Education System in India Past and Present

Education System

in India Past and Present 

Research Methodology

Various methods have been adopted for carrying out to carry out this research. Literature
concerned with pre British and post British period has been studied carefully. Hermeneutics is
used as a research methodology for this paper. Hermeneutics can be defined as the interpretation
and understanding of ancient literature and religious texts. Interviews of scholars and experts of
the field of management also helped a lot during this research.

Ancient Indian Education System

Indians have understood the importance of education from the ancient times. That’s why world’s
oldest University, The Nalanda University is situated in India.. When we go through holy books
like Ramayana and Mahabharta, we come to know that children were sent to Gurukuls
(residential institutes of old times) for education where they used to study and live during their
education period. Gurukuls were the only mean of education in ancient times.
Now days in India, common subjects are taught to students till secondary or higher secondary
classes. After that they choose their line of interest and then they are taught the subjects of their
concerned field only. Unlike today, knowledge of every subject was not given to everybody. A
student was imparted knowledge of only those tasks which he was supposed to perform after he
grew up. So there was a specialisation based education system right from the childhood. Now
days in India, common subjects are taught to students till secondary or higher secondary classes.
After that they choose their line of interest and then they are taught the subjects of their

concerned field only.

The society was divided into four classes : Brahmins, Kshatriya , Vaishya , Shudras. The priests
were known as Brahmins. They used to perform rites and rituals. The people of warrior class
were known as Kshatriyas. Their duty was to protect people. The business class was known as
Vaishya. They were involved in every type of business and trade in those times. The fourth class
was Shudra. They were the labour class. It was their duty to serve the other three classes. The
education system in India was based on this caste system. The education was imparted according
to the caste of a student. Brahmins were given the knowledge about religion, philosophy, Vedas.
They were taught holy chants. Kshatriyas were taught various concepts of warfare. They were

Indian Education system after British Government

After arrival of East India Company in India, They started changing the Indian Education system
gradually and one day we were there with a completely new process of educating people. They
transformed the whole system to encapsulate European attitude in Indian children. They
emphasized on use of English in education rather than our own native languages. They started
textbook culture in India. The motive of introducing textbooks was to stop children from
producing new knowledge and made them think that they were mere consumers of the
knowledge which the textbook writer wants to convey to them. The second and the most
dangerous impact of introduction of text books was the degradation of respect of teachers in
Indian society. The teachers lost the right of deciding what to teach and how to teach. They had
to just follow the matter given in textbooks.
The second concept introduced by the British in Indian Education was that of the examinations.
It was a plan of British to have a centralized control of Indian Education System through the
introduction of examination system. So the students were limited to learn only those things
which were supposed to be covered in the examination and rest of the things were left. In this
way the area of knowledge became very narrow. Examination system gave rise to a serious
implication known as cramming in students. The students started memorizing things whether
understood or not so that they could clear the exam. Indian students were not very good at
English those days. So they just started memorizing the concepts in English rather than learning
by heart.
The textbooks contained more text on European history as compared to Indian history. The
students started getting influenced by the western culture. Then a tendency to adopt western
culture grew up among Indian children. The purpose of examination system was to refrain
people from getting higher education. The fear of failure in examination made a lot of children to
quit studies. The British Government was afraid that if there were more educated people in India
the chances of revolution become brighter.
The intention behind the changes made by British Government in education system of India can
be made clear by Lord Macaulay’s Address to the British Parliament 2nd February 1835. In his
address, he said that “I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen
one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high
moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country,
unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and
therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the
Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose
their self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly
dominated nation. ”

Present Indian Education System

Indian education system has got contribution from both public as well as private sector. It is

controlled by Central Government as well as State Government. Education has been specified as

one of the fundamental rights in the constitution of India. Modern Indian education system is

divided into many levels : pre-primary level, primary level, middle level education, secondary

education, undergraduate level and postgraduate level.

Pre primary level education or preschool education is provided to children before the age of five.

It aims at satisfying a child’s needs of fun, enjoyment, freedom, choice, belongingness, respect

and love. These needs form the basis for healthy development and life-long learning.

Primary education consists of the education till fifth standard. It is meant for children belonging

to age group of 6-11 year. Middle level education is imparted to students studying in classes

from sixth to eighth. Secondary education is imparted to students studying in classes from ninth

to twelve. After completion of school education, college education starts. College education has

two levels generally- Graduation level and post graduation level. After completion of school

education, the students choose course of their interest. The undergraduate course lays a foundation of the student’s field of interest. After completing the undergraduate course, a

postgraduate level course can be pursued. It adds to the knowledge acquired by a student during

the undergraduate course.

Government is investing a lot of money in education sector to improve the level of education in

India. A major portion of the total budget is spent on providing good education to children as

education is the base of a nation. Fig 1 shows the allocation of union budget to various sectors in

2012-13. A big amount of Rs 28679 crore has been allocated for education sector this year. Fig 2

shows the allocation of union budget to various sectors in year 2011-12. An amount of Rs 52057

crore had been allocated for education sector in the previous year. These figures show that a

large part of the total budget is spent on education every year. Government is putting great effort

to reform the education sector but due to the problems like corruption less than one fourth of the

total fund allocated is spent on education actually.