Education in India

This is from Myvizhi who are from Southern part of India. She is studying in a doctor course in the U.S.

School education in India is broadly classified into four levels
1) Preprimary
2) Primary
3) Secondary
4) Higher secondary

Overall, schooling lasts for 12 years and the medium of instruction can be English or the regional state language. However, most private schools offer English as their medium of instruction. Schools will usually begin in the month of june/July and end in the month of march or april with approximately 45 to 60 days of summer holidays. All schools require their students to wear a particular unform to school.The schools are controlled by governing bodies such as
- The state government boards, in which the vast majority of Indian school
-children are enrolled, - The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) board,
- The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) board,
- National Open School and
- "International schools."
These schools mimic the schools in the West in pattern and syllabi and are considerably more expensive than regular schools. The exams conducted have the syllabus of any one of the above-mentioned Councils or Boards.

Preprimary schooling can also be called nursery schooling where the children are admited at age 3 and has two years of schooling (lower kindergarden and upper kindergarden levels). Preprimary is not a mandatory but most private school insist on admitting only children with preprimary schooling into primary school.Primary schooling system has class levels from 1 to 5 (in India grade is usually reffered as class). Most public (state schools) admit children at the age of five into class 1 and most public school do not have mandatory preschooling requirements.

Secondary schooling system has lass levels from 6 to 10. Unlike, the flexibilty in selecting subjects that American school system offer student at this level, the Indian system does not offer such flexibility. All the students are required to take all the subjects (e.g. physics, biology etc.) which is stipulated by the governing body. At the end of the secondary schooling, every student is required to take a comprehensive exam.

Higher secondary system has two classes (class 11 and 12). This system however offers some form of flexibility in choosing the subjects based on the governing board and the school. There are limitations on the combinations and permutations of the subjects a student can choose.The governing body may have ten more combinations of subjects commonly called groups (each group offers a set of subjects) and some schools may not offer all the groups. For example, Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science and Advance Math can be in one group while bussiness sccountancy, economics, finance can be in another group and there may not be a group that may offer Chemistry, Finance, Biology as one group . There is also a limitation on the number of the students that can be admitted into one group and hence the score (in class 10) that the student secures determine if he can choose a particular group. For example, Smith is a 10th class student who has a score of 58% (overall) and wants to take advanced math, physics and chemistry (let us assume this to be Group 1)and Ron has a score of 68% (overall). Prefernce will be given to Ron by the school to select group 1 and if group 1 get filled then Smith may have to change schools to get his preferred group (this school may not be as good as the current school Smith like to join). Hence, the class 10 exam carries a lot of weightage and the students are under a lot of pressure to obtain high scores. Once a student chooses a group in class 11 he cannot change his group in class 12. At the end of class 12, all the students have to take a comprehensive exam and the scores in this exam can be used by Universities to determine admission.

The Indian universities may admit students based on the entrance exam that they may conduct or solely based on the class 12 scores or a combination of both. Unlike the American University system, Indian Universities do not admit students with undecided majors. The University can state the it will admit students to engineering major only if they have taken physics, chemistry and advance math as subjects in the higher secondary schooling. This requirement will change with each major that is offered by the University. Since there are limited number of students that the University may accept into a particular major, class 12 scores and entrance exam scores are of vital importance to the career of a student. Therefore to be succesfull in obtaining the desired major in the best ranked university, a student has to be focussed from his class 10 (class 8 in most cases) and has to be consistently securing high scores. Most parents take a lot of interest in their child's career and therefore guide their children throughout the entire process of selecting their career.

This is my subjective thoughts and experiences in the education of India.The teachers in India have lot of authority and the students are bound to listen to them. Unlike in US you can not drink or eat during lectures. During your undergraduate it is bit more relaxed but still these rules reply.I love the syllabus in Indian school. It is well organized. We learn a lot at our young age like differential calculus in our higher secondary school rather than in colleges over here. But I have to admit the facilities here for education is very good. The online features like blackboard and the usage of projectors during the classes are not available in India.The American professors are bit lenient with the students I guess. They do not expect the students to work on holidays and weekends (I am not sure about this). But a college undergrad student takes a maximum of 12 credits while we Indians take like 22 - 28 credits. I don't find anything problem with an American professors but I am really impressed with the projects they allow to the students and a lot more open book exams (which means you have to be strong in your fundamentals to answer the questions). It tests our knowledge rather than just reproducing what is exactly in the book. We used to memorize a lot of formulas which are not required here. They take it slow and easy here. We start schooling at the age of 3 and here it is at 5. And students are allowed to explore outside world during their college education. We have something similar but it is very minimal and mostly we go for research assistant rather than just go to Paris to learn French. And most of the Indians finish their undergraduate college education at the age of 21 - 22. And graduate studies are done later but mostly we try to finish our education at the earliest.

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from Myvizhi