Illiteracy and disparities in education ( Sociology Optional)

Write short note on disparities in education. (08/20)
शिक्षा में असमानताओं पर संक्षिप्त टिप्पणी लिखिए। (08/20)

Discuss the issues of access and exclusion in higher education in India. (19/10)
भारत में उच्च शिक्षा में पहुंच और बहिष्कार के मुद्दों पर चर्चा कीजिए । (19/10)

Comment on the critical issues of commercialization of higher education in India. (19/10)
भारत में उच्च शिक्षा के व्यावसायीकरण के महत्वपूर्ण मुद्दों पर टिप्पणी कीजिए । (19/10)

How does the New Education Policy, 2020 aim to eradicate disparities in the system of education in India? (20/10)
नई शिक्षा नीति, 2020 का उद्देश्य भारत में शिक्षा प्रणाली में असमानताओं को दूर करने हेतु किस प्रकार लक्षित है ? (20/10)

Explain the sociological significance of the New Education Policy and its thrust on vocationalization and skill development. (2021/20 marks)
नई शिक्षा नीति के समाजशास्त्रीय महत्व और व्यावसायीकरण और कौशल विकास पर इसके जोर की व्याख्या करें। (2021/20 अंक)

Introduction

Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world.
Literacy is a step towards education and if one fails in this basic step then it becomes difficult to be educated.
Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, morals, beliefs, habits, and personal development. Education originated as transmission of cultural heritage from one generation to the next.
Literacy has been considered one of the most important attributes for social development. It is seen as a prequisite for economic growth, social mobility and political stability.
Illiteracy by contrast, has frequently been related to increased poverty, under development, political volatility and economic stagnation.

Education disparities

Disparity means unequal possession of particular property or attributes between two or more social groups or regions.
Educational inequality is the unequal distribution of academic resources, including but not limited to; school funding, qualified and experienced teachers, books, and technologies to socially excluded communities. These communities tend to be historically disadvantaged and oppressed.
Much of educational inequality is attributed to economic disparities that often falls along racial lines and much modern conversation about educational equity conflates the two, showing how they are inseparable from residential location and, more recently, language.
Unequal educational outcomes are attributed to several variables, including family of origin, gender, and social class. Achievement, earnings, health status, and political participation also contribute to educational inequality.

Education system in India

Education in India is primarily managed by state-run public education system, which fall under the command of the government at three levels: Central, state and local.

Issues of access and exclusion

The question of class
Linguistic exclusion.
Geography- the disadvantage of remote schools.
Gender discrimination
Discrimination based on caste
Persons with disability

Issues of commercialization

Commercialization of education transforms the education into profit making commodity.
Commercialization of education is the result of growing demand for education due to increase in opportunities in other countries.
Commercialization of education has both positive and negative aspects as in any other phenomenon.
But the measures have to be taken to overcome the negative aspects of the same.

Positive aspects

Private institutions can meet the demand of increase in quality education in India
To meet the increasing demand to meet the needs of the students population higher education is essential for government to privatize higher education in the country since the government participation is less in higher education
The private universities enjoy full freedom as there would be no political intervention and it would be beneficial for the students and universities
The private universities don’t need to take permission from the state to try and implement new techniques
Private collages affiliated to universities would run the chances of being removed of their affiliation if they are engaged in unethical practices.

Negative effects

It affected on right to access to education.
The high cost of education has created the problem for common man, The common man cannot reach the education due to high cost of education.
Social and national needs are replaces by money power.
This prevents the poor, socially backward communities from right to education.
The institutions are motivated to earn money and not by social and educational interest.
Students are more exploited through illegal and unethical collection of unauthorized collections of payments.
The methods corporate method of teaching suits only for rich learners.
Who enrolls in education institutions by money power it’s not difficult for them to manipulate the result of examination.
Who enters in education by spending lakhs of rupees are bond to adopt unethical and illegal means to earn money in their life also.
When the independence is given to private institutions it would lead to monopolization of higher education.
The privatization of institution leads to high fee structure capitation fee exploitation of professors.

Regional disparities

Since 1951 the literacy rate in India is continuously increasing.
As per 2001 census the overall literacy rate of India is 64.8.4%. But this rate is not uniform.
At the one hand the highest literacy rate is in Kerala (90.92%), on the other hand it is less than 50% in Bihar (47.53%).
Different states in India can be divided into three categories for literacy rate distribution: High literacy prevalent states, literacy rate above national average and literacy rate below national average

Rural-urban disparity

Only 46 per cent, of females in rural areas were literate as opposed to nearly 70 per cent in urban areas in 2001, a gap of around 24 percentage points.
For males, the gap was lower at around 15 percentage points with 70.7 percent of males in the rural areas and 86.3 per cent in the urban areas being literate in 2001.
However, school attendance has been rising for both girls and boys at the elementary school level in both rural and urban areas.
Fewer girls attend salad in the rural areas compared to their urban counterparts, and also compared to boys in the rural areas.
The proportion of girls attending schools, however, has increased from 59 per cent to 70 per cent between the years under comparison.
While participation of girls in education has seen an increase over time at all levels of education, it continues to lag behind that of boys.
Even in 2001-02, girls' enrolment remains below 50 per cent of total enrolment at the primary school level.
aThis is true of girls' enrolment at all levels of education, though they have been increasing at levels beyond the primary as well.

Factors responsible

Legal and Policy Provisions:

Dimensions like discrimination lack a legal framework in India.
Furthermore, models of delivery are often non-inclusive, supporting the creation of separate homogenous residential schools for marginalized communities, instead of strengthening local government schools.
Absence of consistent quality standards for residential schools and special schools for children with disability have also created educational systems that are separate and unequal.

Implementation Capacity:

Where provisions exist, there is limited knowledge of these provisions, especially among frontline and middle level officials tasked with their implementation.
Enforcement and grievance redress systems are also weak.
With the system as a whole under-resourced and understaffed, incentives and capacities to devote time and effort to provide individualized support is lacking.
School level staff, furthermore, frequently lack capacity to implement provisions both as the result of the limited agency and absence of funds to deliver.
Lastly, both teachers and officials often share popular stereotyped views of marginalized groups held by the rest of Indian society.

Resource Capacity:

Underfinancing of education and IE in particular results creates a system where overall infrastructure of schools is poor.
Staff that one could consider important for the education of persons with disability (e.g. therapists) or for all students (eg. counsellors) are not appointed.
The absence of consistent standards of quality for all government schools creates inequalities within the education system.
Governance bottlenecks like procurement and other delays also delay delivery of the committed entitlements.

Teachers’ Capacity:

In the end any education system is only as good as its teachers.
With a shortfall of a million teachers and another million odds untrained, capacity to deliver inclusive education is limited.
There is a shortfall of special educators.
Teacher training capacity, furthermore, needs to be strengthened overall and for inclusive education.
In the face of less than optimal inclusive education delivery, mainstream school teachers are not able to deliver quality and often share the belief that children with disability are best taught in special schools.

Attitudes:

However, at the heart of the problem is the fact that India has a high tolerance of inequality and there is a fairly pervasive belief that the poor, marginalized communities and PWDs are somehow responsible for their own condition.
As a result, teachers, government officials, communities and parents often hold low expectations of girls and children about marginalized communities, which are often then internalized by the students themselves creating an intergenerational cycle.
At the same time, parents, teachers and society as a whole tends to prioritize academic results over inclusion and equity agendas. The focus on attainment of learning outcomes and the introduction of national and state level standardized tests in several states creates additional tension points.

Education and society

Education should help in

Acquisition or clarification of personal values
Self-realization/self-reflection: awareness of one‘s abilities and goals
Self-esteem/self-efficacy
Thinking creatively
Cultural appreciation: art, music, humanities
Developing a sense of well-being: mental and physical health
Acquisition/clarification of values related to the physical environment
Respect: giving and receiving recognition as human beings
Capacity/ability to live a fulfilling life
Development of new social patterns
Activation of constructive and creative forces:
It should Ensure capacity/ability to earn a living: career education
Develop mental and physical skills: motor, thinking, communication, social, aesthetic
Produce citizens who can adapt, adjust according to social environment,
Produce citizens who can contribute towards the progress of society,
Produce citizens who will live democratically,
Create individuals who will make proper use of leisure time,
Train individuals to adapt to change or prepare for change, better still initiate change in the society,
Develop individuals who are open to others and mutual understanding and the values of peace,
Promote knowledge of moral practices and ethical standards acceptable by society/culture
Develop capacity/ability to recognize and evaluate different points of view
Develop understanding of human relations and motivations

Remedies

Following steps should be taken to enhance and boost the current education system and convey it in everyone’s reach:

The government ought to take steps to extend the number of primary schools in order that people of each village can get education easily.
There ought to be more emphasis given on adult education as it is necessary to teach the parents and guardians first in order that they become keen towards there ward’s education.
The role of the private institutions ought to be made restricted and so that people do not depend too much on them. In this way, they will not be taking a high amount of fees as they want.
The condition of the government colleges and institution ought to be raised to a reasonable level.
New syllabus ought to replace the old ones so as to provide the latest knowledge to students.
Education loans ought to be made available easily so that even poor students can afford a high level of education.
There ought to be strict laws relating to the cheating and coaching mafias.
In addition, the system of education ought to be created free of corruption.
Everyone ought to be given equal opportunity without discriminating on the premise of rich and poor or on the premise of gender.
Especially girl’s education ought to be given topmost priority.

Effect of new education policy in society

The new Policy will lay special emphasis on the removal of disparities and to equalize educational opportunity by attending to the specific needs of those who have been denied equality so far.

Education for Women’s Equality:

Education will be used as an agent of basic change in the status of woman.
In order to neutralise the accumulated distortions of the past, there will be a well-conceived edge in favour of women.
The National Education System will play a positive, interventionist role in the empowerment of women.
It will foster the development of new values through redesigned curricula, textbooks, the training and orientation of teachers, decision-makers and administrators, and the active involvement of educational institutions. This will be an act of faith and social engineering.

Education of Scheduled Castes:

The central focus in the SCs' educational development is their equalization with the non-SC population at all stages and levels of education, in all areas and in all the four dimensions –rural male, rural female, urban male and urban female.

Education of Scheduled Tribes:

Measures will be taken urgently to bring the Scheduled Tribes on par with others.
Incentive schemes will be formulated for the Scheduled Tribes, keeping in view their special needs and life styles.
This will increase the inclusion in society.

Other Educationally Backward Sections and Areas:

Suitable incentives will be provided to all educationally backward sections of society, particularly in the rural areas.
Hill and desert districts, remote and inaccessible areas and islands will be provided adequate institutional infrastructure.

Minorities:

Some minority groups are educationally deprived or backward.
Greater attention will be paid to the education of these groups in the interests of equality and social justice.

Handicapped:

The objective should be to integrate the physically and mentally handicapped with the general community as equal partners, to prepare them for normal growth and to enable them to face life with courage and confidence.

Adult Education:

The National Literacy Mission will be geared to the national goals such as alleviation of poverty, national integration, environmental conservation, observance of the small family norm, promotion of women's equality, universalisation of primary education, basic health-care, etc.
It will also facilitate energisation of the cultural creativity of the people and their active participation in development processes.

Impact on Students:

NEP 2020 will open up new learning opportunities to the students. Its biggest impact would be the change in the learning environment and the learning process for the students. The new education policy will:

Increase focus on the skill improvement and competency development of the students.
Make the students future-ready by building 21st-century skills.
Make students focus on both academic and non-academic pursuits.
Provide various learning opportunities for pre-primary, open, and distance-learning students.
Give access to counselling and other services for students.

Impact on Teachers:

Introduction of professional teaching standards.
Clearer outlined roles and responsibilities.
Training to monitor and improve their capabilities.
More focus on 21st-century teaching skills.
A transparent recruitment and selection process for teachers to motivate them and improve their performance.

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