Education is treated as a most powerful weapon by Nelson Mandela to change the world. Despite of many progressive development over the decades, many social issues are not solved till now, poverty might be the reason. Education is that weapon to root out poverty. It is an investment to resolve the root causes of backwardness in our country. Poverty has given space for conflicts and fragility, that can then be addressed by our empowered citizens. Compulsory education by the government of India gave the way for stability in the society.
Article 45 in the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Constitution stated compulsory education for the children for the children up to 14 years of age in time limit of 10 years. Emergence of Universal Elementary Education made provision of equal opportunities for all after the independence of the country.
Quality Education assisted in spreading awareness about health and social issues. It assisted in generating income and increasing productivity. Gain knowledge through education provides Indian citizens to raise their voice for rights and duties. Education benefits once development, development of society, citizens and the country.
Education system provides access to effective, customized, contextual and relevant high quality education to the citizens. Education system provide use of technology and continuous expansion of innovated education. Education system aims for the removal of social and economic disparities by providing equal opportunities to all citizens of the country. It aims for human development through education on skill enhancement.
Going through the Education market place, education system crosses $120 billion. Education market consists of Private and Government rule education system. Formal Education has more money market in K12 over Higher education. Due to immersion of technology and skill development trends, education, market consists of vocational training and multimedia market.
Discussing the growth of educational institutes, there is hardly any growth in primary, secondary, senior secondary and graduate schools from the last twenty years. There is tremendous growth of universities in India like IIT, IISc, IIM, NIT, AIIMS, BITS, Amity and ISB. Due to a mandatory education policy, public has started spending more over primary and secondary education followed by expenditure on general and technical education. Talking about the performance of states, Rajasthan,Delhi and Maharashtra tops in gross enrollment ratio. Lowest dropout rates are in the eastern states. Appointment of teachers is more in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh. Whereas teachers' training is provided more in Chandigarh, Gujarat, Assam and Tamil Nadu. The overall percentage of education expenditure from the total budget of the state is more in Delhi and Maharashtra and lowest in Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
Schools, praised for providing education, is vital for the development of people in a country. Educating people make them responsible for social and economic behavior. Preschools have lack of regulatory mechanism, i.e. gross enrollment rate is only 20% of the total population of the age group 2 to 6 years. There is a significant rise in awareness for early education. Urban area has major market with high enrollment and retention rates for early education. A private organization has taken the major space of market for kids education. Elementary Education also with lack of regulatory mechanism, has a gross enrollment rate 94% of the total population in the age group of 6-14 years. Suva Shiksha Abhiyaan assist in improvement of enrollment rates in elementary education.But still, poor quality of education, low pupil to teacher ratio and unqualified teachers exist in the system. Organized and private schools, more localized in urban and semi-urban area, are dominated in the market as compared to government schools. There is a drop in gross enrollment rate to 53% for secondary education due to poverty. Due to lack of quality teach, enrollment in government schools has decreased and shifted towards private school education both in urban and rural area. International schools are also merging in the Indian education market. Development of the education system is continuous with lack of quality measures.
Higher education and distance learning, on the other hand, are regulated and organized, but GER is around 12%. Private players are completing the huge demand of the market. Higher education is well organized in government institutes. Vocational education lacks guidelines and consist of 50% of the population in age group of 15 to 60 years. Highly qualified labor requirement led the development of the vocational education system.
New generation of technology, has given on the way for better and more educated India. Development of E-learning or Online learning gave the way for expansion of education in rural area. Technology led development of the education system to attain a new level from after the independence of our country. Technology led education system led the developing nation expand and transform in every field. The number of online degree and courses made available for distance courses. Government and private institutions try hard to educate more students. But still, in the true sense, poverty and uneducated citizens are hurdles for continuous development of education in India.
Development of Education system needs strategy and measures to be taken for social, economic and global challenges. Priorities must be given to increase the access of education over demographics, economical and geographical region. Improving the quality of education will strengthen the bonds between educational institutions, skills and employment. Strategically defined education system is the need for the development of the huge population of our country.
