Revamping the education system

In India, the level of progress achieved by humanity has altered society and brought improvement in the life conditions of a great part of the India’s population. On the other hand, achievement made so far in higher education is not satisfactory though our progress has been grounded on the development and dissemination of scientific knowledge. The approach of higher educational institutions, including universities that connect curriculum, campus, research and community strategies and actions are unable to transform the scientific knowledge into practical applications. 

Our educational system has failed to successfully awaken the desire of students for lifelong learning because the level of positive interaction between teachers and students is low. In this situation, many students even hate school and abandon their studies. Youth that can be converted as asset have been deprived of life-long education. Higher education has lost part of its historical role, and its mission has been substantially amended to focus on providing services to the economic sector in the wake of the political changes from apartheid to democracy.

It is evident that the top management of schools does not find the necessity to verify the teachers’ professional knowledge, and more specifically their pedagogical content knowledge for educational quality and student outcome despite denuding the public coffers of all the money. The drawback to adopt ethical education is the lack of appropriate teaching and learning environments; the insufficient supply of demonstrating materials and the uneven availability of the necessary infrastructures. Ethical education has not been contemplated in the curricular units of higher education courses with an ethical component. 

The relationship between self-regulated learning and academic achievement has been jeopardised in schools, colleges and universities. This may be attributed to the role played by teacher who always encourages (of course exception is there) the students to follow the “question and answer book” and to attend coaching class for vested interests that practically ruin the ability of students towards self-observation, self-judgment and self-reactions. Teachers do not find importance to stimulate students’ abilities to search for information and analyse and filter the knowledge with ethical judgment and critical sense from the range of information available that can promote students’ skills. The need is to frame a policy for delineating the courses that can fulfill the local needs and strengthen the students’ expertise to promote innovation practices for agriculture, pisciculture, animal husbandry, horticulture, handicrafts, hardware etc. Concerned authority must define the role of teacher towards life-long learning of the students. 

Teachers are the important factor when it comes to success in students’ learning and it is the teacher’s competencies that create learning opportunities with the greatest potential learning outcomes. 

If academic institutions are strict to follow the prescribed syllabus without assessing its necessity in real life and the capacity of the students to transform into practical application, only option to students is to cheat on exam. Consequently whole purpose of education system will be forfeited.