Following is a rough proposal for better education system in India and can be applied to any country. The idea is to have fewer governmental regulations and more freedom so that the free individuals in out society can pick what is best for them based on regional and cultural aspects.
No mandate on degrees/certificates:
Governments mandate that for professional employment one must complete a degree; this is basically done so that government gets revenue by imposing such regulations. However, this stifles peoples' aspirations and forces education onto them in which they are not interested. Let individuals decide what skills they need, and when people apply for jobs they can prove their abilities to secure jobs.
Also this will encourage parents to do lot of homeschooling which is a huge plus.
Minimum taxation:
Government should support only a few premium institutes and remove all sorts of public educational institutes. It is very clear that lot of public institutions have failed students and hinders competition for better teachers. Since teachers in these schools can become tenured, that is, not afraid of losing jobs, they do not upgrade their skills and over time provide poor quality education. Teachers in the premier institutes must be assigned based on industry experience or serious research in specific areas rather than teaching degrees.
Overall health:
Education institute should create an overall atmosphere that supports physical health, scientific understanding, and art and spiritual abilities rather than just focus on skills leading to employment. For example, in India, institutes up to universities are heavily focused on science and technology aspects, ignoring physical and spiritual growth of the students. This leads very one sided society and detrimental to the nation as a whole.
Of course there are institutes catering to specific fields but then they are in more professional areas which can be understandable.
Science & Engineering:
For mental growth subjects like physics, chemistry, maths and biology are important and hence are a must for betterment of society. Emphasis should be given on the practical application of these courses rather than just theoretical.
Remove unnecessary courses:
Courses like history, civics, geography, economics, etc. should all be made non-mandatory as these courses are easily forgotten and have little practical impact. Moreover these are mostly biased subjects which gives the students perspective of what governemnets want them to believe. They can be used for extra credit if students opt to take them. This will free up lot of students time which becomes available for other activities.
Physical courses :
Health should be a mandate up to college level. Few students and parents understand their importance until they are old and its too late to realize the significance of such courses. A healthy mind can reside best in a healthy body. From 5th standard to university level, each school should mandate these physical courses everyday. Any failure at the phyiscal level by the students should prevent them from advancing to the next grade, with normal exceptions. However, the physical fitness for most should not be subpar. A strong nation needs a strong citizens with courageous spirit.
Spirituality:
For Spirituality it has proven time and again that Yoga and meditation have clear benefits for physical health, a calm mind and also, to a certain extent makes society virtuous. Hence, these should be mandated from very early on, maybe from the 5th standard forward. This will give people a firm foundation to practice later in life and reduce the need for medical interventions of various sorts later in life.
This should in no way be interpreted as religous beliefs being pushed by government on to society, Yoga and meditation are not religions or any more than math or chemistry.
Cleanliness:
As a part of health, cleanliness is very important. As many societies take this for granted, cleanliness as a health practice should be taken seriously start from an early age. It would be better in the long run if schools employed their students to clean their class rooms, dorms, restroos and other common areas. A system very similar is employed in Japan, thus removing janitors in school, saving money and giving children a real incentive not to make messes they have to clean up themselves later.
This way one can create a generation of people with clean habits that do not spoil common public places. Also every week school should volunteer to clean some public area like a street or park in their local area. This way the young generation will be taught about he importance of good hygenie and public service.
Art:
Art education should be mandated up to college level. Five hundred years ago there were great churches, temples, and other now historic places with amazing architecture. Also great literature in language, philosophy, poetry, music, fine arts, though few people could do them because education was reserved for the elites. However, now we have broad education aims, yet all these things are nearly vanished or subpar products are created.
For example earlier temples/churches took hundreds of years to build and now we are amazed at the intricacies of the architecture, the story, the eleagnce of these. Today's buildings are erected in a year with an aim to enclose the most space for the least amount of money, with no aim to create a legacy, and thus beauty is not build into them. Our houses have become more like ghettos; a concrete jungle that ignores local traditions of architecture that suits the spirit as well as the weather and local conditions.
Just like physical education every student should be mandated to get a basic level of artistic perception to move forward into the next grade. That is the only way to preserve and promote beauty in these buildings we create.
By following the above principles, I believe one can save lot of time for students and yet improve their overall wellbeing and thus improve our society.
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