First, the starting point of national education
Since India's independence, the government has realized that education is the key to developing human resources. To improve everyone's quality of life, we must invest in people's education, so that education occupies an appropriate position in the national plan. This is the basic starting point of developing education in India. To this end, a clear development goal is put forward: to ensure that everyone enjoys equal educational opportunities; Provide them with opportunities to learn knowledge and develop their talents regardless of age; Make the educated get all-round development in sports, intellectual education and literature comparison; Establish an organic link between education, employment and development; Publicize the importance of national unity, separation of church and state, democratic lifestyle and respect for labor. The education policy clearly emphasizes the importance of "universal education" and "eliminating adult illiteracy", and regards universal primary education and adult education as important measures to eliminate illiteracy. The purpose of secondary education and secondary professional education is to establish a positive and beneficial relationship between education, economy and social development in India. Regard higher education as a key factor of economic and social development and an important way of modernization. Especially after rajiv gandhi became prime minister in 1985, he paid equal attention to education. He emphasized that "the current education system should be reformed" and that "education should be a tool to lead the country to the 2 1 century, encourage people, especially young people, to promote national progress, strengthen science and technology education, and closely combine education with the needs of employment and national economic construction". Under the guidance of this general policy, governments at all levels have taken some measures to run education well. 1985, the government published a document entitled "the challenge of education", and then formulated the national education policy of 1986, which was discussed and passed by the two houses of parliament, and then formulated a 23-point action program to implement the above policy. Due to the attention and efforts of governments at all levels, education has been developing continuously.
Second, the developing Indian education.
After India's independence, the Constitution clearly stipulates that "free general education shall be provided to all children under 14 years old", which provides legal guarantee for children to attend school. Therefore, many primary schools in the country implement free admission for students in grades one to five, and even some States implement free education for students in grade six. At the same time, the government has been increasing education funds. For example, 1950 ~ 195 1 year, the education expenditure is165438+400 million rupees, and 1984 ~ 1985 has increased to 60 billion rupees. According to another record, the education expenditure from 65438 to 0986 was $4.7 billion, second only to the national defense expenditure. This provides a certain material foundation for the development of education and increases the number of schools and the enrollment rate of students. 1950 ~ 195 1 year, India has 2 1000 primary schools, and 1984 ~ 1985 increased to 520,000. 1947 registered population10.5 million, 1982 increased to 73.6 million. The national literacy rate is constantly improving. 195 1 year, the national literacy rate was 16.6%, 197 1 year increased to 29.45%, and 198 1 year further increased to 36./year. In particular, higher education in India has developed rapidly. At present, there are 207 universities and 6,323 colleges, and the enrollment of colleges and universities alone is as high as 3.5 million, ranking third in the world after the United States and the Soviet Union. For India, a developing country with a weak foundation and backward economy, this is a remarkable achievement.
The outstanding changes in Indian education are mainly manifested in the following aspects.
(1) Vigorously develop vocational and technical education.
In order to increase the number of employed people, reduce the number of unemployed people, provide urgently needed secondary technical talents for national economic construction and industrial development, and reduce the pressure of higher education, the government also attaches importance to secondary vocational and technical education. Due to various reasons, there are still many people aged 14 ~ 25 who have not completed basic education in India. In order to improve their cultural level, make them master certain professional knowledge and become a medium-sized technical force, the government adopts various methods to train them, and provides them with vocational training in more than 30 engineering industries and more than 20 non-engineering industries, which is arranged by the state in a unified plan. To this end, 356 permanent schools and 139 temporary schools have been established nationwide. In addition to public schools, there are many private training schools. This kind of school can accommodate 200,000 people in total, and the training period is 1 ~ 2 years. In addition, there are more than 300 industrial technical colleges with an annual enrollment of 56,000 students, which are divided into full-time education and part-time education. The study period is 3 ~ 4 years respectively, and specialized personnel with medium technical level are trained.
Through the above measures, many young people have become middle-skilled talents, reducing the number of illiterate people and unemployed people, expanding the national talent team and playing a role in national construction.
(b) Literacy and adult education
(1). Literacy work
The Indian government attaches great importance to literacy and has incorporated adult education into the national plan. In order to strengthen adult education, the central government has set up the National Adult Education Committee, and corresponding organizations have been set up in various states. Therefore, India's literacy work has made gratifying achievements.
Especially in recent years, in order to eliminate illiteracy, India has launched an unprecedented adult literacy campaign and implemented the national universal education plan from 65438 to 0986. 1988, the literacy task was set at 15 ~ 35 years old. Prior to this, India has successively implemented the "Farmer Literacy Plan", "Adult Female Literacy Plan", "Youth Informal Education Plan" and "National Adult Education Plan".
1989, Kerala launched a literacy campaign with great momentum and remarkable results. Its influence spread to Gujarat, Karnataka and West Bengal, which had a positive impact on India's literacy work. The wave of movement has swept across the country. At present, with the help of 4 million volunteers, there are about 365,438+10,000 people aged 9-45. Through learning, although their literacy levels are different, it is estimated that 6.5438+0.5 million people have reached the primary level of reading English. It is planned that during the eighth five-year plan period (starting from1April 654.38+0, 990), 65.438 billion people will be classified as "illiterate".
Its specific practice is:
First, determine the goal, according to the voluntary, bottom-up determination, there is a time requirement, but pay attention to the combination of cost and income.
Second, literacy committees are formed in various regions, led by local tax officials, district councils and representatives from all walks of life, and are responsible for the specific implementation of various plans.
Third, people who take part in literacy work are voluntary, and most of them voluntarily give their time, energy and money to serve literacy without compensation.
Fourth, to do a good job in literacy, we should formulate a set of teaching methods of "speeding up the progress and improving the content", compile a set of effective teaching materials for many years, integrate teaching with learning, implement the principle of learning-oriented, gradually mobilize students' subjective initiative and speed up the learning process.
Fifth, sum up experience at any time, communicate regularly, constantly correct mistakes or deviations, improve teaching work and improve teaching level.
In order to do a good job in literacy, different parties, mass organizations and social strata in India, despite their different ideologies, are indifferent. They work hand in hand, unite as one and actively participate. The literacy campaign in India can not only be carried out smoothly, but also help to eliminate caste barriers and promote social unity and language unity.
What is more gratifying is that the number of women participating in literacy exceeds that of men. Women realize the importance of learning culture from real life, which plays a positive role in improving women's culture, enhancing their self-confidence and emancipating their minds, thus giving women more courage to handle their own affairs.
Adult education after illiteracy is still one of the concerns in India. Therefore, there are "adult learning centers" everywhere, which continue to provide convenience for adult education after literacy. Each center is generally responsible for 5 villages with a total of about 5,000 people. The center offers various courses, as well as short-term training courses on agriculture, animal husbandry, veterinary medicine, land management, sericulture and fisheries. In addition, cultural and recreational activities are also carried out.
The Adult Learning Center for Illiteracy provides various development and service projects for illiterates, such as health and social welfare, and provides information and various services for relevant departments. On the other hand, it arouses the adult illiterates' understanding of economic development, environmental protection, social rights, medical care and legitimate rights and interests, and at the same time, gives full play to their talents and serves the society. The "adult learning centers" that have been opened in various parts of India are not exactly the same according to local conditions, and the steps and methods adopted are not the same. Some practices need to be consolidated and strengthened.
(2) Adult education
Adult education mainly refers to informal education for people aged 15 ~ 35, and its education plan is realized through state government, social service institutions and universities. As mentioned earlier, India regards the eradication of illiteracy as one of the tasks of the national education policy. Therefore, adult education has been paid attention to and has achieved fruitful results. Through the development of adult education, people's literacy rate has been continuously improved. 1950 was 16%, which rose to 34% in the early 1980s and then to 63%. Contributed to the national literacy work. Here, India's literacy work has been praised by the World Bank, saying that "India's literacy work has a far-reaching impact on developing countries".
Whether a country's economy and culture are developed or not is an important symbol of women's education level. After India's independence, the government attached importance to the training of women. In the adult education policy, adult women over 15 have priority. There are four main training objectives: first, to raise women's awareness and make them realize that they should enjoy the same legal and social status and rights as men; The second is to enable women to master certain cultural knowledge and scientific and technological expertise; Help women achieve economic independence; Third, make them master some health knowledge, especially about nutrition, health care, children's health care and family planning; The fourth is to help and improve women's ability to participate in various groups.
For decades, the government has set the goal of developing women's education in several five-year plans, and has given huge rewards to states or cities that have carried out women's education well. Therefore, the development of female education in India is remarkable. In the ten years after independence, India established 104 women's colleges, and by 1965, it had grown to more than 200. In addition, more than 50 universities enroll female students and co-education. As a result, the enrollment rate of women is increasing. According to relevant statistics, 195 1 year is 79%, 197 1 year is increased to 187%, and 1980 is increased to 225%. According to relevant statistics, in the past 30 years, the enrollment rate of female students in Indian colleges and universities has tripled, and the number of students enrolled in the 1980s has increased by 28%, which is three times higher than that in the 1950s. The gap between men and women in education is gradually narrowing, and the proportion of female students is increasing. Take universities as an example. From 1963 to 1964, women account for 19.5% of the total number. To 1979 ~ 1980, increasing to 26%. Since independence, the female literacy rate has increased significantly, reaching 8% 195 1 year; 197 1 year is18.6%; At 198 1, it rose to 24.8%. With the improvement of women's education level, women's professional and social status has also changed. Today, women in India not only cook at home, give birth to children, wait on their husbands and in-laws, but also go out to engage in teaching, scientific research, medical care and business, and even many women become famous experts, scholars and professors. With the development of education, the situation of women is constantly changing.
Third, the development of higher education.
India's higher education is relatively developed, which has trained a large number of scientific and technological talents and played an important role in national construction and scientific and technological development, thus making India one of the countries with the strongest technical strength in the world.
India's higher education is relatively developed, and the following measures have been taken:
(A) Emphasize the importance of higher education
As early as the early days of independence, Prime Minister Nehru pointed out: "Universities represent humanitarianism, tenacity, rationality, progress and the exploration of truth. It represents the full progress of mankind towards higher goals. If the university fully performs its duties, it will be very beneficial to the country and the people. " Therefore, in the early days of India's independence, a special "University Committee" was set up to formulate the principles and tasks of higher education. "Education policies and plans must adapt to China's social development goals, and different education goals should be unified. To teach and influence students, we must not only acquire knowledge, but also train our minds so that the educated have common ideological standards. " "Individuals only instill knowledge into students, but also cultivate students' healthy judgment ability to meet the needs of various occupations in society." From school leaders to classroom teachers, we should pay attention to students' discussion and debate on problems, encourage students to express their views boldly, and pay attention to and guide students' training in this respect.
(B) improve and strengthen the leadership of higher education
The Indian Constitution stipulates that higher education is jointly led by the central government and state governments. In the early days of independence, except for a few universities that were directly led and managed by the central government, most universities were mainly under the responsibility of the state government. Later, the central government strengthened its leadership over institutions of higher learning, especially when the constitution was revised in 1976. All higher education, such as universities, technology and medicine, is jointly undertaken by the central government and state governments. The central government is not only responsible for the educational reform of institutions of higher learning, the construction and expansion of institutions of higher learning, the establishment and revocation of scientific research institutions, the formulation of higher education objectives, but also for the coordination among institutions of higher learning and the determination of scientific research direction.
(3) Vigorously invest in education
In order to develop higher education, the expenditure of colleges and universities is increasing. According to relevant statistics, the government spent 65.438+0.4 billion rupees on higher education in the first five-year plan, 280 million rupees in the second, 880 million rupees in the third, 65.438+0.7 billion rupees in the fourth, 2.92 billion rupees in the fifth and 4.86 billion rupees in the sixth five-year plan. From these figures, it is not difficult to see that education funds are constantly increasing, and the growth rate is relatively large, which provides a material basis for the development of higher education.
Due to the above measures, higher education has made remarkable achievements, which are embodied in the following aspects:
First, India now has a number of key universities with advanced equipment, strong faculty, high scientific research level and good reputation at home and abroad. They are: Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Benares Hindu University, International University, Mumbai University and Jagra University. These schools are large in scale and large in number, and have trained a large number of talents for the country.
Second, India now has a huge technical team. Since independence, a large number of scientific and technological talents have been trained. According to statistics, 1950 is188,000; At 1965, it is 736,5438+0500; In 1978, increase to1935,300; In 1980, increase to 180.
As can be seen from the above, since India's independence, great changes have taken place in education and remarkable achievements have been made. At the same time, there are still some problems to be solved.
The main problems are: unbalanced development of all kinds of education, emphasis on higher education and insufficient attention to primary education. The allocation of funds for the entire education plan of the Indian government is: higher education accounts for 20.9%, and primary education accounts for 32.4%. This distribution ratio is obviously too low for primary education and too high for higher education, because 72% of the country's population is distributed in rural areas, and the educational conditions in rural areas are worse than those in cities, but the investment in education is less than half, accounting for only 44%, which is not enough. Therefore, rural education is relatively backward, leading to low productivity and poor people's lives.
Poverty is an important reason for the backwardness of culture and education. From 65438 to 0978, the central government made an optimistic vision for adult education, and announced that illiteracy would be eliminated within 15 years. But after eight years, it was found that the effect was not great and there was no obvious change ratio. The main reason is that rural people are not interested in it and lack the enthusiasm and interest that urban people generally have. Citizens regard education as an important means to find a job and make a living, while rural people do the opposite. They are poor, and if their children don't help their parents with farming, grazing or other jobs, their family life will be affected. Therefore, some parents have no intention of sending their children to school.
According to relevant statistics, only 20% of children aged 6 ~ 14 can enter middle school, but 80% of children who enter middle school drop out of school. As a result, only 20% can enter high school. 1982 An educational survey shows that more than half of primary schools in China have no fixed houses, one third of schools have no chairs for students, 40% schools have no blackboards, 50% schools have no sports equipment and exercise equipment, and 70% school students have no textbooks. Obviously, poor school buildings and lack of equipment are related to the rural economic situation. Therefore, it is inevitable to produce a large number of new illiterates every year. From independence to 1986, the illiteracy rate in India remains as high as 63.77%. According to the World Bank's forecast, by the year 2000, India will become the country with the most illiteracy. This is a problem that cannot be ignored.
In addition, there is a big gap in education level and popularization between states and regions directly under the central government, and caste discrimination has not been completely eliminated. Although the government takes care of the lower castes and backward tribes, there is a big education gap because of their different economic conditions and weak cultural foundation. For example, some people have a poor foundation in English or other courses, and many people drop out of school after entering school, so the number of students in school is actually less than the number of registered students. This shows that only by achieving social and economic equality can we truly achieve equality of educational opportunities.
In practice, the Indian government found that some problems were not handled properly and there were some deviations. Therefore, improvements were made and new measures were taken:
First of all, in order to solve the unemployment problem of intellectuals, the government adjusted higher education to meet the needs of society and prevent the rapid expansion of higher education. University courses have also been adjusted to popularize vocational education courses and make them more professional, so as to increase the employment of college graduates.
Second, strengthen primary education. India is changing the past practice of not paying enough attention to primary education and expanding the funds for primary education. In the Sixth Five-Year Plan, starting from 1980, the government increased the expenditure on primary education. Especially in 1986, India formulated a national education policy and a 23-point action plan to implement this policy, which emphasized universal primary education and literacy for the population aged 15-35. In order to achieve this goal, the Indian government has increased the education funds of 1986. The new government also stipulates that students should not drop out of school, reforms the examination system, and continues to implement the policy of all primary school students entering institutions of higher learning. It is also pointed out that the evaluation of students' academic performance should not be determined by one exam, but by the continuous accumulation of their usual grades. The new policy also stipulates that every primary school must have at least two teachers, one of whom is a female teacher. We are going to vigorously train teachers to solve the shortage of primary school teachers. This has created conditions for vigorously developing primary education.
Third, improve the treatment and status of teachers. The government recognizes that in order to improve the quality of teaching and realize the education plan, it is also an important issue to mobilize the enthusiasm of teachers. Therefore, a series of policies and measures have been adopted. For example, improving teachers' working conditions, encouraging teachers to constantly improve teaching quality and scientific research level, adopting flexible policies to make up for the increase in living expenses, and creating conditions for teachers to freely express academic ideas. All these provide important conditions for mobilizing and giving play to the enthusiasm of teachers.
In a word, India has made great progress in education since its independence, but there are still many problems. In order to meet the needs of society and further improve the level of education, we are summing up experience and making continuous progress.