Is College Education in India Not World Class?

Education has been the driving force of India's march into the spectrum of development. Higher education has especially been the thrust of our policy makers since independence as it forms the bedrock on which one's career and orientation shall lay in life. A lot of funds have been invested in this system to ensure that our intellectual pursuit remains at par with our peer groups all over the world.

However, there has been a raging debate over the years that our college education system has been marred by a snail pace of reforms and is not at par with its peer across the globe. Despite such criticisms, it can be affirmed that the Indian college system is noteworthy in its own way.

Higher education in India has witnessed an unprecedented and gigantic growth with the addition of over 20,000 colleges and more than 8 million enrollments in the decade from 2000-01 to 2010-11.Colleges have witnessed an outgrowth in semi urban and rural settlements all over the nation accentuating our efforts in making higher education accessible to all the sections of the society.

THE ROSY SIDE
However, it is the quality of education delivered that makes the difference. It must be understood that India is a developing country and pertaining to its resources and affordability, its education system has been designed.

At the graduation level, the subject honors system along with electives is followed which is quite befitting for the Indian students. On the contrary, in western countries, the students are free to change their majors midway thus allowing them the scope to skip the tough courses and choose the easier ones. This restricts their capability to have an in-depth analysis of their chosen field of study. However, the absence of such flexibility proves to be a boon for the Indian students who can afford to dive deep into their courses and face the tough ones.

A more significant difference between Indian education and the developed countries including U.S. is syllabi of...