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Development of Education System

Notes recently published global monitoring report discusses systemic standards as the appropriate
context of the quality debate. From this point of view, the child’s performance needs to be
treated as an indicator of systemic quality. In a system of education that is divided between a
fast-growing private sector and a larger state sector marked by shortages and the uneven
spread of resources, the issue of quality poses complex conceptual and practical questions. The
belief that private schools have higher quality treats examination results as the sole criterion
for judging quality. This kind of perception ignores the ethos-related limitations of the privileged
private schools. The fact that they often neglect the child’s mother tongue warrants us to wonder
about the opportunities that they are able to provide to the child for constructing knowledge in
meaningful ways.

10.1.3 The Social Context of Education
Hierarchies of caste, economic status and gender relations, cultural diversity as well as the
uneven economic development that characterise Indian society also deeply influence access to
education and participation of children in school. This is reflected in the sharp disparities
between different social and economic groups, which are seen in school enrolment and completion
rates. Thus, girls belonging to SC and ST communities among the rural and urban poor and the
disadvantaged sections of religious and other ethnic minorities are educationally most
vulnerable.
In urban locations and many villages, the school system itself is stratified and provides children
with strikingly different educational experiences. Unequal gender relations not only perpetuate
domination but also create anxieties and stunt the freedom of both boys and girls to develop
their human capacities to their fullest. It is in the interest of all to liberate human beings from
the existing inequalities of gender.

The education system does not function in isolation from the society of which it is a
part.

10.1.4 Aims of Education
The aims of education serve as broad guidelines to align educational processes to chosen ideals
and accepted principles. The aims of education simultaneously reflect the current needs and
aspirations of a society as well as its lasting values, and the immediate concerns of a community
as well as broad human ideals. At any given time and place they can be called the contemporary
and contextual articulations of broad and lasting human aspirations and values. Educational
aims turn the different activities undertaken in schools and other educational institutions into
a creative pattern and give them the distinctive character of being ‘educational’. An educational
aim helps the teacher connect her present classroom activity to a cherished future outcome
without making it instrumental, and therefore give it direction without divorcing it from
current concerns. Thus, an aim is a foreseen end: it is not an idle view of a mere spectator;
rather, it influences the steps taken to reach the end. An aim must provide foresight. It can do
this in three ways: First, it involves careful observation of the given conditions to see what
means are available for reaching the end, and to discover the hindrances in the way.

10.2 Learning and Knowledge

This chapter establishes the need to recognise the child as a natural learner, and knowledge as
the outcome of the child’s own activity. In our everyday lives outside the school, we enjoy the
curiosity, inventiveness and constant querying of children. They actively engage with the world

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