The Indian Education System that exists today in India is influenced mainly by the British System of Education. The Education System is considered to be one of the most advanced in the world. There are some strengths and weaknesses in both the systems that exist today.
There are many differences between the Indian and the American Education systems.
- 3 years v/s 4 years graduation − The system that is followed in India is 10+2+3 years for streams like commerce, science, social sciences, humanities, management, and media. (Engineering degree is an exception which is a 4-year long course).However, in the US, the system followed is 10+2+4 years.
- Entrance exams for graduation − The students in the US appear for SAT and ACT to get admissions into the Universities and Colleges after their High School. In India, there are national-level examinations for Medical and Engineering courses and the criteria for other streams is mostly based on the percentage that the student obtains in the Higher Secondary Certificate Examination.
- The teacher-student ratio − Former President Barack Obama once mentioned that he pities the teachers who have more than 30 students in the class. This is because in the US the teacher-student ratio does not exceed 1:30 in a majority of the classes. However, in India even with the provisions highlighted in the RTE Act, the teacher-student ratio goes as high as 1:80 and sometimes even 1:100.
- Status of infrastructure − In India, the condition of infrastructure in most of the schools is in devastating conditions with no proper benches and electrical equipment in the government-managed schools. In the US, Public schools are relatively well-maintained with good infrastructure and technological facilities available for the teachers.
- Rigid v/s Flexible − In India, there is rigidity where the student has to study all the subjects in the schooling period. There is no chance to skip these subjects. The extracurricular activities and Physical Education is not given much priority in India. Whereas, the system in the US is more flexible where the students get more subjects to explore with each subject given equal importance. The system in India also tends to be science-students centric which is not the case in the US.
- The position of the teacher − The position of the teacher in terms of social status differs massively in both countries. The teacher is given a lot of respect for the profession by the people in India. This is mainly due to the rich cultural heritage that has revered the teacher as ‘Guru’. It is not similar in terms of US society.