American Education vs Indian Education, Which System is Better

Each and every person has his own opinion about which educational system is preferable, whether Indian education or American education. Thought this argument is debatable the fact remains unchanged that every system has its benefits as well as its loopholes. This article helps everyone to learn more about which system is better, American education or Indian education.

American education vs Indian education, which system is better

It is like asking which one you prefer A or B, where A is equivalent to ' Good' and B is equivalent to 'not bad at all'. Each of these education system both American as well Indian have their own strength and weaknesses. Overall one cannot claim that which is more preferable but still the debate is open for comments. Everyone has their own opinion about which education system they prefer over the other. But to speak the truth, the education system which is responsible for redefining a human being into some talented persona who succeeds in accomplishing his dreams is a good education system and remarkably both the American Education system as well as Indian education system has managed to do that not just one time but uncountable times. W e have fine examples of great personalities including scientists, journalists, doctors, engineers and many such professionals who have been benefitted by the education system, either American or Indian. So let's leave it for the rest of the world to decide which one is better and preferable.

Education system in USA

Education system in USA is far more advanced and different than the rest of the countries, considered to be better and forgoing. The education pattern is divided into three levels, viz the elementary school, the middle school and high school. In each of these levels, the children are included as per their age group and divided into grades. This means that once your kid starts with the elementary school, he goes in the first grade which so on keeps moving to the 12th grade which is the final year of high school. Once the kid finishes high school, then he can enroll for further studies in the Post-secondary education which is commonly referred as College. The elementary school may start somewhere in the age group of 5 for a child and the high school would end up in the age group of 17 for a child approximately. More emphasis is given to practical understanding, reading, writing, math, understanding concepts, documentation. Students are provide freedom to choose class subjects and are encouraged to take interest and responsibilities towards studies. In addition to this, sports, technical education, arts, foreign languages and more such subjects are given equal importance along with the existing curriculum. Extracurricular activities such as drill teams, bands, football or even non-athletic activity such as musical groups, school newspaper and debate teams are encouraged and each and every student is made to participate in one or the other activity apart from the curriculum.

Overall education system in USA is:

- About learning.

- About preparing children to explore and understand concepts.

- Is about learning the concept not just by reading but by actually learning through practicals.

- Is not about stressing kids on exams

- Is not about academic competitiveness.

- Is about learning in small numbers.

- One can excel in many ways not just academically but also through sports.

Education pattern in India

Though the above system seems to be amazing, even the Indian system manages to fascinate us. The current education system in India which seems to be improvising every single day has caught everyone's eye including people outside India. Indian education system has always been inspired from its historical backgrounds which relate way back thousands and thousands year ago, and includes the Puranas Vedas. Presently the education system in India comprises of pre-primary, primary, secondary and senior secondary education which is followed by higher education. Pre-primary is the kindergarten, primary is the middle school and secondary is the high school. Higher secondary education is up to 12th standard and then one can pursue his further studies with graduation or post-graduation level. Specific curriculum is designed for kids which includes all the subjects that are been specified. Additionally there are extra-curricular activities which kids can opt for though not compulsorily. Moreover sports too form an essential part of the curriculum, but only children who are selected get to avail the opportunity. Though the curriculum has improvised lately, with more and more attention been paid to activities and overall the practical evaluation of the kid which relates to projects and day to day evaluation and less importance is been given to theory and written exams.

Overall education in India is all about :

- Preparing children to read and absorb

- Is more about memorizing with study materials.

- Is all about academic performance.

- Have large classes with at least more than 50 students overall. (Though nowadays the ration of students per class has changed considerably)

- Academic excellence achieves more preference than sports or other overall achievement.

- Teachers hold great value and respect. They gain more respect from students as well as parents.

Similarities between Indian education and US education

- Qualified teachers

- Best infrastructural facilities

- Impart quality education

- Well-equipped labs.

- Both the countries have concept of private and public schools.

Properly tailored curriculum as per regular standards.

Difference in the education system in India and USA

Whatever may be the fact lays undeniable that the education system in India and USA have vast differences. Even with the current ICSE (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education) or IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) pattern which claims to be global, the truth is that the surroundings and the pattern will be definitely not the same. The same applies to the school surroundings and teachers.

- Teachers in USA have to go for qualified courses which include their Bachelor or Masters Degree in EARLY Childhood Education and Elementary education. Teachers are been told about what they expected to teach the children. Teachers in India are qualified to become teacher as soon as they pass the Masters in Education or Bachelors in Education. The Masters and Bachelors degree is definitely equivalent to that of Indian Standards of Education.

- Each and every class in USA Schools has a 20 – 30 children per teacher ratio. But the regular schools in India, unlike US Schools, have around 50 or more than 50 students in class per teacher. However that may not be the same thing with the new ICSE and CBSE schools.

- The education pattern in India is lot more the traditional where students are expected to learn all the subjects. Less emphasis is given on sports and extracurricular activities (though this has changed with the concept of new education that has been introduced even in these schools). However in US schools, extra-curricular activities also hold equal importance.

- Education system in US is considerably more flexible than that in India.

- The Indian education standard is considerably higher than that of US Standards, as students are made to prepare for challenges in life, unlike US where education is made as said flexible so that each and every student passes out High school.

- Indian education system provides great emphasis on Math other than US where it is an optional subject. No wonder why India has so many good software engineers and other professionals.

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Guest Author: Aryan Agarwal03 May 2017

I just read the above article on indian curriculum and american curriculum. I am currently in UAE and i am studying in an indian curriculum (CBSE) school and i am in grade 12. I dont agree with all the things that you have mentioned about the indian curriculum. They may give importance to math but do you know that it is cumpulsory uptil grade 10 which is really unfair. Also the other thing is that over here if you are not good in studies they think you are useless. Think of it as a factory producing goods and if a product is not manufactured correctly from the beginning it suffers later while others excel. I had many friends till grade 10 who werent quite good in studies and i know the torture they had to suffer through all the classes. Also they make you memorize each and every thing and you dont even know why are you even studying majority of the topics. For example: In Class 11 and 12, we have questions in our exams in which we have to derive a physical formula. What i dont get is that why are we doing that? Does it help us in life somehow? And then there is chemistry in which there is no connection with real life application. I can keep going on and on but unfortunately i aint got the time.
So what i would like to conclude is that according to me CBSE (Indian Curriculum) is the worst curriculum any country could have! Period

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