The
on-going debate on India’s educational system has
been taking place mainly between educationists, politicians,
and bureaucrats. One voice has not been heard at all so
far: that of the students themselves. To remedy this glaring
omission, IFIH prepared a comprehensive Survey on
Indian Education dealing, in a first stage, with
school education, and consisting of 72 questions put to
students of classes 9 to 12. It was partly sponsored by
the NCERT, and IFIH’s official report was submitted
in July 2005.
The Survey’s conception and initial implementation
was by M. Pramod Kumar; Michel Danino took care of its completion,
its statistical analysis, and the final report to NCERT.
Many IFIH members and friends across India helped in contacting
schools, getting the Survey conducted, and finding people
for data entry.
The questionnaire’s first part (33 questions) dealt
with Indian culture and values. Students’
opinions and suggestions were sought as regards: (1) whether
Indian culture is given adequate importance in the curriculum;
(2) whether students would like to learn specific aspects
of Indian heritage as part of or outside the curriculum;
(3) the values they are learning or would like to learn
at school.
The questionnaire’s second part (39 questions) dealt
with the students’ experience of other aspects
of the educational system, namely, teaching methods,
examination system, book load, homework, teacher-student
and parent-student relationships, physical education, art,
interaction with Nature, and vocational education.
The Survey covered 11,000 students from a broad spectrum
of schools: see details on the Survey’s
database. We opted for mixed types of question:
boxes to be ticked (Yes / No, itemized lists, etc.), but
also questions where the students were asked to spell out
their thoughts or suggestions. This made the statistical
analysis more intricate, but ensured an important qualitative
feedback and a greater degree of reliability of the answers.
The Survey’s chief findings are presented in the following
pages. They should be of great interest to educationists
and researchers. Reviews of educational policies at the
Central or State levels can also benefit much from the Survey’s
findings: in the twenty-first century, students should be
accepted as active participants in their own education,
rather than regarded as passive recipients of change imposed
from above.
Through all its findings, the Survey brought to light how
antiquated India’s school educational system is; let
us hope the students’ voice will contribute to its
modernization.
Next: Survey’s
database
