How to Manage Study and Work?

The way world is advancing, it does not takes long before your skills are rendered obsolete. If you want to survive and excel in your career and life as well, you need to make sure you are continuously updated with new and relevant skills else you risk losing your competitive advantage. One of the most preferred ways for acquiring new skills is by earning a professional certification. For instance, if you are in a managerial position in the human resources department and you don’t have a degree in HR, there are high chances of someone with HR degree getting preference in the corporate hierarchy chain over you. Of course, you are talented and have requisite experience yet you need to have professional certifications.

However, for someone who is already working, it becomes hard to manage time for a professional certification course. Because of the workload, many professionals find it almost impossible to make time to study. But remember, there is always a way out. Start with allotting some time to study on a daily basis. It could be as little as 30 minutes a day. But do it regularly.

Your next aim should to maximize your output. For that purpose, you can look for a good e-learning content provider. This way you will get focused and relevant content. Spend some money and time for authentic study material which will save you lot of free time. You also have the choice of attending live online classes over internet. This way, you can interact with the subject experts and participate in active discussion forums. You can also form a local study group online. Finally, keep taking lots of practice tests which will give you enough ideas for acquiring your professional certification.

Choosing the Right College

Picking the right college is very important in any student’s life. This decision is a life changing one in many aspects. One fact is quite obvious. College will be the place where you will be spending 3-6 years of life. The learning, education, brand name and experience you will get there will remain with you for the rest of your life. This particular decision about college plays a major part in deciding the fate of your career. There are few factors one needs to consider while deciding about the college.

Choosing right college should start with location. If one is choosing college in the same city where he is residing them commuting time and proximity are the things one should take care of. If you are going outside the city to pursue your studies then you can always look for residence near your college. Getting admission into a good distance education college with strong brand name plays a vital role in you getting a good job. Reputation of the college often saves you from years of hard work. At least, one gets the first mover advantage.

One should also consider the fact that whether the college is offering scholarship for the desired subjects. This is quite tricky if college of your choice is not offering the wanted subjects. But if you are pretty sure of career you want then choose the reputed college that offers you the subjects. Other important aspects include faculty, fees and extra-curricular activities. We will take a look at these aspects in next post.

Education Problems

One of the major problems facing Indian education system is burgeoning population. We have already crossed one billion and the progress in our education system has been relatively slow despite best of the efforts from the Government. According to one conservative estimate only one third of the Indian population can be called literate. This fact comes as a shocker. Most of these illiterate populations comprises of children from the rural India. Females are the worst victim of illiteracy. Lack of education opportunities works as a great hindrance for female population. Illiterate children from rural population are made to work from early age and thus becoming an earning hand from the very start of their childhood.

 

The general belief among rural populace about study is quite depressing. It is considered as wastage of time. That results into kids dropping out of the schools even before fifth grade. Apart from financial constraints and lack of interest, other major reasons for kids dropping out of schools are poor amenities and lack of school supplies and competent school teachers in these rural areas. Then there are other problems as well like, no electricity, unavailability of computers, scarcity of books and infrastructural problems. It is largely because of the state’s education policies and efforts of few individuals that the state has been able to build up and keep a suitable pace with time.

Educational journey -5

Other cultural activities include gardening, photography and so many other vocational things. Whereas in sports, schools try to cover elementary sports like cricket, hockey, carom-board, chess, tennis, basket ball, swimming etc. Now a days even adventurous sports like horse riding is included in the curriculum. Many of these schools have not kept themselves limited to just including these subjects in the curriculum. Most of them try to promote these sports activities by holding various competitions at school or state and even at national levels. Generally, these sports competition are held once or twice in a year.  The government has also chipped in with reservations up to around five percent in the higher education for such students who have excelled in their sports career while studying.

 

Keeping all these developments in mind, we can safely assume that, although Indian Education System has few noticeable blemishes, but things have definitely improved. Indian education policy makers have tried to prepare a well defined preschool curriculum. Our curriculum does have a complete look and it strives to develop a dedicated student with hard working abilities. These factors help in keeping students at much higher ranks when it comes to judging an Indian child on international stage.

Educational journey -4

Indian educational system has molded itself on the pattern of British education system. Indian schooling system focuses on fourteen years of education. These fourteen years start from nursery classes. Indian education starts with teaching of basic subjects like alphabets of Hindi and English. This way, kids can build up the ability of recognizing and understanding the things surrounding them. Our educational content is such that special emphasis has been accorded to teaching in a way that students come to know about the multiple facets of our society, our esteemed constitution, the historical and geographical aspects of the country, the basic science that rules nature, a bit of math’s and many other things.

 

The number and focus of subjects get more specific as students reach the higher classes. The last two years of schooling gives students the choice of choosing the subjects, he/she would be specializing in. normally students take the subjects in which they are thinking of making their career. It could be Arts, Science or commerce. Another crucial aspect of our school curriculum is addition of various other non-academic activities. These activities range from music, dance, painting and other cultural activities to sports. The main objective behind these additions is developing other skills in the child which will equip him/her with other important talents apart from studies. These skills manage to help students in good stead in the tough battle of life.

Educational journey -3

In the independent India, all governments greatly emphasized the importance of spreading education to all corners of the country. The central and state governments in accordance with constitutional directives have tried their best to implement them. Concepts like, Navodaya Vidhyalaya and Sarvodaya Vidhyalaya were meant to fulfill those directives. These schools have greatly helped in spreading education in the rural and semi-urban areas of the country where most of the population can not afford to have expensive education. These schools generally impart quality education free of cost for the weaker sections of the society. Apart from these government schools, there are many schools with private-government joint collaboration that provide free of charge quality education to the children.

                        

To be brutally honest, Indian education system has not yet achieved the desired directives of the constitution. The ambition was to have every Indian kid being able to read and write. But that is not the case yet. The process has been relatively slow because of huge Indian population and lack of infrastructures. We still lack basic education amenities like, schools, teachers, funds etc. the last census shows approximately sixty percent of Indian population can read and write. Or they can be termed literate with kerala being only state with hundred percent literacy.

Educational Journey-2

Let’s take a peek into the history of Indian education system.
The ancient Vedic structure constantly directed disparity of educational prospects. Moving over to the era of Ashoka (Muarya Era), he tried to bring in more educational opportunities for every strata of society. Buddhism also promoted reforms which were aimed at changing Indian mindsets. Buddhism tried to initiate a liberal educational system which provided equal opportunities to everyone. The British were more strategic in their educational policies. Though, they established new institutions which helped in partially breaking the discrimination but their other decisions were more influenced by shielding their rule in the country. Like, they made compromises in educational system which finally armored influential class dominance.

These factors clearly illustrate that Indian education system has gone through many ups and downs. India’s rich history also tells us that, whenever rulers changed, also changed the education preferences, education policies. Sometimes these changes were positive whereas some other times, proved a nuisance to the people. But things changed drastically after independence. While designing constitutional framework, the authorities realizing the importance of education, made sure to make education one of the major priority of new democratic India. The policy makers, finding education a major constituent for the development and progress of the country, included a special directive in the constitution. The directive urged all Indian states to grant “free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years”.

Educational Journey

Education is one of the major themes in Indian society. Since the time a child takes birth, parents and all the concerned relatives start looking for his/her education and preschools. Even though, he or she is a toddler, parents think of school, college, subjects, stream, job and all those things that have the potential to affect his life at any time in future. Such is the importance of education. When we think about, major ingredients of a person’s educational life, we can clearly visualize the journey from nursery to primary school to higher school then graduation, masters and finally landing up a job. And this journey goes on throughout one’s life time.

                             

At the same time, life is designed in such a way that, we need to have a fair idea about everything because each and everything in our surrounding affects us directly or indirectly. So apart from main academic subjects we also tend to learn about culture, sociological features, our environment, spiritual aspects to name a few. We learn all these things while we grow up, while we are living in our family, from our relatives, friends, community and our work. It results into, more exposure to the world, increasing knowledge about things and finally our growth and evolution as better humans.

Indian Education

India has been a major hub of learning since ancient times. India is credited to introduce Gurukul system to the world. Gurukul educational system symbolizes a virtuous bonding between a Guru (Teacher) and Shishya (pupil). Indian education system has always been more than mere teaching and learning procedure. It reflects imparting of knowledge, skills on a more personal level. Teachers in India have always been accorded highest degree of respect. Even our scriptures say the same. The below mentioned Hindi quote will make us understand the value and importance of a Teacher,

 

“Guru govind dono khade, ka ke laagun paaye,

Balihari guru aapne, jin gobind deeyo milaye

Gyan prakaasi guru mila, so jan bisar na jaaye

Jab sahib kirpa kari, tab guru milya aaye.”

 

It says, “God and teacher are both standing side by side, who I should look for blessings? It’s the teacher whom I should first go and hug as he made me aware of God!”

 

That truly gives us a glance in the basic foundation of Indian education system. We Indians have been taught to call our teacher “Guru” or the Master. The master guides us, shows us the path. He is much more than a professional. The Guru is a much larger concept than merely coming to classroom and delivering lecture. This wonderful tradition makes India stand apart from other countries in educational system.