What is Academic inflation?

Academic inflation is defined as a mixed situation wherein on one hand, having a degree becomes a mandatory requirement for more jobs while, at the same time, becomes an insufficient entry requirement for other set of people.
Considering the present situation, it is generally believed that India is intellectually rising since the school grades are getting better every year. However in reality, reverse is the truth. While at one end, Indian colleges cut offs are going up and on the other end knowledge in science, technology and innovation is coming down. In today’s time, more and more students are getting higher and higher marks, but the standard of education is going in the opposite direction. The prime reason behind such academic inflation is that in attitude of teachers in the present time, they have traded their sense of responsibility for comfort and thus they end up giving high scores to almost every student as a form of average marking, question papers in the present time have become more and more objective and obvious. Moreover, in situations where the student tries to be creative, there are higher chances that such efforts would not be appreciated and the grades could fall since the examiners generally don’t want to be bothered by reading something new in the answer scripts. Thus somewhere in the competition of securing high marks, the quality of education is being compromised. The worst part is that this problem is not very easy to deal with since as long as the grades are good, there is little scrutiny and everybody is happy in the present time without being bothered of what future consequences will be of such acts.

Topics: GS-III: Indian Economy Issues Relating to Planning