Education Still a Challenge in India

Education in India seems to be growing in leaps and bounds. However, many of the challenges that it has faced do not seem to have gone away, and are now in a position to undermine the progress that has been made. From recent news regarding the death of a high school student in Tamil Nadu who was not able to get in to a medical program as she preferred due to a less than ideal showing on a common entrance test, to the fact that the same Indian institutions seem to figure in international rankings of educational institutions across the world, in spite of the numerous colleges and universities that have been set up in the country in the last few decades, the overall quality of education seems to be taking a dip. With the advent of online learning and apps that are intended to support mainstream education, a veritable noise seems to be getting in the way of actual education, as more and more graduates are deemed “unemployable”.

The blame seems to fall squarely on the shoulders of India’s preference for rote learning, which has long led to information dumps at exam time, with very little room for the application of the learning imparted in institutions. This was thought to be at an end with the advent of computer and technical education courses that had an inbuilt “practical” component. Yet, it is this group of graduates who face the biggest hurdle of being deemed unfit for immediate employment by even Indian firms like Infosys and Wipro Limited.

While there is still a preference for students to pursue higher education outside of the country, those unable to access these opportunities and remain within her borders will have to fight seemingly insurmountable odds in an economy that is gearing up for automation and mechanization, much in step with the rest of the world, further shrinking the already small pool of jobs that they struggle to gain access to.