Why is India still a developing country and what is stopping it from being a developed country? This particular question strikes me every time when I read something about India’s education system. I see India’s education system as a stumbling block towards its objectives of achieving inclusive growth. 

Let me inform you about certain startling facts. India is going to experience a paradox of nearly 90 million people joining the workforce but most of them will lack requiste skills and the mindset for productive employment according to a report in DNA. India has about 550 million people under the age of 25 years out of which only 11% are enrolled in tertiary institutions compared to the world average of 23%.

                                 RECENT TRENDS IN EDUCATION SYSTEM

1) With a spate of new reforms taking place in the education sector of our country, I have been compelled to take up the pen and put to paper all the recent changes and developments that are affecting us all. Recently with CCE- Continuous & Comprehensive Evaluation being implemented in Class IX and above classes, the students will be evaluated for their scholastic as well as co-scholastic performance from next month, resulting in grades instead of marks. This means that schools following CBSE pattern, will henceforth conduct formative and summative assessment of Class IX students in their second term. These formative assessments will be gauged through quizzes, conversations, interviews, oral testing, visual testing, projects, practicals and assignments.

2) When talking about the latest reforms, why leave behind ICT usage? Use of  videogames to make learning more interesting, computer aided teaching and active graphics are rigorously being used these days to grab and sustain the child’s attention. With modern technology getting more advanced day by day, there is an even greater need to introduce the child early on, to this new dimension of education and try and build his interest in the same

3) Distance Education courses are very popular in rural India. One of the main reasons for this is the provision that one can get degrees from various renowned universities from anywhere in India.

4) Schools are changing, becoming smarter. The days of lugging huge school bags, religiously making notes and mugging from textbooks have given way to smart classrooms with white boards on which content can be saved, stored and viewed online. Till recently, schools were dabbling with basic technology: a few PCs here, a Microsoft PPT there. No longer. Class notes are now emailed to students, there are graphic calculators and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Homework assignments are posted online. All of this is designed to make teaching more interactive with videoconferencing and live broadcasting. As for chalks and dusters, forget it. The Indian government has proposed to establish 150 smart schools across the country the revised Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in School scheme.

5) E-learning scope in India is immense. Online Education is fast becoming a major preferred mode of education among students. Enrolling to regular courses is increasingly getting highly competitive in India; so online education and distance education has come as a wonderful alternative and several students opt for this. As the term itself suggests, online education means web based learning, but there is no universally accepted definition.