students to memorise the questions by rote learning. They merely focus on qualifying the exams rather than gaining knowledge from their books. Making consistent concentration on scoring the marks better than others deviates them from the path of creativities. If some of them happen to score rich marks, they remain unable to express themselves even answering from the subjects they have studied. If such students are made to appear for competitive exams and happen to work in certain government or private sector departments as a professionals, officers or even clerks, they fail to prove their mettle. Many of them are not found worthy of qualifying such exams where questions are asked with turns and twists.
Lack of Practical Learning
The students in Indian education system largely and mostly depend on theoretical learning rather than practical learning. Even though they become bookworms and mug up each word, sentences and even the punctuations, they fail to answer the same questions correctly if they are asked to answer in their own words, because they memorise the answers rather than understanding what has been told or explained in the lesson. Thus, like a withering of flower, their transient memory also gets withered with their momentary concentration on other things, because they do not do the practical of those things. They remain unable to give the demo of what they have learnt. Thus, their studies lack absolute practical learning, ultimately standing out as diploma and degree holders but without the requisite knowledge to complete with the world.
Ignorance and Insensitivity of Schools and Parents to Atal Tinkering Lab
In comparison to developing countries, the students in India are rarely encouraged to experiment with their ideas. It’s seldom heard about innovations by school students, especially when we bring India into this perspective. Through Atal Tinkering Lab, the Indian government has made its efforts to revolutionize appreciably the educational system. The schools receive grants to set up a technology lab where the students can tinker (experiment) using an array of components and technological equipment. However, not every school is eligible for these funds, but a number of those receiving the funds have not done as good as expected from them.
The Modular Tinkering Lab by the online portal appears as a solution. This is a lab similar to Atal Tinkering Labs that encourages the students to develop innovative skills and acquire hands-on training that pertain to artificial intelligence, internet of things, and other modern technologies. The price of establishing this lab is within the affordability of a normal school so that maximum schools from India can proceed for this option.
STEM Education is yet to make its niche
One more factor that has kept India’s education system less effective and less result-oriented is its being bereaved of STEM education, whereas the developing countries have adopted this pattern of practical learning wholeheartedly and they are excelling, especially in disciplines like science, technology, engineering and math as it stands for the acronym of STEM. Through STEM education, the students can have access to hands-on learning and they can develop the interest and flair to explore new vistas in educational domain. But unfortunately, schools in India are not equipped or facilitated with STEM education in a ratio they ought to be.