Educational Initiatives For A Flourishing Nation

By Author: Kalpesh Kumar
Total Articles: 185
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Education plays an important role in the social and economic development of any society, and India is no exception to this rule. The sad reality is, in spite of being home to world class business and engineering schools, only a minuscule section of the society has access to them. India has a population of 1.2 billion people but the literacy rate is growing at an extremely sluggish pace. Rural areas comprise the core population of the country; unfortunately they do not have access to equal opportunities in terms of education, infrastructure, health facilities, job opportunities etc. This in turn is hampering the economic growth and development of the nation.

The Indian Government has launched several campaigns and provisions to provide free elementary and primary level of education across the country. In spite of this, there is a huge disparity in the level of literacy between urban and rural areas. There are a lot of reasons for a resistance from the rural population towards education. Some of them are as mentioned below

• In a rural structure, education is not deemed important as rural families are more reliant ...
... on jobs that are passed on from generations, which do not need any formal education. (farmers, potters etc)
• A major part of the rural society is still not open to the idea of educating the girl child, which cuts the literacy rate in such areas by a major margin.
• Lack of jobs and a proper infrastructure in rural areas is driving the youth to take up blue collared jobs in the city, which don’t require any formal education.
• Lack of sanitation facilities and drinking water in rural schools is also a major catalyst to keep students away from schools.

Corporate Sector Pushing for a Sustainable Format of Education

The Indian government has introduced a lot of educational initiatives to offer equal educational opportunity for the rural population. These initiatives are responsible for a crucial increase in the number of children attending schools in rural areas. Some of them are as follows.

• The RTE act of 2009, which entails the right of children to free and compulsory education
• The Mid Day Meal program, which addresses the issues of lack of nutrition, lack of food and free access to education.
• Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan, which universalized elementary education across the country
• National Literacy Mission, which focuses on educating the 15-35 age group segment and convert illiterates to literates

Time and again, the Indian government has been coming up with various such educational initiatives with an aim to neutralize the gap between urban and rural rate of literacy. Along with providing education, these initiatives also focus on and address other scalding problems in rural India like nutrition and equal right and opportunity for education to the girl child. This job; however, cannot be single handedly accomplished by the government and thankfully the NGO and CSR groups are doing their bit to allow equal opportunities for education in the country.

Corporate Sector Pushing for a Sustainable Format of Education

The Corporate sector is now focusing on sustainable education, as they employ most of the students out of B-schools, engineering colleges and other educational institutions as their workforce. They are building a partnership with major institutes around the country, so they can begin working with students much before they start recruiting them. This sustainable education model enables them to impart knowledge and relevant skills to the students, which will be pertinent to the corporate sector. This strategy allows them to focus on education that is significant in molding the careers of the youth.

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