Promoting Quality Education in India

Education in India isn't something a new concept. It was always an integral part of the very foundation of the Indian society. With modern India, education too has taken a giant leap which has captured global attention not because of the number of illiterates the country has but the quality of education system it has evolved. The Indian economy has observed an immense growth in the recent past as an effect of the flourishing literacy rate in the country. With the history stretched back to the times of Vedas, Puranas, Ayurveda, Yoga, Arthasahtra…extending from formal education under the Gurukul system to the modern new age eLearning concept, India has for sure has travelled an exhaustive journey crossing each milestone.

It would be extremely interesting to understand and analyze the present and future developments of the educational scenario in India.

Education in India

The present statistics states that primary education has crossed the mark of approximately two-third of the total population. Out of which, 40% of the population is illiterate and only 20% of the students go to schools. Since time immemorial, discrimination based on caste and gender has always been a major deterrent when healthy development of the society is in question. So to avoid such prejudice, the Indian Constitution has made elementary education a fundamental right for every child falling between the age group of 6 to 14 years. According to the 2001 census, the sum total of literacy rate in India is 65.38% where the female literacy rate is only of 54.16%. With the fact that only 59.4% of rural population is literate compared to 80.3% of the urban population, there is a humongous gap between rural and urban literacy rate.

University Grants Commission (UGC) has been established by the Indian government to accelerate higher education system in the country. The chief role of UGC lies in controlling and co-coordinating the standards of higher education in the country.

Current Scenario

With a view to promote elementary education in the country, the Indian government has also prohibited child labor to protect children from working under unhygienic conditions. However, both free education and ban on child labor are difficult to be enforced simultaneously due to poor economic disparity and social conditions. Moreover, shortage of adequate resources and lack of political support are some of the reasons due to which the system has been adversely affected by the gaps that include high teacher-student ratio, poor infrastructure and insufficient teacher training. In fact, professionals from established institutes are often called to support vocational training for these kids.

The government has initiated Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in 2001 with a view to provide instigate the education system and make its reach wider and more accessible to every child. The program focuses specially on girls and children with challenged social or financial backgrounds. In order to aid children firmer their grip in the computer sector as well, special schools are being set up in the rural areas.

Education for the Marginalized in India

Apart from Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the government has also introduced reservation system where 7.5% seats in the higher educational institutes are reserved for the Schedule Tribes (ST), 15% for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and 27% for the non creamy layers of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Efforts are also being made to improve the education accessibility for the women section. The growing acknowledgment of concepts like eLearning and distance education courses along with expansion of the Open University system is also contributing a lot in standardizing education in India.

However, in spite ofconstant efforts being put forth to develop qualitative education system in India, there are still some major loopholes and widespread prejudices. With renewed emphasis laid on the education sector in the 11th five year plan and increased expenditure in both primary and secondary education, this can eventually act as an analgesic for the chronic Indian educational system.

About the Author

Extramarks.com is an effort to bring students, teachers and parents on a single platform to ensure that a child excels academically. It utilizes Internet to provide anywhere, anytime after school educational support for children studying in classes VI to XII and is presently focused on Indian students.

Hassle Free Online Quiz For Students

Author: Extramarks

Solving puzzles is an innovative way to develop an interest in the subject area. During the early years of student life they used to keep away from tests. Doing online quiz was a much-dreaded affair and students were under constant pressure from their parents to do well in the subject in test. As for students, the simple mention of words like formulas, theorems, trigonometry and probability could instantly send me into a state of distress. A student used to wonder why he has forced to learn these ‘mindless theorems' and what purpose would it serve to learn that formula. They has after all not really planning to do a PhD, But what possibly did not realize back then is the immense advantage that being comfortable with numbers brings to us in our lives in general.

With an online quiz you can usually choose from multiple question types to ensure you find the right one for your audience. With most software you will be offered a choice of at least true/false, fill in the blank, multiple choice and short answer question types. But some online quiz organizer has more variety of question types and allows you to shuffle questions and provide instant feedback to test takers.

A student should be fond of general knowledge! Co-curricular activities are part of our studies. And in co-curricular activities, general knowledge is important. For everybody however clever, general knowledge is necessary. Did you know that answering a free General knowledge quiz might provide you with some insight into yourself that you may not have known previously? So here is some exciting stuff for you! Here are some questions for you to improve your general knowledge with their answers. The questions are taken randomly from various fields. There are questions from Politics, Games, Current Affairs, Bollywood, Technology, Fashion, etc. The answers are provided here for you to not to be finding anywhere else. Read on and try to give answers yourself without reading answers. This questionnaire will help you improving knowledge and impress your friends with that.

The online quizzes offering course ware and general knowledge questions allow the students to recognize their individual errors, thereby creating an individual learning experience. Also several sites offering these informative online quizzes allow for detailed feedback report on the performance of the student. These reports contain detailed explanations of topics covered in the quiz together with correct answers for the questions. The student may even retry these online quizzes and learn from his/her mistake. Participating in these online quiz offering fun trivia and general knowledge questions is a fun to way to test ones knowledge and increase IQ.

There are many ways to do that on the Internet. One of most effective way is to join rewards based online quiz sites. Why these quiz sites are important? There are many reasons for that: First, if you want to test your knowledge, scores in these quizzes can easily tell your level. Second, you can use these quizzes to increase your knowledge because it also corrects you if you give any wrong answers. Third, many of online quiz sites are free to use, so you don't need to pay anything. Forth, you can play these quizzes any time of the day when you are FREE, which makes them very convenient and flexible. And last but not the least; you may also win some prizes, which gives you the feeling that at least you have not wasted your time.

About the Author

Extramarks brings students, teachers and parents together on a single platform to 

ensure that a child excels academically. To know more about online quiz, online test, supermind quiz, online education, e Learning, e-tutorial, school education support, CBSE, ICSE, log on to http://www.extramarks.com.