Education is the foundation for growth and development of an individual at the micro level and of a nation at the macro level. Imparting education is possible through a formal or informal means. Education one gets in one’s early days in the family is primarily informal in nature, the one that is taught in institutions like schools, colleges and Universities becomes the formal channel. While the focus of formal education is cognitive in nature with the objective of providing domain knowledge, hard skills that required to be successful in finding and performing a vocation/profession, the focus of informal education is on soft skills, moulding one’s personality, inculcating values, attitudes with the objective of making an individual to be a human being and a responsible citizen in the society.
In ancient India as well as during precolonial period education as practiced in the form of gurukuls was by and large informal in nature focusing on the holistic development of each incumbent of the gurukul. The academic environment that prevailed in gurukul catered to moulding one’s personality as well as in providing training based on the strength of each individual to pursue one’s vocation.
The onset of British Rule in India brought a paradigm shift in education. Schools and colleges were established with a predetermined curriculum with a set of pedagogical and assessment methods. Education became a mass program simultaneously catering to hundreds of students in a formal classroom environment. This education facilitated one to be eligible for jobs that the British administration created.
Industrial revolution added a new dimension namely mechanisation. Technical and engineering education became a new stream that attracted the Indian youth to equip themselves with skills in working with machines. Science and Engineering education became the priority and the supportive measures by the Governments resulted in proliferation of Institutions offering Engineering and Science education.
Despite the relevant curriculum and the effective teaching and training, the major concerns of the employers as reported by them is that they are not employable. Unfortunately students are equipped with hard skills to perform and excel on the job but are found to be lacking in essential human skills like communication, interpersonal skills etc. Further, the materialistic values that has been promoted by the western culture is influencing the educational institutions towards practice of unhealthy practice of overemphasising on academic performance and excellence with little importance to the holistic development of students.
Today Education across all levels is curriculum and performance oriented that makes both the teachers and the students to develop a formal approach to learning. Technology entering into the classroom teaching has resulted in distance between teachers and students. Some Students are found to depend on Available online resources for their academic requirements thereby neglecting the happenings in the classroom. Opportunities for peer learning, informal interactions between teachers and students are being less in the recent times.
The result of these changes is found to have negative effects on the development of youth population. Though academic performance should be one of primary objective of higher education, overlooking the holistic development of the students by transforming a young adolescent into a responsible citizen of the country will be detrimental to the growth of the nation. Several behavioural problems of the students at the higher educational level like academic anxiety, stress, suicidal tendencies, addiction problems, apathetic attitude towards morality and ethics, etc are to be addressed by institutions of higher education. There is an urgent need to bring in an informal environment into the educational institutions. Apart from the discipline-based curriculum, courses related to upskilling the students in soft skills, sensitizing students to one’s culture, mechanisms for inculcating values, ethics and morality are to be introduced. Lessons from the alternative educational systems like Gurukul, Integration education model, and many others related to their pedagogy, best practices, etc could be initial steps that could be taken towards achieving the two dimensions of learning namely acquisition of knowledge and the desired modification in one’s behaviour.
