India - Education System

Overall View
The education system in India was completely different before the Britishers Invaded India. The gurukul system, where the young students goes to a teacher’s place to complete their education was completely scrapped and new education system was chosen among top priorities. Now India’s urban literacy rate is 82 % and it produces millions of graduates every year.
India is one among few countries to have large pool of Engineers and scientists. The education in India is cheap compared to the developed as well as developing countries. The Government of India spends about 4.2 % of the total GDP expenditure.
The languages of instruction for education in school include both regional and English and English being the preferred one.
The starting age for kindergarten is 4 and pre Kindergarten education is not mandatory.
Primary
The Primary education in India is considered a basic right and also compulsory. The primary education is completely free in government run schools and the highest grade is grade 5 in primary after which a student should qualify to move to secondary schools.
Secondary
The secondary education spans for a duration of 5 more years. The Qualification exam after standard 10 will decide the direction of studies that could be taken in Higher secondary.
Higher secondary
The focus of study is narrower in higher secondary which lasts for 2 years, grade 11 and 12. The fields of study include science, mathematics and science for engineering, commerce and vocational education.
Universities in India
Undergraduate and Graduate
India has about 17000 colleges, 20 central universities, 217 State Universities, 106 Deemed to Universities and 13 institutes of National importance, more over 8 new IITs, 7 IIMs and 5 IISC to be started in the near future. It’s noteworthy that the IIT’s and IIM’s are rated among the top in the globe. These Central Government Institutes are firstly established with assistance from Germany, Russia and United states.
The Universities must obtain the permission grant from the University Grant commission (UGC) for accreditation to offer recognized degrees .The statistics about the education is nothing less than staggering.
There are about 376 million degree holders in India. There are 25 million graduate degree holders other than technical degree and 3 million engineering degree holders. Every year almost 60000 engineering graduates come out of universities. The preferred studies are Science, Engineering and management. The minimum age for undergraduate course is 18 years.
Most of the undergraduate courses are 3 and 4 years long for a degree in arts or science and engineering respectively. A medical science course is much longer and leads to a 1 year service with government or private hospital.
PhD
Nearly 7 million post graduate degree holders. All the technical universities, universities and Research institutes who got a grant to offer the PhD degree enable students to participate actively in research. The PhD course goes on from 3 to 5 years depending on the university and area of study.
Study abroad in India
Study Abroad
About 3,500 students visit India on educational programmes from over 70 countries every year. Apart from quality education, the diversity of Indian country is the main reason for India being tagged “Incredible India”. Every state has its own regional language and English is the wide spoken language in most of the urban areas and in 99 % of the Universities. In spite of unbelievable completion among Indian students for higher studies in premier universities in India, the universities have a certain places reserved for the international students.
Student Visas are issued for the duration of the academic course of study or for a period of five years whichever is less, on the basis of letters of admission from Universities/recognized colleges or educational institutions in India.
10 Universities and 15500 colleges offering numerous courses for International Students. The Indian Universities Doesn’t insists on any qualification exams such as TOEFL or GRE provided the previous education was completely in English or proves his proficiency in English.
There are also 2000 scholarships available every year for International students.
Summer programs
There are numerous summer course offered in India, right from technology courses to the spiritual courses. Almost there are courses on every facet of human activities such as sports, photography, nature studies and also Yoga.
India boasts a good and cheap means of connectivity through rail and air between major tourist spots or cities.
Learning language
Hindi is the wide spoken language in India and learning Hindi gives a clear advantage nevertheless English is spoken in tourist spots and Cultural centers. There are also regional language in every other state and always expect to be surprised.