Alvin Toffler, an American writer and futurist, dubbed as one of the most influential people in the global scenario, is particularly famous for his oratory on how education plays a pivotal role in our society regardless of our different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. When questioned about his perception of education in 21st century he says “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn”. This statement of his precisely depicts the nuances between education today and some few decades ago. Snubbing out the trivialities associated with his statement, one can easily decipher that the fundamental edifice of education has remained unchanged despite the gargantuan changes in our world over a span of a century or so. The very raison d’être of education is the virtue of curiosity which has been a congenital to humans.
However no amount of corroboration can justify the present state of the floundering elementary education in India, which has turned a blind eye towards the needs of an average “Bunty” at school,often leading to grave consequences. There is no need to reiterate incidents of suicides committed due to the morbid fear of failure, even before results are declared. Surely this isn’t the educated India that, the late Maulana Azad Visualized when he was bestowed upon the title of the first education minister of India. Unfortunately this is only one of the problems that plague the Indian education system, which consists of a dense framework of Central and State Boards of education. The asynchronous functioning of these boards result in different standards of education throughout the country. Ignoring the concept of ‘holistic development’, very few students are lucky enough to find a discerning audience in form of their school to showcase their immense talent apart from academics. In a country where cricket is regarded as a “Religion”, children with immense potential are demoralized and instead asked to devote time to their studies. There are very few parents who actually encourage their wards to excel at painting, dancing, sports, and other extra curricular activities which are of immense importance towards the formation of our personality, thought process and intellect. To put it quite bluntly academics, rather marks is the only metric to realize the worth of a student. Moreover there is an even bigger dilemma students have to face while choosing their subjects after their 10th board exams. Reasons such as peer pressure, parental pressure, inferiority complex force the students to make the wrong choice and ultimately suffer in the long run. The need for an Aptitude test is felt more than ever with the increase in number of students changing subjects during mid term or even after a year.
Apart from these there are even bigger problems that are degenerating education at all levels including graduation courses in colleges. The UGC (University grants commission) has miserably failed to regulate the influx of sub standard privatized universities which have mushroomed all over the country. The worst part is some of these universities have been granted “Deemed” university status, a prerogative which is held by world class institutions like Birla institute of science and technology, National institute of technology and a score of other legendary institutions. Despite repeated government efforts like surprise inspections, student feedback these sub standard universities have managed to façade any shortcomings which would make them devoid of their current status.