Education in India

A display at the Vasant Valley School in Delhi

I wasn't totally sure what to expect when I was preparing lessons for India. Will there be a projector? A smart board? A school computer? Will the students understand English? The answer was simply yes, sometimes, and no a lot of the time.

Depending on the school in which we were teaching, the resources varied drastically. In one school there were smart boards in every classroom. In another, there was one computer and one project for the entire school. Other schools we were in had no projector or way to share information visually.

Beyond projectors and smart boards, the learning materials also were different depending on where you went. In one school we taught in there were no textbooks, little curriculum guidance, and few physical resources for students to utilize. However, the teachers at this school taught with so much passion and heart, that they made it work without the resources we tend to take for granted every day. The variation in resources made teaching some lessons difficult; however, one of the greatest skills that teachers possess is adaptability.

While access to materials made teaching some lessons more challenging, variation of English education also varied across the country presenting me with more challenges. I visited a school where every student in the classroom could read, write, understand, and speak English, but I also encountered schools where a large majority of the students did not know any English. This challenged not only my teaching abilities, but also my own preconceived notions about English as a second language in India. In general, I thought most people probably had at least English communication skills; however, I quickly learned that was not the case. In the private schools and well-funded government schools, some subjects were taught completely in English because the students had a strong grasp of social and academic English. Not only that, but students were also learning French, Spanish, Sanskrit, and Hindi. In the schools in the more marginalized communities, English was nearly non-existent. I had to utilize translation tools and interpreters to be able to communicate with students which made lessons take longer and sometimes hindered me from being able to build stronger relationships with the students as I speak no Gujarati or Hindi. In general, my personal observation was that the more funding a school or person had, the more access to quality English education.

Education in India is going through a monumental shift. In 2020, India released their National Education Policy 2020, or NEP 2020, in an attempt to revamp the curriculum. As a result of the NEP 2020, there is a shift away from rote memorization and repetition of facts towards conceptual understanding, holistic development, and focus on skill development such as foundational numeracy and literacy. With this new policy, also comes certain degree of nationalization of the curriculum.

Because India is like a thousand nations in one, it is difficult to say how successful a national curriculum might be. I believe some aspects might prove to be very successful in India, such as the integration of social-emotional learning (SEL) into the curriculum, while other aspects might not serve every community in India in the most beneficial way such as "leveraging technology and AI" while many people still lack consistent access to technological resources.

Education in India varies greatly and is dependent on many factors making it challenging to sum it up completely. Yes, some students speak English, but not all. Yes, some schools have access to computers and smart boards, but not all. Some schools have counselors and mental health support, but not all. Some schools utilize a clear and consistent curriculum, but not all. Despite all of these challenges in this great country, I consistently saw one thing across the board: teachers giving it all they had to serve and teach their students.