STRUCTURE

• Introduction – A short introduction (15 words)                     
• Body – Explain whether defective System of Indian education an indicator to youth unrest (120 words)
• Conclusion – Mention a short conclusion  (15 words)

ANSWER

History

• There are various defects in our present system of education. In spiel of some reforms introduced here and there in the educational system, the hard fact is that the system as a whole remains as we inherited it from our British rulers.
• The Britishers designed the educational system as means of establishing British imperialism firmly in India. No effort was made by them to keep it in harmony with the social and cultural conditions in the country or to make it an instrument for inculcating intelligent citizenship among the people. No emphasis was laid on technical and vocational education. It did not fit the young-men for practical life who often found themselves incapable to take the struggle for existence.
• In addition to it even the literary education was so expensive that it became the more or less exclusive privilege of the well-to-do. There were no good schools and colleges in the rural areas. It neglected the education of women and was notoriously examination-ridden. The salaries of the teachers were low and they did not enjoy any social status.

The Defects Continue:

• These defects still exist in the educational system of the country. Perhaps some more defects have added themselves to the system. There are too few schools, too few teachers, too obsolete equipment and too few buildings. Every year hundreds of students are refused admission to the schools and colleges.
• The problem of unemployment among the educated ones has assumed serious proportions. The engineers and other technically trained persons are idle in the country. There is no planning of education in conformity with the political and economic structure of the country.
• The emphasis on literary education continues, syllabi are out-dated, examination system is the same; the lot of the teachers has not improved and the students are no better equipped and disciplined to face the hard realities of life.
• Recently they have taken even to violence, burning the buses, stoning the public servants, pulling down the telegraph and telephone poles, puling ‘gheraos’, manhandling the teachers, indulging in mass-copying during examination and forcing the authorities to close down the institutions. Even the introduction of N.C.C. or N.S.C. has not made them better disciplined citizens. Politics has made deep inroads into the educational structures.

The Real Crisis:

• However, the crisis in modern education does not result from the low salary of the teachers, the poor buildings, obsolete equipment and too few schools. These are more the reflection of crisis than a statement of it. The crisis results from the school’s inability to decide what it is going to do with the students and what it is to teach them.
• In other words, it is uncertainty and ambivalence of purpose which create the crisis. Modern education lives in the past and has not kept pace with the changes which have overtaken our civilization. Our schools have failed to give due consideration to the content of education needed to fit the masses to operate in a democracy.
• Instead of devising a curriculum suitable to democratic objectives and national needs our educators have permitted teachers to continue a type of instruction and a method of examination which had been worked out in the nineteenth century for the purpose of forming a class of clerks, “Indian in blood and colour but English in taste, opinion, words and intellect.”
• The contend of education is still oriented toward the past. The formal system of education is so often joyless and tedious to the child. Memorizing the facts from history, nuzzling over the intricacies of fractions, studying the geography of the Sahara do not enable him to do better the things he does and will do outside the school.
• There is little direct connection between what the boy reads at the school and the problems which press to the forefront of his attention in finding the girl to marry and making a place for himself in the society. The schools are overcrowded because we have little place for the youngsters to go elsewhere. It is strange to see that students in India want more holidays than days of instruction.
• The dysfunctional aspects of education are becoming increasingly evident. Rather than preparing students for society, it alienates them from it. Formal education has generated urban values, competitiveness and consumerism. Although it is claimed that education is a mobility multiplier and an equaliser, in actual practice it legitimises inequality and creates new class differences.
• The disadvantages remain and, perhaps, become more disadvantaged. Rather than leading to a dynamic transformation of society, the present education system actively works for the maintenance of the status quo. Finally, the educational system of today provides only a routine information package to those who pass through its portals, without contributing much to their understanding and problem-solving capability.
• It has not been able to find an effective answer to the problem of obsolescence in an era marked by the explosion of knowledge.

All these Socio-psychological causes, which in­cluded defective educational system, gap between aspiration and achievement (getting 80% marks and yet failing to get admission in col­lege of one’s interest), social distance between teacher and students, non-committed teachers, policy of status quo, corruption and ineffi­ciency, and large number of students in the class or inadequate number of sections in the department/college