“ Bachcha kabil bano, kabil … kamyabi toh saali jhak maarke peeche bhagegi”

We all can vividly recall this dialogue from the movie three idiots and it’s that significant dialogue which pointed out the main aim of education so distinctly.

Education, is a process of inviting truth and possibility, of encouraging and giving time to discovery. It is, as John Dewey (1916) put it, a social process – ‘a process of living and not a preparation for future living’. In this view educators look to act with people rather on them. Their task is to educe (related to the Greek notion of educere which refers to know something and to apply it), to bring out or develop potential. Education is the most important component out of various components of social infrastructure. The well-educated and properly trained manpower can accelerate the pace of economic development. But education is not something that can synonymously be stated as gathering degrees from recognized institutions. The objective of Proper education is to bring change in attitude of an individual that can help bringing changes in the entire society and that too in positive sense.

India has always enshrined a glorious heritage in world of education. Universities such as Nalanda, Taxila, Vikramshila were few of those eminent educational institutions those were in the priority lists of the pupils in those days and these institutions had the infrastructure to accommodate international pupils as well. But after almost 70 years of Independence condition of a large quarter of Indian population is now contemptibly poor . A large part is deprived of even primary education, leave apart the professional education. Southern parts of the country are in a leading position. Although, states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are still striving to touch the mark of basic literacy rate Many steps have been taken to improve condition, many programmes such as RMSA ( Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Aviyan) or SSA (Sarva Sikhsha Aviyan ) have been implemented but still the condition is quite deplorable and requires major amendments. The second most populated country in the world with 1.25 billion of people in numbers, despite having good infrastructural facilities and manpower resources is nowhere near the top rankings as for the education system is concerned.

The disappointment is the effect of entire education system and its wrong implementation. The life span of a successful student starts from schooling, getting admission into an engineering college/or enrolling for graduation and settling into a branded corporate with assured job from 10 am to 7pm — this is the conventional life representation forged by the entire stereotyped society in order to designate someone as “successful” and the parents are mentally forced by the society to nurture their children in this stereotyped format failing which, they will also become prey for this society. But it is extremely irrational approach to expect all the students to fit into a pre-defined circle and get labelled as “successful in life”. The education system nowadays does not aim to focus towards imparting good character, developing inter-personal skills, enabling the students to think creatively and out of the box but, is confined purely to the completion of SYLLABUS within the time allotted and conducting the prescribed number of model tests and extra coaching classes. As a result, students only mugging up the lessons are turned to be mere mark getters and their overall personality development index reaches to zero. The students are not given the freedom to think over an issue except to accept and memorize the lessons taught and without any personal modification just write in the exam answer sheets filling up the pages and this becomes even a contest among the students as to find out who has written more number of pages. All the aforesaid process only brings out a confused generation who can only follow instructions and cannot be the leader because of the lack of critical and logical thinking ability. This entire process is a failure to make an emotionally intelligent generation.

The Education system should aim to create a generation as learners, innovators, scholars, researchers and trainers. In the past century, the country progressed from a stage where the application of science to manufacturing techniques become the basis for production and to develop the Indian Economic system. Education has been detected as a considerable source of productivity growth in post-war era, and because Education widens dynamic human capital which devotes to overall increase in Economic growth. Globalizing and Privatization has increased economic struggles within and between countries and the world’s regions. Economic amalgamation is commonly seen as a valid index for judging a country levels of economic Prosperity. Many recent Large – Scale Education reforms have been justified by the urgent need to increase Labour productivity and promote Effective economic development and growth through amplified and upgraded education reforms. It is often stated by the policy makers that if a country spends more on educating its population, incomes will grow sufficiently to more than recover the investment. Economists and others have proposed many channels through which education may affect growth–not merely the private returns to individuals’ greater human capital but also a variety of externalities making capital and labour more productive, generating income growth.

Picture Courtesy : livemint.com