Measures To Reform Educational System
Over six decades number of measures have been taken to reform the educational system, These various measures can be grouped into three parts, viz., i) equality reforms, 11 quarry reforms, and iii) reforms for administrative ease. In an educationally advanced environment, the educational reforms seem to have achieved success but in a less-developed socio-economic and educational environment, educational reforms seem to have been less successful. It appears that reform meant for the classes seem to have taken a relatively shorter period to succeed.
In the case of a majority of educational reforms, the primary initiative was taken by the Government and the mass involvement was very much limited. The people, both the target group as well as others, simply followed this initiative on the part of the government or the leadership.
The global approach to educational change seems to have received greater attention by policymakers than the specific measures for educational change meant for specific target groups. The global measures have an implicit bias towards the socio implicit bias towards socio-economically better-off sections of society, as major benefits from such measures could be cornered by them.
In short, educational reforms have not been successful in overcoming the weakness of smaller coverage, lower quality and higher inequality. In some cases, the problems seem to have been aggravated with widening inter-regional disparities, inter-community disparities and still larger inequalities between the male and the female learners.
Resource Allocation in Plans: Education has been a low priority area in terms of the resource allocation in our plans. A glance at the percentage share of funds for education in the total plan outlay would reveal that it has been decreasing from the third plan onwards, as shown in the below table.
In simple words, education has been a low priority area in the Indian economy. After the higher priority areas like industry and agriculture had their required shares, whatever used to be left in the resource-pot would be distributed among the low priority areas, among which education also figured. There is a need for planning education expenditure on a priority basis.
Future Education Policy
Now that the demand for education is rising from across the cláss, caste and community divide, the three most important elements in future education policy should be: • To make primary education not only available but also reached to and availed of by all children so that at least in the next generation, we have a more educated, alive and alert population. To focus on the education of women and particularly female children, by reaching out to them. To make education worthwhile, and relate it to the actual needs of the population, in terms of suitability of the education imparted for employment, for better skills, for a better understanding of health, education, environmental and other relevant issues.
Primary education has, to be meaningful, to be imparted in the mother tongue of all children, at least in the 16 major languages ( and scripts) which are in common use across the country. To this may be added that school curricula have to be made less rigid, and innovative initiatives have to be adopted t in the field of education. A substantial increase in the proportion of funding of primary education is also necessary, at the same time increasing community involvement to make the education system work. This calls for decentralisation and debureaucratisation of the education system and giving the initiative to the community at large to run the education system. Also to give effect to the principle of equal opportunity all through education, primary has to be given to education for women and, in particular, girls of school-going age; education for other backward sections of the population like schedule castes and a people. convergence of services like the provision of nutrition for children, which will inter and also help to reduce the dropout rate. making education universally desired, through a change in the curricula and the education systems, and relating education to the needs of the people.
And above all these, and most immediate, the current policy of the ‘trickle down’ method has to be replaced by a movement that starts bottom up.
National Knowledge Commission
In early 2005., the government constituted the National Knowledge Commission to make India not only a knowledge-producing society but also a knowledge sharing and knowledge-consuming society. The Commission’s agenda would be shared by a “knowledge pentagon with five action areas” as follows.
Increasing access to knowledge for public benefit. Developing higher education concepts. Rejuvenating science and technology institutions. Enabling application of knowledge by industry to enhance manufacturing competitiveness. Encouraging intensive use of knowledge-based services by the government for citizen’s empowerment. Opportunities offered by forces of globalisation offer India scope to improve the quality of life of its people, provided appropriate policies are put in place.
Here are the notes for Health Policy.