Challenges for Secondary Education in India

Some of the crucial challenges faced by secondary education in India are as follows:

1. Different committees and commissions before and after independence have mentioned
various aims of secondary education. But secondary educational institutions have failed
considerably to achieve the stipulated aims of developing the physical, intellectual, mental
and spiritual aspects of individual personality. Even secondary education in India is not
complete by itself. It is a stepping-stone for admissions in colleges and universities.
Secondary education is thus regarded as a passport for higher education. Hence the main
defect of secondary education is its aimlessness. Secondary education must have definite
aims related to practical life and the secondary schools should try to realize those aims in
every possible manner.

2. Non detention policy adopted at elementary level education has deteriorated the quality
of secondary education too as poor-quality stuff has entered secondary education level. It
failed to generate power of imagination, critical thinking, and ability to evaluate and take
adequate judgment.

3. The current secondary education has aggravated the unemployment problem as no

manpower training is possible in the present set-up of secondary education in India. The
schemes of core work experience have failed miserably and the plus- two stages have not yet
been vocationalised as was proposed.

4. Value education is essential for character training but our secondary education does not
attach much importance to education for values such as toleration, cooperation, fellow
feeling, truthfulness, modesty, respect to teachers or elders, spirit of self-respect, faith in
national cultural tradition, secularism etc. Adolescents are found to engulf in a number of
immoral acts and number of corrupt practices making the society intolerant.

5. Secondary education also does not provide true opportunities for developing life skills
like communication, decision making, problem solving and interpersonal skills to
demonstrate leadership behavior in different walks of life. Students are the future leaders in
different walks of our national life and as such their traits of leadership should be cultivated
when they are young and sensitive enough. Secondary stage can be regarded as the breeding
ground for leadership training.

6. The present secondary education in our country is not friendly to effective, democratic
and productive citizenship which is the need of the hour. We need able, dutiful and self-
dedicated citizens who are imbued with the spirit of intelligent patriotism contributing to the
rapid prosperity of the country.

7. Every individual has a social self. For an integrated personality development this social
self is essential which is neglected by our secondary education. There is also close
relationship between education and society. If social aspect of education is neglected no
society can prosper and attain the desired growth.

8. Psychomotor aspect is an essential component of individual personality. The transactional

strategies adopted at secondary education do not inculcate right interests, aptitudes,
emotions and feelings towards curriculum among students. Mere curricular activities
cannot help to develop all round personality of an individual.

9. Physical education is not emphasized by the present system of secondary education in

our country. Human beings are essentially psycho-physical in nature. Most of the secondary
schools of our country possess minimum facilities for physical education. Many of them have
no play-grounds.

10. Many secondary schools still suffer from the inadequate number of professionally
trained teachers. Training is a pre-requisite condition for successful teaching and
professional growth. Teaching is a difficult and challenging profession. Teachers find it
difficult to do justice with their profession in absence of true knowledge of the students,
society, teaching methodology and skill in managing the institutional environment.

11. The curriculum poses a great problem in the field of secondary education. The
curriculum has failed to incorporate cognitive, affective and psychomotor areas in real sense.

12. The curriculum has intimate connection with the methods of teaching. The methods
followed by most of the secondary school level teachers are stereotyped, obsolete and un
psychological. Therefore modern activity-centered methods are not applied by the teachers.
Activities if taken are given as home assignment leaving the burden on the shoulder of the
students and their parents. There are practical difficulties also in way of applying modem
methods of teaching in our school situations. Many schools are not properly equipped with
laboratory and library facilities, necessary teaching aids and appliances.

Most of the secondary schools are over-crowded, ill-staffed and suffer from inadequate
number of teachers and accommodation. The average teacher-pupil ratio is 1: 50. But for
effective and creative teaching it should be 1: 30. No fruitful teaching is possible without
personal contact between the teacher and the taught. The main concern of the teacher is to
complete the course rather than achieving cognitive, affective and psychomotor aims of the
education.

13. The educational achievements of students are measured by the single measuring rod
known as examination. The prevailing essay-type examination dominates the educational
arena. The main charge against the essay-type examination is that it is vitiated by
subjectivity. Much has been said about examination and changes have been made but on the
ground it is still unsatisfying for all stakeholders i.e. neither the students nor parents are
satisfied. It failed to evaluate true outcome in different areas and many talented students end
their life as under achievers.

14. Many secondary schools suffer from inadequate finance leading to inadequate infra
structure which has its direct influence on quality learning outcomes.

15. Absence of any organized structure for in service teachers’ training programme is
also a big issue. In service teachers find it difficult to know the new trends, techniques and
technology useful to deal real problems of class room teaching.

16. The administration of the secondary schools does not appear to be efficient.
Education administration in India is a three-tier process – Central, Slate and district. Different
boards offer different quality education and attach some stigma of superiority and inferiority
to it.

17. Adequate secondary school to cater to the ever increasing needs of the secondary
education is the need of the hour. A good number of superfluous schools also exist. Many
schools are devoid of minimum infrastructural provision. Secondary education is still the
weakest link in our educational chain. Wastage is mounting in secondary level also due to
failures. Only qualitative improvement of secondary education can reduce this huge wastage.
Quantity and quality should go hand in hand.

Challenges of Universalization of Secondary Education

 Access: Access to secondary education is a big problem in achieving universalization of

secondary education. As per the Unifies District Information System for Education (UDISE)
2015-16, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of boys and girls at secondary education level is
79.16 percent and 80.97 percent respectively and GER of boys and girls at senior secondary
level is 55.95 percent and 56.41 percent respectively. It is quite evident that much need to be
done to increase the access of students to secondary education. Access should also be
evaluated in physical, social, cultural and economic terms. Providing access to all socially
disadvantaged sections of the society i.e. differently abled students, SC & ST students,
minorities and other backward classes is still a challenge in Indian condition.

 Retention: Drop-out rates are quite higher at secondary stage is another significant factor
which creates hurdle in achieving the goal of universalization of secondary education in our
country. As per the figures of Ministry of Human Resource Development the dropout rate at
secondary stage of education in 2014-15 was 17.86 percent.

 Equality and Social Justice: Without ensuring equality and social justice in all spheres
including education the objective of true democracy cannot be achieved. For this curriculum
need to be redesigned. It is only when school curriculum empowers the child adequately to
initially understand, then question and finally deal with that inequality and injustice, the child
would be in a position to continue to seek equality and social justice in life after the school.
Six dimensions of equality and social justice need attention for which school system will
have to strive for as advocated by CABE (2005). These are: (a) gender (b) economic disparity
(c) social i.e. SCs/STs (d) cultural (including issues of religious and linguistic diversity); (e)
disability both physical and mental (f) rural/urban. All these dimensions need to be reflected
with sensitivity. Children studying in private unaided schools are deprived of the experience
of knowing children of different social classes and diverse cultural background. Such schools
may not be able to generate sense of equality of social justice among their students.

 Relevance and Development: Relevancy means education which unfolds the potential of
the child i.e. building democratic citizenship, evolving values to live in pluralistic society and
skill formation in the context of rapidly changing technology as well as linking the
development of the child with socio-cultural dimensions.

 Structural and Curricular Aspects: Curricular reforms cannot be delinked from

structural reforms. There is a consensus today throughout the country with respect to the
10+2 pattern of school education, as recommended by the Education Commission (1964- 66).
The Education Commission had also advocated that a minimum of 10 years of common
curriculum is required for building citizenship in a democracy and for linking the ‘world of
knowledge’ with ‘world of work’. In this concept, diversified courses will be introduced only
at the +2 stage. These recommendations related to curriculum could be implemented by all
States/ UTs only because the Central Government enabled a nation-wide.

 Failure: Mass scale failure at IXth and Xth standard stages due to various reasons is
another obstacle in successful completion of secondary education. The CBSC board results
for 10th and 12th classes in 2019 were 91.1 percent and 83 percent respectively. The results
of UP board for 10th and 12th classes indicate dismal picture being 75.16 percent and 70.06
percent respectively.

 Quality: Poor quality of secondary education is highly sensitive issue and because of it
even the pass outs do not get their due place neither in higher education nor in employment to
vocational courses. Non detention policy adopted at elementary school level has lowered the
standard of secondary education and also the higher education. Poor quality education leads
to failure and chances of dropping out of the school for the students are enhanced.

 Examination System: Our examination system has failed to a great extent to make real
evaluation of total learning outcomes. Conventionally education system particularly school
education is guided and controlled by concerns for results in examination irrespective of
quality of learning whether fragile or sustainable.

 Lack of Girls Schools: Poor enrolment percentage of girls at secondary school stages
particularly in rural areas are considered due to the lack of secondary schools. Many socio
cultural and economic reasons come into play in regard to girls’ education leading to
comparatively poor participation of girls at secondary school stage.

 Absence of Guidance Services in Schools: Adolescent is an stage of heightened

emotionality and students are more expected to engulf in various problems which are quite
unique and students face difficulty in solving these problems in absence of any assistance
available in school situations. It disturbs the mental health of the students and affects the
educational achievement. It may further lead to failure as well as dropout problems.

Suggestive Measures

 Secondary education should not be taken in isolation of elementary education. The NPE
2019 has addressed this problem by recommending 5+3+3+4 system of school education,
Universal access, retention and quality learning outcomes at elementary stage of
education after prerequisite to achieve universalization of secondary education in India.

 Adequate financial allocation to establish and up gradate available schools will definitely
produce fruitful results. Concrete strategies to implement collaboration of public and private
funding without influencing the interest of poor masses to seek education need to be drawn
for enhancing universal provision of schools.

 Institutional environment is the key for retaining and providing quality education to the
students in the school. Area specific strategies need to be drawn and active cooperation of
parents, teachers, administrators and the government is highly essential. Delhi government
has made remarkable progress in this regard and every successful effort must be imitated at
other state levels also.

 Need and requirements of the students are changing with the abrupt changes in the society.
Therefore the curriculum must be designed to address the intellectual, social, vocational
and personal needs of the students.

 Physical education must be an integral part of our school education and implemented in
letter and spirit by all the schools of India. Trained physical education teachers must be
appointed for reaping the real benefits of physical education.

 Professionally trained teachers need to be appointed and continuously reinforced with

quality in service teacher education programmes for best utilization of their talent and
expertise.

 Students’ centric approaches should be used by the teachers to transact the curriculum in
the class room. Active involvement of the learner should be promoted by providing them
ample freedom and acquire learning through activity, experience and experimentation.

 Unavailability of the adequate infrastructure is clearly the biggest challenge facing

secondary education today. Quality of infrastructure is directly related to the quality of
infrastructure. Therefore utmost importance should be given to infrastructure especially
government management schools.

 Institutional environment play a deciding role on the mental health of students, teachers
and the parents of the students. As per the reports about 20 percent teachers suffering from
extreme stress which is a cause of concern and as it influences the quality of the teacher and
consequently the learning of students. Working atmosphere must be conducive for the
teachers which reflects the vales of true democracy rather than autocratic and demanding.

 Stress and anxiety are also quite common among students particularly at secondary school
stage being the age of adolescent. Appropriate guidance and counselling services are must
for better psychological well-being of the students.

 Future education there would be holistic and responsive education facilitating

manifestation of perfection already in man and women. Emphasis in secondary education
has to be shifted from ‘mugging up’ a few content items for writing examination to
school as holistic living experience. Secondary education must address the problems, issues
as well as needs and requirements of the adolescents.

 Easy access to open learning system will also be needed to ensure universalization of
secondary education. Drop-outs, failures and girls who could not continue their education
may get the advantage of open mode of education. This mode has got wide acceptance in
view of the knowledge and use of technology by large section of the society.