"Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man"-Swami Vivekananda.
Education is the prior need of every individual, in fact it is the birth right of every person. However, everyone is not fortunate enough to get access to it since it is unaffordable. Every country has its own education system, so does India has, to ensure that all citizens are able to get quality education. But the question arises that why a country desperately needs its citizens to be educated? The answer is that if a country needs progress & development then it has to convert its human resource into human capital because a growing human resource can become a liability whereas human capital definitely becomes an asset for the country.
Education system has undergone lots of fluctuations over the decades. It is so because every government recreates the education policies & makes new amendments as per the statistical considerations & their own convenience. Like earlier girls were not given much in attaining education as they were confined in the walls for doing domestic chores. But eventually this stereotype broke as women stood up for their rights & in 2002 the law was introduced. Then the focus of the govt. shifted to the much awaited step which was to assure 'EDUCATION FOR ALL.' Under the 86th constitution amendment, provision of elementary education for the children till 14 years of age was compulsory. But unfortunately India has not succeeded in its motive until now & children are still out of the reach of literacy.
India defines literacy on the terms that if a person is above the age of 7; can read & write his /her name, understand simple statements & solve very easy arithmetic problems ,is considered to be literate. To encourage the rural dwellers to send their children to school, many attractive schemes like mid "“day meal, Sarv shiksha abhiyan etc. But these schemes proved to be a failure, as they are not being run honestly, the amount sanctioned by the govt. does not reach the ground levels & also due to the reluctance & lack of coordination of the people.
The year 2010 brought with it a brand new perspective of evaluating students in schools called "Comprehensive & Continuous Education" (CCE) pattern till 10th standard. This new policy was the initiation of UPA govt. Kapil Sibal, the former education minister introduced this pattern in order to lessen the burden of studies from the student's head as the students are graded on the basis of their performances in class activities & formative tests (unit test). Also the syllabus is bifurcated into 2 sections -1.half yearly 2.annual (which excludes the half yearly syllabus). This pattern has no doubt decreased the students' studies but it has also made them quite casual towards it.
A big loophole in the education policy was that the govt. paid more attention to the elementary education & neglected the higher studies. So now the new union minister for HRD, Mrs. Smriti Irani has promised to relook on the legislations of the higher studies & the NDA govt. will increase its % expenditure on education from 3.8% of GDP to 6% of GDP.
So we shall look forward with optimism that finally the new govt. excels in making India cent percent educated.
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