what is the system of education in india and what does it aim to teach what is a more desirable altirnative essay writing
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2The modern school system in India has its origins in the colonial system of education that was shaped between the 1830s and 1870s. Dominant features of the current system, including the centrality of the textbook and examinations, and a highly centralised system of education administration (within a federal structure, centralised at the level of each state), can all be directly traced to the colonial institutional structures. Although there was a widespread presence of village teachers engaged with literacy and numeracy instruction (albeit restricted to higher castes and males only) as well as centres for “shastric learning” (Sanskrit and Arabic), which could be considered as an indigenous system, the British system supplanted these “schools” or centres of learning and effectively cut off forms of state support or patronage that they had previously enjoyed. The curriculum of the colonial school system included Western knowledge, the English language, and “(colonial) citizenship” and excluded all forms of indigenous knowledge. The new system was accessible to all castes and communities and over time also addressed the education of girls; however, it was never intended to be a universal education system. Much of the spread of the system is to some degree accounted for by government effort in some parts of India, but also that of Christian missionaries, local rulers who promoted education in their princely states, social reformers, and finally, the involvement of the private sector. The twin interests of social reform through enlightenment, knowledge, and education, as well as the lure of employment through Western education, drove the expansion of the system. It is worth remembering that this period was also the time when in the colonising European countries the idea of national systems of education and compulsory schooling were developing, and curricular and pedagogic imaginations were being re-formed. What is striking is how quickly debates and developments in Europe found their reflection in the colonies and also how curricular and pedagogic innovation and development in the colonies sometimes preceded and informed progressive changes in Europe. Indigenous centres for shastric learning continued but on a much smaller scale and with limited sources of patronage. The indigenous village teacher seems to have become displaced by, or perhaps subsumed – in a few forms – in, the new “school”; changes in the status and agency of the teacher, now a government servant, have been noted by researchers. It has been noted that features of the indigenous system, particularly the centrality of an authoritarian teacher, knowledge as received, and pedagogies and approaches to learning including repetition and memorisation by an obedient student, all took root in and soon dominated the colonial school – this has been characterized as the “textbook culture”. The idea of the “guru” and the need for legitimate learning to be mediated by the guru is a popular and well-elaborated theme in the indigenous knowledge systems and in popular folklore. Within Indian schools even today, we continue to find the idea of the guru as well as traditional modes of teaching and learning.
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