Essay on School Structure as Different Phases of Education in India

School is a formal organization and die main purpose for its existence is the education of boys and girls in the society. One of the main policy concerns is to revise educational structure which is compatible with sound pedagogic principles and theories of individual development and will facilitate the harmonious pursuit of a variety of objectives -social, economic, cultural and political -served by education in a modern society. In our ancient period we find that schools in India were not graded.

The Brahmanic and the Buddhist schools and the Maqtabs and Madarsas of the Muslims were supported to provide limited forms of instruction, and anyone who wished to have education attended these schools irrespective of his age. These were in a sense single-teacher schools. The educational hierarchy in a systematic form was introduced in India by the Wood’s Dispatch in 1854.

Today India has the 10+2+3 educational pattern as recommended by the Education Commission (1964- 66) and the National Policy statements issued by the Central Government in 1968. There is a uniform educational structure in all parts of the country. Out of ten years of school education, 8 years of schooling are for elementary education which generally is sub-divided into lower primary and upper primary and two years of secondary’ schooling.

The ten years of school are followed by two years of Sr. Sec. Education. After completion of Sr. Sec. Stage, a student has to spend another three years for completing studies leading to first degree viz. B.A./B.Com./B.Sc. In some other courses, like medicine, engineering and so on a student need not enter first degree level studies. They are admitted on the basis of tests to 4-5 years of professional educational course.

The following are different phases of education in India:

(a) Pre-school Education:

It is given under the age group of three to six years. This age of a child is very important in the life for physical, emotional and intellectual development. To provide a healthy foundation for the future of a child it is must. It has the following purposes:

i. To develop in children good health habits to build up basic skills necessary for personal adjustment such as dressing, toilet habits, eating, washing etc.

ii. To develop social attitudes and manners, to encourage healthy group participation, milking the child sensitive to the rights and privileges of others.

iii. To promote emotional development by guiding the child to express, understand and accept and control his feelings and emotions.

iv. To encourage aesthetic appreciation

v. To stimulate intellectual curiously concerning the environment and help the child to understand the world in which he lives, to develop the ability to express his thoughts and feelings in fluent, correct and clear speech

vi. To promote cognitive development

vii. To promote school readiness and punctuality

(b) Ten Year Schooling:

The decision of having ten year schooling pattern was taken with a view to strengthening national integration, modernizing and strengthening school curricula and raising the general standard and quality of education level at all levels. Ten years schooling was expected to provide common, undiversified and broad-based general education for all practical purposes. Ten years schooling pattern has the following features:

(i) To develop human resources for the realization of national goals of development.

(ii) To provide a broad-based general education to all at the primary and secondary stages.

(iii) To emphasize such core elements of social sciences, environment, sexes, society and socialism.

(iv) To define minimum learning outcomes for each area of learning at all stages of education.

(v) To provide flexibility in terms of content and learning experiences.

(vi) To provide child -centered and activity-based education rather than use teacher centred approach during the transaction of curriculum.

(c) Higher Secondary Education:

Higher Secondary Education system is to show a certain link or aptitude in some specific direction. Aptitude would reveal an individual’s present characteristics to indicate his/her future potentialities. Through a formal or informal conference with the individual, while talking with him, from his written or oral class work, through administration of interest questionnaires, standard interest inventories and aptitude tests or from school records, one could collect sufficient evidence as to one’s aptitude.

It is desired that the teachers, parents and others who are concerned with the education of children should see that they are diverted at this stage to a course of study according to their aptitudes so that they can make the maximum use of their potentialities. It is the stage of diversification. At this stage different possibilities are open for the students so that they can follow (heir inclinations after the compulsory stage of study. We can follow after this stage different orientations like agricultural sectors, technical sector, business sector, media and linguistics.