Gone are the days when India was called as the golden bird. The western powers came in India with only one motive to loot and plunder, it leaving behind their orthodox job seeking education system which was our educational experts failed to notice and correct it in time and as a result of which even today Indian students study with sole motive to gain marks. It sometimes creeps me to think that when the noble prizes for science are announced each year no Indian citizen has received it in last seventy years and it is the same India which is the “engineer manufacturing capital of the world”. Well, who says India’s manufacturing sector is not booming.. Leave aside noble prize; we take pride in calling ourselves the next future superpower when our neighbour China has made leaps and bound when it comes to technological prosperity considering both the countries started the race from same race line, all credits go to their education system.
Schools play a vital role in shaping a person’s social and professional growth. The conventional schools in India focus on nurturing the children to face the competitive world outside. Examinations and assignments are encouraged by them as tools to assess the capability of the students. Whether a child was knowledgeable or not depended on the marks, he/she scored. “Focus should be on Skill-based Education: Give a man a fish, and you feed him one day, teach him how to catch fishes, and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Today a myth exists in our society that if a student gets good marks in 10th and 12th boards, then he or she should pursue only science as stream else all their hard work would go into the vein. Also, it seems like a crime in today’s world to take commerce or arts as a stream. Society will look upon you as a failure, and it is this society which makes life miserable of these days’ students.
As said by one of the greatest scientists on the earth Albert Einstein, “Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole Life Believing that It is Stupid”. The world is no longer what it happened to be a 20 years earlier, but the mentality of an Indian parent and student has remained the same. They easily get lured by fancy hoardings of various coaching institutes portraying the toppers list, and themselves want their children to be the next poster boy. This mirage created by coaching institutes attracts lots of students who pay heavy tuition fees to these institutes only to find out that the coaching institute which they chose could not deliver what they had expected. This forces them to rethink if the career they chose after 10th was correct.A ll this peer pressure, family expectations, relationships etc. burdens them mentally and leads to depression among most of the students. When this is ignored and unattended by parents and teachers, it leads to adverse effects.
The problem just doesn’t end before entering a good university or institute but actually begins from there. Here are some serious stats of the higher education system of India
•According to a study by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, 90% of the colleges and 70% of the universities that the council graded were of middling or poor quality. The standard of school education has stagnated too. In rural India, there is no teaching activity on about 50% of the working days in the primary schools.
•There is an endemic shortage of teachers with even the IITs reporting a 20% to 30% shortfall in the faculty. Indian universities, if one goes by average, revise their curricula only once in 5 to 10 years but by then they get defeated in both letter and spirit.
•Corruption is the by-word in higher education having become rampant and institutionalized due to over-regulation by the government and multiplicity of education agencies leading to what else but stagnation in this very vital sector of education.
•The lack of good institutions has seen cut-off percentages for entry into good colleges soar to almost impossible levels (at Delhi’s SRCC college, this percentage was as high as 98.75). There is an undue pressure to do well in the secondary board exams because of which the suicidal tendency has grown alarmingly.
As H.G. Wells reminded us: “Civilisation is a race between education and catastrophe.” Our choice would determine where we are headed. The problem is we are running out of time. To fight this time Edvizo, a start up has taken the initiative to help Indian students. Despite numerous careers available in this 21st century, it is difficult for a student to choose the right path and Edvizo helps these students in taking up right career according to their ability so that they do not it regret later. Edvizo has panel consisting of graduates of IITs, IIMs, AIIMS, former IAS officers who help these students in taking right step. Edvizo website and app has features to compare various coaching institutes by different parameters thus narrowing the doubts on choosing a coaching institute which is best for them. The reviews put by former students on the websites about these institutes are also quite helpful. All this encourage a healthy competition among institutes which help them to improve. Institutes registered with Edvizo get facility to inform students and their parent’s test results, attendance, and other information directly through Edvizo app. Edvizo also conducts motivational and counselling sessions to rebuild confidence among students. Today as education has turned into a business it is difficult for a middle-class family to pay the high fees of coaching institute as a lump sum so to carter their needs Edvizo provides EMI service for fee payment so that parents can deposit fees as their convenience. Edvizo through its various scholarship programs helps economically weaker section of society. To sum up, work done by Edvizo at NGO level is appreciable and today’s India needs more organisations like Edvizo.