Education


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

Education

Education: Education is an important input for the growth of society. It opens new horizons, develops life values and gives rise to new aspirations. Education also helps in the growth of society. It increases the National Income as well as the cultural richness and efficiency of governance. Vocational education has been developed to provide skillbased education, which leads to ready employment.

Education Scenario in India: There is provision made for providing universal access, retention and quality in elementary education with a special emphasis on girls. Special schools called as Navodaya Vidyalaya have been established in each district. Although government expenditure on education has increased enormously in the last few years, there are still many disparities in literacy. Female literacy remains much lower than male literacy all over India. There is also wide variation in literacy rates from one region of the country to another. For example, there is about 94% literacy in Kerala but 62% in Bihar, Literacy among males is nearly 16.6% higher than females and it is also about 16.1% higher in urban areas as compared to rural areas. The expenditure on education as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose from 0.64% in 1951-52 to 3.3% in 20 13-14 (budgetary estimate). The literacy rate has increased from 18% in 1951 to 74% in 2010-11. Literacy is not only a right, it is also needed if the citizens are to perform their duties and enjoy their rights properly

Government Steps to Provide Education to ALL: Government has taken many steps towards providing elementary education to all. The primary school system has expanded to over 7.68 lakh in 2004-05 in India. Unfortunately, this huge expansion of schools has been diluted by the poor quality of schooling and high dropout rates. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is a Government of India flagship programme for achievement of universalisation of elementary education in a time-bound manner, It aims at providing elementary education to all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years. Mid-day Meal Scheme has been implemented to encourage attendance and retention of school children and improve their nutritional status. These policies will add to the literate population of India. Over the past 50 years, there has been a significant growth in the number of universities and institutions of higher learning in specialised areas. The 11th Five Year Plan endeavoured to increase the enrollment in higher education of the 18 to 23 years age group to 15% by 2011-12 and to 21% by the 12th Five Year Plan. The strategy focusses on:

1.   Increasing access, quality, adoption of states-specific curriculum modification, vocationalisation and networking on the use of information technology.

Distance education as well as convergence of formal, non-formal, distance and IT education institutions.

 
 


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