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One of
the educationists of Nagpur, Ms. Manjeet Bedi, says,"Schools in India have
merely become curriculum delivery machines." If this becomes the biggest
tragedy, then our nation can be dilapidated. There are no endeavours to spend
quality time and effort in fostering the mental and intellectual development of
the students. As the educational sensex soars to new heights each year, with 90
percent plus being regarded as peanuts, schools are struggling to transact the
normal curriculum. This enormously pressurized scenario creates a certain
culture of its own, a culture where the cut-throat competition is the order of
the day, where the devil takes the hindmost becomes the beacon for all. The
education sensex is touching unrealistic heights but the country is paying high
price for the bloodbath following its wake. We have not ensured quality
education. Some who have access to elite schools pass out as mere literates. We
are getting literate people with big heads but small hearts. In a nutshell, the
education system is churning out Homo sapiens and not human beings.
The emphasis is given only to bookish knowledge and pedagogy or curriculum
which is prosaic. The spotlight on creativity and innovation is nadir. In many
schools, students are not given opportunities to explore and create but to mug
up answers. The students are thus bound in chains.
This gesture of reckless irresponsibility
keeps them bereft of quality education- personality development, life-building,
man-making, character-building and assimilating fine ideas. They do not strive
to expand their horizons of thoughts and amplify their vision. A plethora of
students do not upgrade their skills, talent and mettle. The learn to make a
living but not a life. They restrict themselves to sheer academics. Their
potential, therefore, remains untapped and untested. The root cause of this
debacle is the deficiency of Quality Education as lifeblood.
The existing education system is
ramshackle to the core of it. The system has a myriad of loopholes and
drawbacks. There are seemingly overt demands for marks being made by the
system. The education system is money and marks oriented. But the
onus doesn't entirely lie on the schools and the education system, the quality
of individual students also plays a top-level role.
Indira Gandhi said,”Education is a
continuing process from the minute we are born until we die.” Education has prodigious and momentous
might to empower the citizens to conquer the world. Education can revamp a
nation, give hope for a better future and ameliorate the lives of individuals
within a society. Education takes human beings to higher plane of existence, a
world found through perfection of knowledge. With education, we get a key to
the vast ocean – “An ocean full of treasures and gems, knowledge and wisdom.
The treasure that will change our life forever.”
The great philosopher Socrates had said,”
Education is not the filling of a vessel but kindling of a flame.” The word
education itself comes from the word “Educere” which means to bring out what is
already in and not blindly stuff in. The purpose of education is to detect
talent proactively. For this it is indispensable that education has to be based
on the application of mental development. Swami Vivekananda said, “Education is
the manifestation of perfection already present in man”. Unless there is
perfection in education that perfection cannot be drawn out. Real education
should enable a man to discover what is uniquely in him. This is what matters
in practicle life, not bookish knowledge. Education accomplishes the full sense
of its meaning rather than being restricted to bare academics. In the end, the
students will have a final treasure to take home, the sense of empowerment.
Vinoba Bhave said,” It is enough if the
children know how to obtain items of information when they have a use for them,
and it is the task of the education to teach them how.”
An
education system isn’t worth great deal if it teaches young people how to make
living but doesn’t teach them how to make life. If ethical practices do not
grow in proportion to the growth of knowledge then there is a possibility of
the misuse of knowledge. Growth of knowledge is indeed horrendous if there is
no subsequent growth of moral obligation. Education simply meant for the
promotion of new knowledge may prove dangerous to the society. Education should
be for the flowering of a personality and not for the subjugation of creativity
or natural skill.
Swami Vivekananda said,” Education is not
the amount of information that is put into your brains and remains there,
undigested, all your life. We must have life-building, character-making and
making them your life, you have more education than any man who has got by
heart a whole library.”
Education, in scientific sense should flourish
and proliferate moral principles which have been proves bountiful from the
point of view of Darwinian evolution. The role of the moral education should be
one, of enlightening the learner on the blueprints of good and bad actions in
the light of scientific truth about human behavior. The mind should be led
forward into ever-widening thoughts and actions. We need to revamp the
education system so that we can effectively collaborate mental development with
academics. It is incumbent on every student to receive education of highest
caliber. We need such a blend of education which can turn out a new manhood,
vigorous yet calm, mighty yet tolerant and sympathetic, idealistic yet
practical to the backbone.
“Die with
the sinking ship or jump for life”
Rajkumar
Hirani, the maestro who knows the pulse of the nation, in a very subtle manner,
has portrayed the loopholes of the existing education system in his
blockbuster- “3 IDIOTS”.He points out how academically oriented our education
system is where we are more bothered about the marks rather than learning
something new; our educational institutes do not nurture the talents, they do
not impart the education, they simply tell us to read and spew in the exams
what is written in thick fat books. Aamir’s prolific mantra was, "Pursue excellence success will automatically follow you."
To make education an efficacious tool for the
social transformation for a better future, the education system should be based
on rational principles and policies, especially relating to the subject matter
of education. A scientifically oriented education with strict adherence to the
pedagogy of psychology is what is needed for a better and intellectually free
society. If education is not found on rationalism, motivated by democratic
socialism, the fate of the society will depend not on the education but in
beliefs and practices of the mob, which may lead the country to catastrophe. It
is only if the education system is guided by benevolent intellectual force, it
can be an instrument of social change towards a sane and free society..jpg)
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