CURRENT TRENDS IN EDUCATION IN INDIA ABSTRACT: Education is a vital part of any society.

Formal institutions of education are among the largest consumers of published materials. Today, technology is increasingly becoming a means for empowering students, and is a method for communication. The digital divide, once seen as a factor of wealth, is now seen as a factor of education: those who have the opportunity to learn technology skills are in a better position to obtain and make use of technology than those who do not. Nextgeneration publishers will see much less distinction between print and digital.Innovation and creativity are becoming paramount. There is also an increased interest in just-in-time, alternate, or nonformal avenues of education, such as online learning, mentoring, and independent study. Once a time was there, when food, shelter and clothing formed the basic needs of human beings. However, with the development in the industrial age, another important factor that got added up to the list of basic needs was education. Currently, one of the important industries worldwide is definitely the education industry. Its through education only that transmission of tradition and culture, running of politics and economy is made possible. With a number of educational options existing before the students at present, newer trends are seen to emerge in the field of education that has entirely changed the traditional system of education prevalent in India. Many career alternatives, which were previously not regarded as important or popular are now among the sought after career options for students. Among these are radio management, radio jockeying, program anchoring, news anchoring, news reporting, fashion designing, event management, content writing, hospital management, medical transcription and many more that have opened up new vistas for education. Though many traditional courses such as engineering and medicine are still in high demand, yet in keeping with the changing trends at the national and global economic scenario, new educational programs are emerging fast, thereby depicting the deviation from the older trends. Literacy Rate in India - To know development in a society, Literacy is another proper indicator of economic development. For purpose of census, a person in age limit of seven and above, who can both write and read with understanding in any of the language is considered as a literate in India. As per Population Census of India 2011, the Literacy rate of India has shown as improvement of almost 9 percent. It has gone up to 74.04% in 2011 from 65.38% in 2001, thus showing an

increase of 9 percent in the last 10 years. It consists of male literacy rate 82.14% and female literacy rate is 65.46%. Kerala with 93.9% literacy rate is the top state in India. Lakshadweep and Mizoram are at second and third position with 92.3% and 91.06% literacy rate respectively. Bihar with 63.08% literacy rate is the last in terms of literacy rate in India. Government of India has taken several measures to improve the literacy rate in villages and towns of India. State Governments has been directed to ensure and improve literacy rate in districts and villages where people are very poor. There has been a good improvement in literacy rate of India in last 10 years but there is still a long way to go. List of Steps taken by Government of India to improve Literacy Rate in India:

Free education programs to poor people living in villages and towns. Setting up of new school and colleges at district and state levels. Several committees have been formed to ensure proper utilization of funds allotted to

improve literacy rate. Ranking of States in India by Literacy Rate

S.No State Literacy Rate Male Literacy Rate (2011 Census) (2011 Census) 86.3% 67.7% 67.0% 73.2% 63.8% 86.4% 71.0% 77.7% 87.1% 86.3% 87.4% 79.3% 76.6% 83.8% 68.7% 67.6% 90.1% 75.6% 73.7% 78.8% 73.5% 90.5% 81.5% 86.5% 91.5% 91.0% 92.8% 87.2% 85.4% 90.8% 78.3% 78.5% Female Literacy Rate (2011 Census) 81.8% 59.7% 59.6% 67.3% 53.3% 81.4% 60.6% 65.9% 79.6% 80.9% 81.8% 70.7% 66.8% 76.6% 58.0% 56.2%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Andaman & Nicobar Islands Andhra Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Assam Bihar Chandigarh Chattisgarh Dadra & Nagar Haveli Daman & Diu Delhi Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jammu and Kashmir Jharkhand

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 -

Karnataka Kerala Lakshadweep Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Orissa Puducherry Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Tripura Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand West Bengal INDIA

75.6% 93.9% 92.3% 70.6% 82.9% 79.8% 75.5% 91.6% 80.1% 73.5% 86.5% 76.7% 67.1% 82.2% 80.3% 87.8% 69.7% 79.6% 77.1% 74.04%

82.8% 96.0% 96.1% 80.5% 89.8% 86.5% 77.2% 93.7% 83.3% 82.4% 92.1% 81.5% 80.5% 87.3% 86.8% 92.2% 79.2% 88.3% 82.7% 82.14%

68.1% 92.0% 88.2% 60.0% 75.5% 73.2% 73.8% 89.4% 76.7% 64.4% 81.2% 71.3% 52.7% 76.4% 73.9% 83.1% 59.3% 70.7% 71.2% 65.46%

Online Education has become an important mode of education. Since the regular courses in Indiaare getting very expensive and highly competitive, distance and online education is fast developing as an amazing option for the students. E-learning opportunities are immense in India. Even thedistance education programs are serving wonderfully, by offering a chance of getting educated, especially for the less advantaged segment of people. Distance learning can be availed through various types such as postal correspondence programs, pocket PC or mobile learning programs, interactive CD-ROM programs, tele-courses or broadcast course via television or radio and many more. Recent trends and developments in education highlight the vital and salient role of education in effectively meeting the growing political and socio-economic challenges in the society. With the fast developments and many variations, conflicting trends can be noticed in the educational system in India.

One of the major conflicting trends that can be noticed is the cost of education. As the expense of formal education in the educational institutes is increasing very fast, the expense of education via the internet is comparatively low and affordable. Students can have an easy and cheap access to Internet with the help of cyber cafes and the various other cheap internet home connection schemes available these days. Students here also get the scope to download many ebooks, free of cost. Another differing trend can be traced in the methodology of education. With lots of information to gather and more and more books to study, now students are found more burdened with studying, learning and grasping the materials and the lectures. On a contrasting note however, so much efforts are being put into making the learning process an enjoyable one. Yet another conflicting tendency can be found in the results. Roughly in every part of the country a problem that has been raised is that the type of education followed by the educational system in India does not always result in offering jobs to the graduates. Our education system does not provide the students with any assurance that they will get a job on completion of their educational degree. However, jobs are definitely being generated by the medium of internet. Writing articles, web designing, programming, writing reviews etc are among the many job opportunities offered by the internet. The education sector in India has received significant attention from different quarters like the investors, policymakers and media. It is filled with passion and all the enthusiasm on one hand and many anxieties on the other. Internationalization of the Education Process: As one of the strategies for building up of reputation, Internationalization will get more importance. It may consist of international collaborations for the faculty members and also the students, joint research tasks or offshore campuses. Since many European universities are anticipated to show their interest in India, so the collaborations will not only e restricted to American institutes and Universities only. Stress on Quality above Quantity Quality of the education system in India has been lagging for quite some times now in comparison to the quantity. In the coming time few changes are expected regarding the matters of transparency and norms. The educational institutes in India would need to fulfill certain basic norms. The institutions are expected to participate more into information sharing and of

course accountability. The upcoming educational institutes are expected to be trend setters in adopting several standards related to the quality of education. Increase in the Adoption of Technologies With the increase in the number of institutions, there will be growing need for reorganization and the process of controlling. Different technology based solutions such as the campus managing software packages is expected to gain prominence. Program management tools will also gain prominence among the faculty members who look forward to efficiently organize the class. Increase in the Need for Professional Talent Indian education industry lacks both in quality and quantity when it comes to administrative staffs and faculty members. This might pose serious threats regarding the availability of good faculty members. The expansion of the educational institutes as announced by the Government of India would demand for more faculty members. If the shortage of talented and efficient faculty members persists, then quality of education will suffer immensely. Although the ways of education is witnessing a change, the old conventional setting of the education system has definitely not changed. The same classroom concept is still being used by majority of the schools and other educational institutes in India. Rigid curriculums and huge syllabus still characterize the educational scenario in India. However, with the entrance of the online education system in the picture, things are expected to change for the better. Some of the greatest challenges are being posed by the online educational system towards the traditional way of learning! CONCLUSION: Education is the groundwork based on which any country can progress and develop. Without educated personnel, sustenance of a vibrant economy is not possible. Some of the recent trends in education are quite apparent while others are still to make its presence felt. Some are yet to emerge and therefore subject to evolution and change. One way you can master the change is by spotting the trends and keeping yourself flexible enough to get ready for the changes.