Education System in the Global Aspects

Education plays an important role in the overall development of a human being and a society. It is the single most important instrument for social and economic transformation. Therefore, stress on imparting education has been given in our Constitution which says education should be free for children below 14 years of age. Under the various plans, education facilities have been expanded at all levels in World and as a result, not only the literacy rate has risen but the percentage of children availing school education has also increased.

Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 has made free education for all children between the age of 6 and 14 years a fundamental right.  As a result of the efforts undertaken, the country has made significant progress in improving access to education in recent years. The mean years of schooling of the working population (those over 15 years) increased from 4019 years in 200 to 5.12 years in 2010. A good progress has also been made in bridging the equality gap in education. Today’s educational inequality, measured in terms of the Gini co-efficient for number of years of education, has decreased from 0.71 un 1983 to 0.49 in 2010, indicating a large reduction in inequality. Also the gender gap in elementary education has declined.

Secondary education prepares students in the age group of 14-18 years for entry into higher education and employment. There has been an impressive growth in the area of higher education with an increase in the number of secondary and higher education school from 7416 in 1950-51 to about 172000 in 2007-08. The corresponding increase in total student enrolment has been from 1.5 million in 1950-51 to more than 40 million in 2008.

University and higher education is also very important. It is also essential to build a workforce capable of underpinning a modern, competitive economy. However, it is available to a small percentage of population in the relevant age group. Moreover, it suffers from several weaknesses, such as increasing number of substandard institution, falling academic standards, outdated curriculum and lack of adequate support for research. There is several problems in education sector like as unplanned expansion of higher education deterioration of academic standards, low level of research and inadequate number of institutions which can impart education through correspondence or in the evening. To improve the level of education we should restrictions should be introduced on higher education. Only those who satisfy certain conditions should be admitted to post graduate course. Education should be made job-oriented. Expansion of education should be carefully planned since it is costly.