Dear Sribas, This is indeed a complex issue, and warrants systemic changes. It has been discovered in research by  Professor Jean Dreze  that students withdraw from schools in India not due to poverty but due to poor teaching resulting in No-learning. I would suggest the following revolutionary measures: Inculcate child education as a societal value and implement it sincerely; there need to be libraries in each village and locality managed by some PPP (public private partnership) arrangement, and industry can be expected to invest in them through the CSR initiatives that are envisaged in the  new Companies Act 2013; need to discover new devices to be used for enhancing children's creativity rather than just memorizing; taking measures for teacher accountability and linking their output with incentives.   

Thank you dear Goswami for raising this important question.

Every child is a mine full of gems, only proper education and training can polish and unveil those gems. Systems, communities and authorities should give great emphasis on children education; especially girl child’s education, as she is a potential mother of her children – first educator of her children, an entrepreneur, an example for her children.

First, parents should make every effort as they have responsibility of providing money for the education of their children so that children can enjoy the glorious of this age. Second, if the parents are poor and not able to provide the expenses of their children’s education, the community (childless people and wealthy members of community) or state must provide the means for the education of such children.

All children without any discrimination should acquire a uniform education at primary level; one course of education promotes unity among all, then each child must be taught a profession, art, or trade, so that every member of the community will be enabled to utilize their hidden talents to earn her/his own livelihood and contribute towards the betterment of the society.

Route learning should be discouraged in schools and in systems. Each child should be assisted at home and at school to find her/his interests of area in education – science, engineering, literature, medicine etc-, what field she/he likes the most. Education must be wholesome – integrated with role and responsibilities and be give in spirit of serving humanity by educating a child.

Dear Sribas, This is indeed a complex issue, and warrants systemic changes. It has been discovered in research by  Professor Jean Dreze  that students withdraw from schools in India not due to poverty but due to poor teaching resulting in No-learning. I would suggest the following revolutionary measures: Inculcate child education as a societal value and implement it sincerely; there need to be libraries in each village and locality managed by some PPP (public private partnership) arrangement, and industry can be expected to invest in them through the CSR initiatives that are envisaged in the  new Companies Act 2013; need to discover new devices to be used for enhancing children's creativity rather than just memorizing; taking measures for teacher accountability and linking their output with incentives.   

''Some of the reasons for the poor quality include absence of around 25 percent of teachers everyday.[9''

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_India

Is it true???

Conventional system of education in India, is on ‘learning theory’. Malaysia is now working to establish 1,000 schools in India by 2020, through Brainy Stars International aimed at urban and rural India on a ‘practice-oriented’ approach. The ‘integrated system’ of education through learning practices by ‘understanding’ the concepts will really benefit the Indian students comprehension capabilities in education. 

http://indianmuslimobserver.com/2014/04/27/malaysian-brainy-stars-to-revolutionize-education-in-india/

The problem in education in India and in most of the developing countries that the system encourage students to memorize rather than foster creativity and independent thinking.

>>The Annual Status of Education Report, carried out in rural areas by the non-governmental organisation Pratham, reveals that though enrolment is still high, at over 96% (a free mid-day meal is a major incentive), pupils do not learn a great deal. After three years 60% of them still cannot read, except for their first name maybe, compared with 54% four years ago.

A Right to Education Act, passed in 2010, requires all children aged six to 14 to attend school but pays little attention to what they learn when they are there. The act is more like an architect's brief, specifying the minimum dimensions of classrooms and playgrounds>>.

For more information on the subject, you may consult the following link.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/11/india-education-state-private-school

Study the education change in Finland!

Have a look also to the book:

[Ruby_Takanishi,_David_A._Hamburg,_Klaus_Jacobs]_Preparing_adolescents_for_the_twenty-first_century

Many education systems suffer from time/logistic constraints and therefore do not allow individual-based learning. For instance, within a single class, some education methods might be more efficient for some students but not for others, e.g. first learning theory and then practice or vice versa.

Natural-based learning is based on trial and error (cf. at home when children grow up). I would never punish students making errors accepting that making errors belong to the learning process.

There are lots of aspects to this problem. From funds to plans been practically executed, mental make up to kind of returns after education

I would like to see the caste-system to break down in India? Am I a dreamer?

Maybe, but that is the number one problem of India (and of Greece, although here it is well covered by other issues...)

 There are some fundamental problems in Indian Education System which are noticed by each and every one but concrete solutions have reached yet as expected by policy makers, educationists and educational leaders. Firstly the curriculum is not equated with market requirements and there is wide gap between theory and practice. Practical considerations in form of skill graduation are not given much importance. If curricula are changed according to market needs complementing to skill set of the learners, the expected results may be realised early. The gap between government school concept and the private school concept amongst the parents also need to tackled and making the government schools acceptable which call for a revolutionary paradigm shift at the grass root/elementary education level.  

Dear Debi,

As you said that Professor Jean Dreze that students withdraw from schools not due to poverty but due to poor teaching resulting in No-learning. That is really a big dilemma and needs a revolutionary reform.

Dear Sribas,

This is a main problem in education, not just in India but in several countries. It's due to the level and the efficiency of teachers themselves. As Debi said.." taking measures for teacher accountability and linking their output with incentives." is the most important step going forward.

Sribas,

The contemporary character of the Indian educational system, like educational systems elsewhere, is the result of multiple forces and demands that have evolved over time. All educational systems are the products of state policy making (even when they include some private schools) by educated elites (most national, although often, early on, under the tutelage of foreign institutions engaged in "nation building"), albeit often under pressure from other "subaltern" social groups.

In India, the goals of such elites have included, from what little I have read, objectives such as achieving some degree of national unity in the presence of multiple ethnicities, languages and cultural traditions, employment (as teachers) for those with some education (to minimize their antagonism to the elite and their state), the usual desire to incarcerate young people so as to get them off the streets and shape them into law-abiding, disciplined citizens, and, of course, the shaping and disciplining of those same young people for the labor market in such a manner that they are willing and able to work for whichever capitalist might want to hire them. So, if you accept such goals, what to change and how to change would depend on which goals of the system you want to better achieve.

Most of the answers offered here, so far, suggest that those making them assume that the goal is narrowly defined to find ways to make the system more efficient in producing employable workers for jobs in industry (manufacturing or services) that require some kind of skill - as opposed to what is usually called unskilled labor - in fields, mines, factories, offices or homes. The suggestions, therefore, would hardly "revolutionize" the Indian education system but merely constitute various marginal reforms designed to improve its ability to channel young people into various labor markets with some chance of actually landing a job.

"Revolutionizing" the Indian educational system - as opposed to just reforming this or that aspect - requires addressing the system as a whole, in all of its intended purposes, to the point of considering complementing, or even replacing it, with modes and practices of learning geared to the needs of the diverse peoples of India and not just to their would-be capitalist masters and elite policy makers working for them. (BTW, I say the same about educational systems everywhere, not just in India.) But that, in turn, requires an examination of those needs, or, if you like, the various goals of various groups of people in all their diversity and of alternative ways of achieving their goals in ways conducive to complementarity (as opposed to antagonistic conflict). While the efforts of capitalists and pro-capitalist policy makers in India have proved dismal failures at meeting most people's goals, while propagating income/wealth/educational/power hierarchies and a political system that keeps state power in their hands, how to go about reshaping all these various aspects of social life in the subcontinent is not at all obvious. Certainly the various "left" parties only offer, from what I have read, variations on the present organization of Indian society. Where else to look?

Were I to enter into such efforts to transform modes and practices of learning - and that is not what occupies me since I retired from teaching - I would start by looking at what people are doing at the so-called "grassroots", how various groups of people in various places are attempting such transformations. For those to whom such an approach is unfamiliar, let me suggest two points of entry.

1) Madhu Suri Prakash and Gustavo Esteva's book Escaping Education: Living as Learning within Grassroots Cultures, New York: Peter Lang, 1998.

2) The documents prepared for the Zapatista escuelita that can be found at: http://escuelitabooks.blogspot.com/

India is at the last position in terms of quality of secondary education while Russia and Brazil had maximum scores. The quality of tertiary education in India is lowest among the other emerging nations. Even though the demographics of India are considered its strength, the country has scored the minimum in this too and was ranked at last place. Moreover, in terms of students enrollment for primary education, India is highly competitive with the gross enrollment ratio standing at 98.1. Among the  five countries, China has secured second place with scoring 6.7 points, while Brazil has positioned itself at third place with 5.56 score points as the quality of education in Brazil remains stable across all levels of primary, secondary and higher education. Mexico has been ranked at fourth place on the strength of its higher education. South Africa, a relatively new entrant to the club of developing economies, has managed to be on fifth place on the strength of its tertiary education and demographic qualities though it lags far behind in primary education. However, Indonesia stands at the last position with an overall score of 2.68 points. The gross enrollment ratio is highest in Brazil (148.5), followed by China (116.2) and Russia (113.8). Even Indonesia (110.9) and South Africa (105.1) enjoy better enrollment ratio than India.

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/India_ranks_second_last_in_Quality_Education-nid-50034-cid-Others.html

I am in the field of Pharmacy, which requires a close walk with Industries. There is a gap between academic and Industry in India. When we close the gap we will be able to upgrade the courses to the momentum in the job market. We do not talk about the skills learned in a course and the skills are not transferable from one field to another, which is also a big drawback.

Dear Ashutosh Kumar Upadhyay,

''We have never told to children “How to learn”''  We should never tell them how to learn because they naturally know this.  They learned to walk, they learned to talk, they learned how to relate with other humans, all that they learned without being told how to learn.  They naturally learn and  all we need to do is to put them in situations where they have to do something creative where they have to learn in order to accomplish something and they will naturally, magically learn it even ten time faster than their older teacher.  

Dear Ashutosh,

Yes you clarified.  I had given a wrong interpretation to your words.  I agree with you.  The attribution of scores to students based on answering the good answers to tests is an exercice in conformity and it kills creativity.  The more the student get the GOOD ANSWERS and the more the student get HIGH MARKS.  Where is the rewards of creativity in that?  Creativity like any good work is self-rewarding.  No marks requires.  Trying to re-inforce or motivate learning with marks is sending the message that learning is not fun, marks are fun because you will be told by your friends and parents that your are bright.  How to get that social rewards, get the good marks by doing all the teachers is telling you to do,.  Be a good little dog.  Studies have shown that the level of creativity of kids goes down from the age of 5 , the day they enter school. 

Marks, marks , marks and when they get out of university they want money money money and creativity is gone while at five they were all little genius.