Various Differences and Similarities in the Education Sector - Case Study Example

A Comparative Study of Education in India and Education in the UK Education is of great significance in today’s world and hence its demand all over the world. It shapes different careers, trains the mind of the student and instils a sense of rationality. In the modern age characterised by technological developments and globalization, different governments of the world are paying much attention to the education to equip the citizens with relevant skills. The education system in the UK and that in India have few similarities owing to the fact that Indian school system is based on the British structure. The education systems of the two nations are also characterised by differences majorly due to the forms of administering the education, the funding systems and the education policies used by the two nations. Firstly, there two nations differ in how the education systems are administered and how the educational policies are implemented. The control of funds in Indian education systems is done by the central, state and local levels of government. The union government and the states control the education in India, some responsibilities are held by the union and the states have autonomy to a few. The National Council controls curriculum and syllabus issues for Education Research and Training, and provides support and technical aid to all Indian schools (Chandiramani, 2012). The main bodies governing education in India include The Central Board of Secondary Education and the Council of Indian School Certificate Examination. In addition to the above, we have the State Government Boards which looks after educational issues in every state, the National Open School which caters for the students who are unable to be enrolled to formal schools and finally the International School which has the mandate to control all schools which are recognized under the curriculum (Chandiramani, 2012). On the other hand, departments of education and the department of Business Innovation and Skills control education in the UK. Nevertheless, the local authorities in the UK have the mandate to implement policy for state schools and public education in respective regional levels (Chandiramani, 2012). Education levels are grouped differently in both countries, whereby India has several stages, which are pre-primary, primary, middle, secondary, higher, undergraduate and postgraduate. Pre-primary consists of children below the age of 5 years in nursery and kindergarten schools, while primary level is meant for children of ages between 6-11 years, in their fist to fifth grades. Middle stage comprises of children in their sixth to eighth grade, and secondary level is for students who are in their ninth and tenth classes. Higher secondary is intended for students in their eleventh to twelfth class, while in the undergraduate stage, students go through higher education and choose to pursue a certain subject. The period one covers in the undergraduate level varies depending on the subject being pursued for instance; a medical student will take up to 6 years while other simple courses can be completed in 3 years. Postgraduate is the highest level the student can choose to pursue after graduating from undergraduate school with the sole aim of adding to one’s qualifications. On the other hand, UK has four main stages of education, these are primary, secondary, further education, and higher education in that order respectively. The school system is split into “key stages” which runs from key stage one to four depending on one’s age (Jani 2012). Key stage 1 and 2 comprise primary school which begins at age 5 up until age 11 while key stage 2 and 3 comprise secondary school which starts at age 11 up until age 16. The students are evaluated just before the termination of every stage with the most important test being at stage 4, when the students pursue GCSE. Upon completion of GCSE, the students can then proceed to do further education and then potential higher education. The students who continues the secondary level for an additional two years to form six, attains A-level qualifications. The other qualifications include Cambridge Pre-U and Business and Technology Education Council (Patel, 2012). The maximum age for mandatory study was set at 18 by an Act in 2008. Higher education begins with a 3-year bachelor’s degree followed by postgraduate level, which includes a master’s degree and doctorate degree. The master’s degree is not restricted to research but the doctorate is. In the UK, all universities must be issued with a royal charter before they offer degree programmes. In addition, the two nations differ in the extent to which education is made mandatory. In India, it is compulsory for one to attend both the primary and middle levels while the rest of the levels are optional. In a bid to strengthen the role played by education in India, the government took a major step via enactment of the 86th constitution amendment Act. This aimed at facilitation of free and mandatory education for children aged 6-14 years (Kaushal, 2012). Unlike in India, both the primary and secondary education is compulsory and the children have to legally attend. Emphasis has recently been on reform measures to ensure compulsory study and not expected study in India. Additionally, education institutions in India are both privately and publicly funded and owned. The quality of the state run schools range from high to a few cases of abysmal. Schools, which are privately run, are preferred to their public counterparts but they charge high fees making them inaccessible to the low class families. In UK the state funded learning institutions and sixth form education funds come from taxes. The concept of Independent Schools is applicable but the parents are left to educate their children in suitable means. Furthermore, the two nations differ in the language to instruct in schools. All schools in UK use English as the main medium in communication. Primary schools in India use mother tongue as the main medium of communication. Only the elite families have their children study in schools, which use English medium. Many states in India have started teaching English from grade 3 but the execution is relative across the various states (Cheney, Ruzzi, & Muralidharan, 2005). Upon critical comparative analysis, there is a difference in the perceptions held by students in UK and India. Students in the UK treat education as a learning process and are encouraged to choose their line of interest from an early age and go only with the study of that subject to attain one’s line of career. In India, the objective of education is to get fat salaries and not as a source of knowledge and the student gets the chance to specialise in their area of interest much later therefore making the students least suitable to the real job requirements. In the UK, the study procedures are more streamlined and fair as compared to India thus money becomes the main drive in India since the higher end courses are done on a study loan. The perception is thus arrived at as a case of circumstances rather than choice. This perception contributes to the learning process in India being rote learning and the students end up memorizing the course work for the sake of passing the exams. This is not the case in the UK since the students are taught by solving problems and making decisions and thus have a good understanding of the course work. The students in the UK thus get the knowledge and can easily translate it to a real work situation and easily handle the issues that arise at the work place. The experimental approach of learning used in the UK improves the creativity of the students and on completion of one’s education period, as they develop ideas to employ themselves and create jobs. The rote learning limits one’s ability to come up with a business idea and one is only left to search for jobs. In addition, the education system in the UK allows one to interact with people of different nationalities and enabling one to share in their backgrounds and perspectives thus a student gets a broader picture of the world. India on the other hand has few to no international students and the qualifications attained there are not globally accepted. The quality of education in India and UK are two worlds apart, this is because India is still a developing nation faced with many challenges and luck enough funds to invest in education sector. The good infrastructure in the UK promotes the access of various facilities and resources leading to a high level of quality learning as compared to that in India. Despite the fact that changes are being noticed in India with top B-schools focussing on quality infrastructure, a gap still exists between the UK schools and Indian schools. In addition, the education system in UK majorly incorporates technology unlike that in India. Despite continued effort in India to Invest in education, nearly quarter of the population is illiterate. The university are very limited only offer 7% space for potential students. Unlike in the UK, India has very few well-qualified faculties to teach in the institutions of higher learning and the education system lacks equity as it discriminates against the girl child. Despite there being numerous differences in the education system in India and the UK there are a few similarities owing to the influence of the British since India was a British colony. The institutions of higher learning in both India and the UK have English as their main media of instruction. India has a challenge of high illiteracy level and some lower institutions use mother tongue but the higher institutions have made a milestone and use English. The Indian curriculum borrows a lot from the British system especially in grouping of grades considering one’s age. In addition, the administration of universities in the UK is a self-governing business with the UGC (University Grants Commission) maintaining the link to the government. The UK and India have similarities in their system since the Indian UGC is modelled after the corresponding one in UK. The universities in the UK offer a wide range of courses most of which are also offered in India and the assessment is done through written tests, research and internal work. UK has Open University as an experiment and India has been trying to implement the idea of Open University (Raza &Malhotra, 1991).The two nations are similar in that the universities have to be accredited for their degrees to be recognised. In India, all the universities must be accredited with an exception of those created through acts of parliament (Sinha & Subramanian, 2013). In conclusion, in the view of the various differences and similarities in the education sector in both nations, the nations have made a commitment to ensure that education institutions inclusively contribute to the economic growth in the 21st century. There has been an increase in their partnership into most advanced technologies. UK is providing better skills for employment in India by teaching Business English and has funded Project English initiative, which has so far impacted positively on millions of people in India. References Cheney, G, &Ruzzi, B, &Muralidharan, K 2005, ‘A profile of the Indian education system’. [online] Available at: http://www.teindia.nic.in/files/articles/indian_education_sysytem_by_karthik_murlidharan.pdf Jani, Z, 2012.Comparative study of U.K and India,[online] Available at: http://nainjani.blogspot.com/ Kaushal, M 2012, Implementation of Right to Education in India: Issues and Concerns, Journal Of Management & Public Policy, 4, 1, pp. 42-48. Patel, M 2012, ‘Difference between education system of India and UK’ [online] Available at: http://indiaukeducationsystem.blogspot.com/ Chandiramani,D. 2012. Comparison between Education System of "India" & "United Kingdom (UK)" [online] Available at http://educationsystembydhirajvc.blogspot.com/2012/10/education-system-in-india_4261.html Raza, M., & Malhotra, N. (1991).Higher education in India: a comprehensive bibliography.New Delhi: Concept Pub.House. Sinha, V, & Subramanian, K 2013, Accreditation In India: Path Of Achieving Educational Excellence, Business Education & Accreditation, 5, 2, pp. 107-116, Read More