The introduction of grading system and Continuous and Comprehensive Exam(CCE) have proved beneficial for students according to the Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal. Considering doing away with the Class 10^th Board examination (CBSE) and setting up an alternative evaluation system based on percentiles, not percentages is indeed going to be a path breaking step for Indian education system.

Such grading system will indeed pay off dividends in making the tests stress free and reducing the rate of suicides among students. The Class X results in CBSE this year has been better than last year, as quoted by the systems officials. While 89.28 per cent students cleared the Class X test, the pass rate was 88.84 per cent last year. Mr. Sibal took a bold step last year by deciding to abolish Class X board exam from 2011. Besides, he replaced grades by marks in the Class X exam in CBSE.

The ministry feels that since the child moves up from Class 9 to Class 10 in the same school and there is no reason, for either the student or the parents to get traumatized by the 10th Board exam which, make it unnecessary to have a board exam. The Right to Education (RTE) Act will pave the way for state education boards replacing the Class 10 board exams with a grading system. “Under the RTE, elementary education until Class 8 is under comprehensive and continuous evaluation. Once you have that system until class 8, is no point in changing over to an exam system in Class 10 in India as decided by the authorities.  The major changes being introduced in school education include a uniform syllabus for all central and state boards from next year. The human resource development ministry is also pitching for a single national-level entrance test for Class 12 students from science and commerce streams applying for undergraduate courses from 2013.

The act pitches for classroom assessment of students instead of an annual exam. The Central Board of Secondary Education introduced a grading system for this year’s Class 10 board exams and will make the exam optional from next year.

It is assumed and stated in the philosophy of the current Indian educational system that grading encourages learning and without it students would not study. The system is based on fear: the basic motive for students to study is fear of low grades. Furthermore, because the grades are the main criteria for passing courses, students do not study: they just develop methods of cheating. Thus, without learning the subject, they keep passing.

Advantage of such type of education system is that, the suicide rate of students due to exam stress has come down this year and the system has become more student friendly too. Many seemed skeptical about the approach and its benefits but the results this year have put all doubts to rest. More state boards will be influenced to take up this kind of grading system in the near future. In this way, the course content is also likely to change and exams would be aimed at testing the talents of students. The Indian education system which is marks-centered and examination-based is a source of trauma for both parents and children. Knowledge, like everything else, should be user-friendly, and the acquisition of knowledge should not be a stressful exercise. This will rather help students decide which stream to follow in class 11 rather than for the schools in India, to force it on them. In high schools, if a student passes five out of six exams, he/she will be declared passed and there are provisions for compartment exams. Although there will be no division mentioned on the report card with a provision for grading and credit system.

With every new system being introduced there are always some limitations~ ultimately, it is the student’s aptitude that should decide whether he or she wants to study medical, engineering, arts or science. Hence having the marks system or grading system will cause no harm and Xth board’s class, be the first ones to experience the change in making. Since the righteous and deserving student will clear it any which ways.

The new system will it remove the trauma from education or is it just another biased way of helping children cope with the current system? Well Just Indian Schools says so because even if the student has such a moderate education system he/she will hardly be able to cope with the pressures of performing while moving up the education ladder.

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Parents many a times are in a dilemma whether to send their children to a private school or public school. How does one make a comparison between education in private schools and public schools in India? According to Just Indian Schools a discussion like this should consider the following factors:

• Teaching

• Class size

• Focus on personal development

• Administrative support

• Budgets

• Facilities

Teaching

Public sector teachers are generally better paid better than private sector schools. Moreover compensation varies widely depending on the local economic situation. Unfortunately low starting salaries and small annual salary increases result in low teacher retention in many public school districts. Additional benefits in public sector benefits have historically been excellent; however, health and pension costs have risen so dramatically, that public educators have been forced to pay more for their benefits.

Private school compensation tends to be somewhat lower than public. Again, much depends on the school and its financial resources. One private school benefit found especially in boarding schools is housing and meals. Both private and public schools in India require their teachers to be credentialed, which means a proper teaching certificate would be required.

Generally private schools in India tend to hire teachers with advanced degrees in their subject over teachers who just have an education degree. That means a private schools hiring an English teacher will want that teacher to have a degree in English language and literature as opposed to an education degree with a minor in English.

Class Size

The main reason many parents begin to consider a private high school is because the classes are small. Individual attention is one of the key pointers of private education in India. You need teacher to student ratios are 1:8 or better to achieve that goal of individual attention and to ensure that your child is not lost in shuffle.

On the other hand a public system has to take almost anyone who lives within its boundaries. Public schools in India generally have much larger class sizes, some times exceeding 30-35 students in some schools. At this junction teaching rapidly declines and student’s attention also decreases.

Focus on Personal Development

The major focus of most private high schools is getting the student ready for higher studies, college, personality development apart from the academic preparation. In such a way, a student can emerge from high school with both a degree and a clearer planning of their future career.

Administrative Support

The longer the hierarchy, the harder it is to get decisions made at all, much less to get them made quickly. The public sector education system is notorious because of its stringent work rules and bureaucracies. This type of union is generally a result of political considerations or union associations.

Private schools in India on the other hand generally have a lean management structure. Every rupee spent has to come from operating income and endowment income. The other difference is that private schools rarely have teacher unions to deal with.

Budgets

A lot depends on the school's annual budget since it’s a correlation between the local property taxes support and the political business. In poor communities or communities which have many voters living on fixed incomes, there is very little time to respond to budget requests within tax revenues projected.

On the other hand private schools in India can raise tuition fees and also raise significant money from variety of other sources like annual appeals, donations, alumni membership charges and grants from foundations and corporations. The strong commitment towards private schools in India by alumni makes it possibly a success for raising funds from alumni.

Facilities

Private high schools have been giving a lot of focus on building their body of knowledge through a fully equipped library, which are now called media centers.  Whether a private school is large or small both media and learning centers become the focal point of the very best private high schools in India.

Private schools in India include the rating of athletic activities in their curriculum. Many private schools in India and international schools offer sports like hockey, racquet sports, basketball, football, swimming, as well as dozens of other sports. Besides professional staff to coach the teams and manage these athletic programs, private schools  also have the facilities to house and support all these activities.

Apart from sports extracurricular activities are a major part of private high school programs like choirs, bands and drama clubs can be found in most schools. The teacher’s guide or coach extracurricular activities as part of their job requirements.

In public schools the first programs to be introduced to the students are sports, arts programs and extracurricular activities.

Although the trend is changing now where many public school facilities are becoming impressive; others still remain mediocre. In some cases the same is true of private schools. In the public school system, the two pillars of political support and economic revenue base are critical.

Whereas in private schools the ability to attract parental and alumni support endowments and other forms of financial support are just as critical. Today private schools in the range of K-12 education have shown enough attention to facilities and amenities pertaining to school infrastructure which even surpass those found at many colleges and universities. It is hard to find comparable facilities in the public sector, that might be fewer in number and in between.

Public schools also reflect the economic realities of their location. Wealthy suburban schools will have more amenities than inner city schools as a rule. Who do you think has the edge? Just Indian Schools says it’s a draw what’s your take on my consideration?

Finally, private or public sector schools in India who comes out on the top? There could be no clear cut answer or conclusions. Both private and public schools have their advantages and disadvantages. The question for parents is which works out best for you? Weigh your options before making your decisions.

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The best way to encourage children in sports, like anything else, make it fun!! Just Indian Schools believes in taking a more important role in sporting the development of children. The best way to encourage children of today’s generation to play sports, is to expose them as early as possible, to as many possible sports and outdoor activities.

Sports & Games is not about X-box or I Pod’s. Sports can be individual or team oriented, and sports give children a chance to dream. Junior (kid’s) surfing contests, snowboarding, cricket, gymnastics, football, basketball etc . Expose children to as many different sports early, so they can try many before they zero down on which is their favorite spirits.

If you can ease the child’s efforts and focus on the enjoyment you can pretty much get them to do anything from eating cabbage to doing their homework. Especially in today’s day and age where children are prone to just sit inside and watch television or play computer games, according to Just Indian Schools the government should get more involved and invest more money in getting young people fit and healthy.

Teachers play a very important role in encouraging the children. In the family for example, adults should play sport regularly, if kid’s see the older ones enjoying sport then they will be encouraged to do it as well. The most important thing however, is that parent’s should never sport dreams or preferences onto your children because that could discourage them. In the earlier times sports games were largely limited to cricket and football, depending on which teacher the schools in India has appointed. It is indeed a good scenario now and there are so many choices to make at badminton, gymnastics, golf, swimming, basketball, tennis, cricket or athletics etc.

Another alternative is that local schools in India with limited budgets can also offer sporting facilities to each other, thus enabling children access to a much wider sporting curriculum. If possible schools in India could also have their own choice of sports activities and even the least popular sports would then have enough support across several schools to make them viable.

Another interesting observation is that these kids who accompany one or both parents and other family members to ball games (like cricket or football), shuttle a lot of other games like badminton, hockey, gymnastics etc. Parental guidance and sports nurturing plays a great role in the children’s early development, enjoyment and future participation in sports.

Speaking about the good schools in India that have good financial backing with good direction and a balance between studies and sports . For every, good school present there must be dozens or more of average to poor schools, needless to say with poor or no sporting facilities. Sports to these kids are just dreams.

Then comes the government aided or even the lower end schools in India that cannot afford or simply do not have playing fields. Many very great sportsmen in out country came from these backgrounds.

In the long run Just Indian Schools feels that sports development should be a must across every school in the world, instead of spending billions of dollars on arms and weapons of mass destruction, and then spending more billions trying to eradicate terrorism.

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Success during examinations is a key resultant of knowledge, speed and the ability to write precise and yet correct answers. However these days another major contributor of success and memory is technology enabled teaching in schools. Just Indian Schools strongly believes that, technology-enabled learning can truly nullify social and economic boundaries by making teaching in classes highly interactive.

A large number of companies are going the digital way by offering high quality content to students from making Pre-school toddlers to school going children ready for the next level. The intervention of technology in has changed our outlook to life and methods of instruction in International schools, other Schools and Pre-Schools. Although the classrooms that our grandparents went to are exactly the kind of classrooms our children study in~ Chalk and blackboard, a packed classroom, text books, regimented curriculum, a teacher painstakingly explaining abstract concepts with the limited tools at her disposal.

But in today its more than just imagining, a Science teacher explaining how the germination of a seed takes place, a History teacher teaching about the Indus Valley Civilization and a Geography teacher teaching how mountains and deserts are formed all with the help of online and digital techniques. Teachers will try to explain such concepts to the best of their abilities, and students listen to the teachers trying hard to decipher the figures drawn on the blackboard and by reading from their text book’s, even try to take notes and try hard to visualize how it all appears.

Thanks to the technology enabled transformation brought about in the methods of teaching- a Science teacher is able to explain germination of seed by showing it as a 3D animation process on a large screen. She can explain the finer details of the process zoom in or zoom out and similarly, the History teacher is actually able to walk the class through the early age civilizations & even engaging sound, animations, music, colors and voice. In many schools today every child in the class is given a visual input on the concept and there is a better level of interest during the teaching session.

Another aspect is e-learning commonly refers to training delivered electronically in an organizational setting, while Online Learning is used to differentiate courses delivered via the internet in educational settings.

E learning is another concept that is widely catching up, it is a medium of instruction delivered on a computer via internet or CD-ROM. The worldwide e-learning industry is estimated to be worth over thirty-eight (38) billion euros according to conservative estimates. India and its schools have realized the importance of e learning, it is estimated to grow at 80-100% on yearly basis for next 5 years.

According to some industry sources the comparison between online education software & related services and E learning and the possible growth opportunities are as given below:

The benefits of e-learning are definitely the increased access of technology by students, convenience and flexibility of learners, along with development of necessary skills and competencies needed in the 21^st century for digital literacy skills required in any discipline, profession or career. It can be self paced or instructor led and includes media in the form of videos, text and audio and builds user knowledge on a given subject. Many parents have enrolled their children in training institutes, for online learning on the web from home, which is much safer than having to go to a tuition center after school hours. Many online learning centers today, provide subject wise subscription of online training package where the children can solve problems, learn concepts and even have a online tutor taking the student through the content simultaneously.

Technology enabled learning, brings abstract and difficult school curriculum concepts to life inside classrooms and makes learning in schools more enjoyable and memorable along with improved academic performance across students.

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Although there is greater than fivefold improvement in the literacy rate of India from independence, the level is well below the world average literacy rate of 84%. India is still one amongst the largest illiterate population of any nation on earth.

In recent times, several major announcements were made for developing the poor conditions in Education Sector in India, the most notable ones being the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The initiatives are as follows:

a. To increase expenditure progressively on education to around 6 percent of GDP

b. To support this increase in expenditure on education, and to increase the quality of education, there would be an imposition of an education cess over all central government taxes

c. To ensure that no one is denied of elementary education due to economic backwardness and poverty

d. To make right to school education a fundamental right for all children in the age group 6–14 years

e. To universalize education through its flagship programmes such as Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and Mid Day Meal.

The right to education is a fundamental human right, and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) aims at education for all by 2015.

Schemes by Government:

Asha for Education: Asha for education was founded by Sandeep Pandey with an aim of empowering and transformation of India’s marginalized poor. It is a secular organization dedicated to change in India by focusing on basic education with the belief that education is a critical requisite for socio-economic change. While pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, he co-founded Asha for Education to support education for poor children in India by tapping the resources of Overseas Indians, raising ten thousand dollars in the first year. The organization has since expanded to 36 North-American chapters and disbursed nearly one million dollars for programs in India. 

While working with impoverished low caste families and dalits in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh, Pandey discovered that few children went to school and those that did remained unemployed and hence the idea of providing education to underprivileged children in India.

Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation: This is an initiative by Shantha Sinha, started with the aim of guiding the people of Andhra Pradesh to end the scourge of child labour and send their children to school. As head of an extension program at the University of Hyderabad in 1987, she organized a three-month-long camp to prepare children rescued from bonded labour to attend school. Later, in 1991, this idea became a part of the overriding mission of literary in Andhra Pradesh. The foundation’s aim is to create a social climate hostile to child labour, child marriage and other practices that deny children the right to a normal childhood.  

Mid-day Meal Scheme: With a goal to serve over 5,00,000 children per day by 2009 Mid-day meal project believes in success by irradiating two of the most pressing problems of India -Hunger & Education. The high drop-out rate in schools has been a matter of major concern. One of the most popular schemes adopted to attract children to schools is the Mid-day Meal Scheme, launched in 1995.  

National Literacy Mission: The National Literacy Mission, launched in 1988, aimed at attaining a literacy rate of 75 per cent by 2007. It imparts functional literacy to non-literates in the age group of 15–35 years. The Total Literacy Campaign is its principal strategy for eradication of illiteracy.

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan: The Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (Total Literacy Campaign) was launched in 2001 to ensure that all children in the 6–14 year age-group attend school and complete eight years of schooling by 2010. An important component of the scheme is the Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative Education, meant primarily for children in areas with no formal school within a one kilometer radius. This district primary education programme launched in 1994, has now opened more than 160,000 new schools and almost 84,000 alternative schools.

There is an increased need for more and more such initiatives to float up, which means other Non-Government efforts to take education to the weaker society. The bulk of Indian illiterates live in the country’s rural areas, where social and economic barriers play an important role in keeping those at the bottom of the pyramid, of society, illiterate. Government programmes alone, although well executed, may not be adequate to dismantle barriers built over centuries. Major social improvement efforts are sometimes required to bring about a change in the rural scenario.

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Roots of education in India have been dated back to ancient times. Education in India falls under the control of both the Union Government and the states, with some responsibilities lying with the Union and the states having autonomy for others. Indian constitution has bestowed the citizens with school education as the fundamental right.

The main contributors to economic growth in India have been cited to increased rate of literacy approximated to almost two thirds of the population. According to industry sources, the private education market in India is estimated to be worth $40 billion in 2008 and will increase to $68 billion by 2012. Despite growing investment in education, 35% of the population is illiterate and only 15% of the students reach high school. Among the engineering and polytechnic institutions about 57% of college professors lack either a master’s or PhD degree. Shortage of trained and quality faculty is becoming an increasing concern for institutions.

The Indian government lays emphasis to primary education up to the age of fourteen years referred to as -Elementary Education in India. The Indian government has also prohibited child labour in order, to ensure that the children do not enter unsafe working conditions. 80% of all recognized schools  in India at the Elementary Stage are government run or supported, making it the largest provider of education in the Country. “Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009” bestows children from six to 14 years of age or up to class VIII free education. However, due to shortage of resources and lack of political will, this system suffers from massive gaps including high pupil teacher ratios, shortage of infrastructure and poor level of teacher training. The current scheme for universalization of Education for All the “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan” is one of the largest education initiatives in the world. Although the enrollment has been enhanced, the levels of quality still remain low.

A special Integrated Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) programme was started in 1974 with a focus on primary education. Along side also came a special programme, the Kendriya Vidyalaya project, started for the employees of the central government of India, who are distributed throughout the country.

India’s higher education seems to be the third largest in the world, as of 2009, India has 20 central universities, 215 state universities, 100 deemed universities, 5 institutions established and functioning under the State Act, and 13 institutes which are of national importance. Tertiary level of education in Science, technology and medicine are by and large been given immense importance.

The Union Budget 2010-11 announced a major allocation increment of 16 per cent for school education. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, “I propose to increase the plan allocation for school education from Rs 26,800 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 31,036 crore in 2010-11″. This accounts for an increase of Rs 4,236 crore from the 2009-10 fiscal.

According to the Census of 2001, “every person above the age of 7 years who can read and write in any language is said to be literate”. There is a wide gender disparity in the literacy rate in India, an adult (15+ years) the literacy rates in 2009 were 76.9% for men and 54.5% for women. According to a study by industry sources, estimates of 80% of all schools in India are government schools making the Government the major provider of education. However, because of poor quality of public education, 27% of Indian children are privately educated.

India viewed education as an effective tool for bringing social change through rural community development and hence came up several initiatives. Nursery schools, elementary schools, secondary school, and schools for adult education for women were set up through the “Gandhigram Rural Institute” for rural education.

Come join hands in the continuum of learning and enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their potential and knowledge. In this way we can participate in contributing to the wider society and increasing the literacy rate of our country.

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