Education along with air, water and space is a basic need for the full flowering of man’s inherent talent that has passed on from one generation to another. With the passage of time, in modern times, education has become aloof from the lofty ideals that it stands for.
Education is expected to bring about a holistic development in a child, allowing him complete freedom to chase his heart instead of wasting his time and energy in living up to the expectations of others.
When the concept of education began in India 5000 years ago, all other countries were inhabited by savages. People used to look up to India for a solution to their problems. But despite such a glorious past, we have failed to control corruption, riots based on caste, pollution and rape. And ironically, we boast of having world class educational institutions like IITs, IIMs and AIIMS. The question we are left asking is – Does education make a man educated?
Education is pure and should be kept free from any sort of expectations and subjective attachments. In the early days, man learned many things out of a pure desire to know how a sapling grows from a seed. The intention was to know and not for the sake of material benefit. In contrast, today education is considered as a means to a better living. Everyone wants a government job by fair or foul means. To hope to get a job after getting educated is not a bad thing but trying to get it by adopting unfair means, which deprives a rightful person from getting his deserving job is no less than a sin.
Why people do this and from where they acquire such a tendency might trouble a few who still believe in hard work and determination. People learn this from the environment they are brought up in. It depends on the values that parents give to their children. Most often parents encourage their children to study medicine not so that they can serve the poor but so that they can find a ‘perfect match’ for themselves and set up a roaring practice and earn a lot of money. A child is made to understand that money is everything and that one is only valued if one is rich.
Taking advantage of this quest for degrees, unscrupulous elements join the business of supplying fake certificates and degrees. Such fake certificates completely destroy the future of the nation. In UP, many students were detained for adopting unfair means in the state board run Class 10 exam and the party that promised to get them through argued that copying is not illegal as a human child learns many things by imitating his elders. The party came to power.
In every state, whether it is UP or Odisha, the teaching learning scenario would have certainly been different if one per cent of the teachers would have sat together to discuss why their students fail to achieve good marks. Very uncharacteristically, they think only of their rights ahead of their duty.
In a clear contrast to the traditional teaching-learning method, in the modern education system, the teacher is pushed to the dark corner. It is no secret that teachers who get awarded at the state or national level, don’t spend time as much time in classrooms as in lobbying. The schools awarded the computer literacy award by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, had borrowed computers from nearby schools during verification, making a mockery of the noble intention with which it was initiated. The people who are not directly involved are enjoying the hard work of a few genuine teachers. From here the child learns and plans to reach a position where he can enjoy all the benefits resulting from the hard work of others without practically doing anything himself.
In the olden days, when there were very few primary schools in rural areas and anyone who was interested in higher education had to brave the distance to far off places. This proved a child’s dream and determination to get enlightened.
Unfortunately the politics prevalent in educational institutions is on par with national politics. People at the helm of affairs take the credit for work done by others. Gone are the days when the best of the brains used to choose this noble profession thinking they could groom the next generation of professionals.
Now the credibility of a teacher solely rests on how many students secured CGPA of 10 or 90% and above or how many have qualified for JEE and NEET.
It is time that we realise that teaching is not a profession, it is a mission.
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