Page 84 - DEDU503_EDUCATIONAL_MANAGEMENT_ENGLISH

Educational Management

Notes

Implementing educational reforms is the best way for India to truly harness the power of
its demographic dividend.

Weaknesses
(i) Education in most schools is one dimensional, with an obsessive focus on marks. The products
of Indian school education tend to be narrow minded and even selfish in their aims and
approach.
(ii) There is little focus on nurturing:
(a) Behavioral skills - teamwork, leadership, community
(b) Application skills
(c) Creative-thinking skills
(iii) Teachers generally have limited knowledge of how to spark creativity in children.
(iv) The knowledge transmitted to children is therefore bookish. Few opportunities exist for
children to apply their knowledge to real life situations.
(v) Children are rarely encouraged to participate in community-based activities such as working
with disadvantaged groups or the environment.
(vi) The shortfall of teachers is over 3 million. India needs 7 - 8 million primary/secondary
schoolteachers, versus the 3 - 4 million available.
(vii) Instilling the right type of skills in teachers and implementing a process to transfer such
skills and knowledge effectively through the system would have a powerful 'multiplier
effect' on the entire system of learning.
(viii) Most of them lack an overarching and inspirational vision. Given the increasing demand for
'quality schools' by the growing Indian middle class and the willingness of parents to invest
significant money in their children's education, many schools are promoted as commercial
ventures, rather than as centers of excellence.
(ix) Indian primary and secondary schools suffer from the additional weaknesses of infrastructure
limitations and inefficiency. The shortcomings are likely as damaging in the long run as the
high levels of corruption. Poor infrastructure at schools makes teaching even harder. The
2011 Annual Status of Education report found that roughly 51 percent of schools didn’t have
available lavatories, while 26 percent of schools had no drinking water.
(x) Inefficient teaching methods, such as rote learning, which focuses on memorization as opposed
to critical reasoning, are also widespread at secondary school level. The rote teaching
methodology has demonstrated shortcomings. Studies by the Program for International
Students Assessment, an OECD initiative, and Wipro, an Indian consulting firm, found that
students secondary school level have regressed in math, science, and reading literacy in
recent years.

Not only is the rote method detrimental to currently enrolled students, but it's also
more difficult to address than infrastructural or corruption issues, as it has become
an institutionalized practice.

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