The key to India’s economic prosperity lies with education, as any developmental effort requires the support of an educated work force. In a decade or two India will have the largest young workforce in the world, all set to contribute to the economic prosperity of the country.  Even though we will lead in numbers, there are serious concerns about the employability of such a workforce, in terms of necessary training. It is not clear whether they will have the required knowledge, confidence and creativity to realize their potential and the potential of the country. We do not have the required information to arrive at a decision regarding this and very little study has been done in this regard.

The study conducted to look into issues with the current education system

A recent study on the quality of the education, Quality of Education Survey, conducted in the leading institutions in India by Educational Initiatives and Wipro Applying Thought in educational institutions has provided some meaningful and valuable insights into the matter. Such meaningful studies are rarely undertaken to understand the problems with the education sector in India, especially by the government.

The role of extra curricular programmes in the development of a child

Art, sports and many other extra curricular activities are important for the complete development of a child. It is quite often observed that successful individuals in any discipline across the world are found to possess an artistic pursuit or a hobby that ignites their creativity and productivity in the profession of their choice. Do our children get enough opportunities to take part in co-curricular activities that happens along with academic training?

Extra curricular activities limited

According to the Quality of Education survey, the opportunities for students to take part in such extra curricular activities are limited even in the best schools in India. The survey observes that about 20 per cent of the students from the leading schools have reported that they do not get any chances to participate in dance, dramas or debates. The heads of these schools do agree that arts and sports are necessary for building confidence, solidarity, self control and team work. This is well accepted and agreed, but when it comes to the implementation of such activities, little attention is given which makes it something a student can’t dream of.

The plight of students in the government schools in rural areas

These being the case in the well funded top notch schools, just imagine the plight of those 180 million children in the government run rural schools, who are deprived of such opportunities. Such schools in therural India lack in basic amenities such as well maintained class rooms, play ground, toilets, and even clean drinking water. We are not offering any kind of extra curricular activities to these students that will develop their innate skills. And the effort made in this direction is too little. It is rather confusing that we as a nation do not know what education is to the children studying in those million schools across rural India and also because the little that we can conclude about the education system is hopeless.

Argument that arts and sports are misplaced

Some of them might counter that paying attention to arts and sports is misplaced for a nation such as India, where the students are often struggling with basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills.  But such a point of view is rather short sighted. In spite of the repeated efforts from a college graduate to find a job, he or she fails because he cannot communicate confidently and effectively. In such a scenario what will we have to tell him or her? What points do we have to counteract the claim that India is only capable of producing low level or middle level graduates in terms of quality, and that innovations and inventions come from countries where education is allowed to be more broadly defined such as United States,?

The importance of involvement of parents and relevance of home backgrounds

There is another observation that the report makes about the relation between what we know about education and educating from international research- the relevance of home background and parental involvement in the process of learning. The findings shows that students whose homes are well-equipped with books, children who have access to computers and the Internet, Children who engage in non text book reading regularly- fair in language, mathematics and science. How do we make meaning out of these relationships? Does this mean that providing all those facilities to students will make them good learners? No, these facilities are just supplementary to the efforts made by the parents and cannot act by their own in developing the students. The report finds that students who talk regularly to their parents about the day to day activities in school and challenges tend to be better performers. There is an obligation and engagement that parents can contribute to educating their child that cannot be replaced by anything.

Not all parents are able to fulfill their child’s dream

All parents are concerned about providing the very best education to their children. But all the parents are not capable of fulfilling the dreams of their children. In India there is an alarming increase in the rate of adult illiteracy and this will make the condition more worse. It is observed that about 35 per cent of the mothers of the school going students do not have the basic reading and writing skills. We have to understand the frustration and position of such a mother who tries to participate in her child’s learning process. The students that were the subjects to the study were from educated and well off families; still they were not able to keep up with international standards of performance.

The present condition may seem to be hopeless, but there are lot to be done both in the schools and homes to make our children creative and productive citizens of the future.