New Report Slams India’s “Deteriorating” School Education, Proposes Radical Overhaul to Boost Employability

New Report Slams India’s “Deteriorating” School Education, Proposes Radical Overhaul to Boost Employability

Raman’s report is particularly critical of the current education system, describing it as “so irrelevant that it is not required at all in any job market”.

A scathing new report titled “School Education Report to Make Students Employable,” authored by researcher and editor Rakesh Raman, paints a grim picture of the current state of school education in India, asserting that it is “bad”, “deteriorating”, and largely responsible for the country’s burgeoning unemployment crisis.

The report, an initiative of Raman Media Network (RMN), argues that the existing system, in both government and private schools, is plagued by obsolete subjects, archaic teaching methods, and a fundamental disconnect with the demands of the modern job market.

The report’s key findings highlight a multitude of systemic failures. It states that school students are being taught “obsolete subjects with archaic pedagogical methods”, and that school books are “written haphazardly”. 

The quality of education is deemed “equally bad in government as well as private schools”. Furthermore, the report contends that school teachers are “not fully qualified to teach contemporary subjects” and follow an “ineffective book-to-board approach” while assigning “burdensome homework” and conducting “unnecessarily hold multiple exams” without contributing to academic development. 

Crucially, the report asserts that state and national education policies are “so flawed that they fail to improve the quality of education”, leading to higher education becoming “meaningless” and a lack of “linkages with higher education and employment of students”.

The consequences of this “poor quality of education” are severe, according to the report. It points to the increasing number of unemployed youth and highlights a recent report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Institute of Human Development (IHD) which reveals that India’s youth account for almost 83% of the unemployed workforce. 

Alarmingly, the share of unemployed youth with secondary or higher education has nearly doubled between 2000 and 2022, reaching 65.7%. The report even cites instances of premier institutions like IIT Delhi facing placement challenges, with a significant percentage of students failing to secure jobs. This situation is attributed to the “irrelevant and obsolete” education being imparted across all types of educational institutes.

Raman’s report is particularly critical of the current education system, describing it as “so irrelevant that it is not required at all in any job market”. It argues that after 12 years of schooling, students are “totally confused and not equipped for higher education needed for employment”. 

The report goes on to claim that “about 99% of students do not need to learn the prevailing subjects such as math, science, social science, and the obsolete computer applications”. 

With the advent of AI tools like ChatGPT, the report questions the necessity of students spending time on complex, static knowledge that can be accessed instantly. This “time wastage” could instead be used to acquire “job-related skills which are currently not being taught in schools”.

To address these critical issues, the report proposes an alternative model of school education based on a dynamic Constructive Education Framework (CEF). This model operates on the principle of “Learning for Earning” with the primary objective of connecting education with employability. The CEF aims to focus on skills development, teach hybrid job skills required in future markets, and promote self-learning techniques.

The proposed structure of the CEF involves categorising education into different streams after primary school. Primary education for the first five years would include foundational subjects like Arithmetic, English, IT, Moral Education, and a local language. 

Higher education from the 6th to 12th year would be divided into four streams: Humanities, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), Commerce or Trade, and Specialized Domains like AI, Human Rights, and Governance. 

The total education period would be 14 years, including two years of on-the-job training, after which a student would be “fully employable”. This model aims to make college and university education “redundant”.

The report also outlines suggested steps to improve education in schools, including the appointment of qualified teachers and bureaucrats, the implementation of Service-Level Agreements for teachers, a ban on private tuitions, and a focus on expenditure for curriculums, qualified teachers, and book content rather than infrastructure.

It also emphasizes the need for education to be directly linked to jobs and calls for an independent committee to analyse the impact of any new education system on employment levels.

The author, Rakesh Raman, is a government’s national award-winning journalist and founder of RMN Foundation. He has a background in media and has been involved in education awareness campaigns and even ran a free school. The report is being circulated among various stakeholders in India and abroad. 

Raman urges governments to discard their “obsolete education systems” and adopt the new model, even suggesting a pilot project in each state. He also encourages parents and students to launch campaigns to demand the modernisation of school education.

Download Report: You can click here to download and study the report which is also given below.

Contact

Rakesh Raman
Managing Editor, RMN News Service [ www.rmnnews.com ]
463, DPS Apts., Plot No. 16, Sector 4
Dwarka, Phase I, New Delhi 110 078, India
WhatsApp / Mobile: 9810319059
Email: editor@rmnnews.com