Education is something that can drastically influence the personality of an individual, especially children. India has more than 41% of people whose age is less than 18 years.
This demographic change could be a powerful engine of economic growth and development, if India manages to improvise and expand its education system, raise educational attainment levels, and provide skills to its youth, it could gain a significant competitive advantage over swiftly aging countries like China.
Today the Indian higher education system is producing more than 20 million students in the job market unfortunately, more than 64% of students are not able to hold themselves in the job market as they are lacking in some basic employability skills.
Education teaches us what a society is and what is our responsibilities in that society. It is the key that provides us with the knowledge to analyze our social structure and adopt appropriate and adequate social reforms.
But the curriculum of schools and higher educational institutions are also based around clearing an exam and getting a job rather than all-around and skill development of students.
Here are some important elements that the Indian education system should cover in its curriculum.
Soft Skills
Soft skills are communication skills that are very important for everyone in life to convey their thoughts and messages to a large audience and also at the industry level to achieve success, for eg; interview skills, effective communication, marketing skills, public speaking, effective listening, etc.
According to the Aspiring Minds report on employability, the lack of English Language knowledge and cognitive skills in graduates were identified as the major obstacles. 84% of the graduates did not have the right levels in cognitive ability and 90% lacked the required proficiency in English communication.
The Indian education system is theoretical so it becomes difficult for students to learn any language without its practical use. Also, it is often seen in our university with low self-confidence students because of poor communication skills.
Soft skill training modules and other tools have been launched in some universities and colleges. But a comprehensive national-level curriculum needs to be created to develop soft skills for the better future of the students and the Indian education system.
Mental Health
The Indian education system has completely neglected mental health in its curriculum. Mental health has become a global concern for everyone. The Indian education system needs to highlight the importance of mental health with a scientific temper in its curriculum.
We should not only include mental health in the regular curriculum but also pay proper attention to it in the classrooms. Talking about mental health openly will create moral values among students.
This will help them to understand the stress, depression, and anxiety and will create a healthy relationship with their family and friends.
Outdated Curriculum
The quality of teaching on our campuses is outdated and does not follow the latest market demands. The Indian education system is all about memorizing stuff but not implementing or grasping the concept.
Our education system is focused only on producing employees instead of making good citizens. We talk about increasing funds, increasing infrastructure, and facilities but there is no improvement in the content that we are teaching in our hi-tech classrooms when 90% of our university and higher studies institutions still have an outdated curriculum.
The Indian education system requires some strong upgrades in our curriculum. The priority should be given to the practical-based class and Exam-oriented classes should be dismissed.
Industry-related courses need to be initiated in colleges and universities and students should have the option to delete or include any subject of this set curriculum. The introduction of an open curriculum will promote creativity, innovation, and free-thinking.
Current Affairs
Since the curriculum of the Indian education system is theoretical and based on passing exams, therefore students do not look beyond their textbooks. Today the students are not aware of what is happening in the world.
How is the political climate of the country? Are socio-cultural changes taking place?
It is the responsibility of the schools to educate the students about their culture, society, and policies so that they can make their decisions in the future accordingly. Apart from that, it will give them an idea about the latest demand, trends, issues, and propaganda.
Therefore current affairs should be an integral part of the Indian education system.
Sports
Till now India has only won 35 medals in the Olympic Games. All our athletes who have participated in the Olympics have done a great job and made India proud. But each one of them has struggled to choose the sport as a professional career option.
It is difficult for any player to perform well in a country where we do not have adequate facilities for sports. We start giving importance to sports like academics, then we can give so many great athletes to the country and win more medals.
School is only for academics is an old mentality and we need to fix it and sports need to be given more importance in the Indian education system.
Apart from all these above-mentioned teaching approaches we have other ones also like effective communication programs, industrial interactions with the students, real-life case studies and so on which may enable our students to understand the management concepts easily and implement them in their working place.
Improvement is essential for any education system as it helps to buck up with modern technology, trend, and demand. The government is trying to improve the Indian education system by launching a new education policy where students can choose the subject and it will also encourage coding and Indian languages.
India is going to be the next superpower of the world, but it is impossible without creative minds, new start-ups, world-class scientists, and a scientific revolution in India. The Indian education system can help us to achieve all of them.
Apart from that education can create a civil society where people would have tolerance, respect, harmony for each other. It is the responsibility of the Indian education system to produce educated citizens in society.