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Saturday, February 11, 2012

LET US RESET OUR NATION'S PRIORITIES



When we as  a Nation is focussed only our personal economic growth through any means  & subordinate all of our society’s values & time to the pursuit of material wealth , to satisfying our  unfulfilled materialistic desires & even to the extent of using our children as “machines for accomplishments “, through gruelling daily schedules for them ,to score materially over our neighbour , is it  possible to stop the corresponding evils in such a society-criminalisation , corruption,rapes, lower moral standards, selfishness , nepotism etc - all symptoms of internal decay or a society going sick . Will then Lokpal bills, legislations and police laws be enough to stop such ghastly episodes , happening in our society ?. Shouldnt we as a nation and society shift our  focus towards  “well-being “ so that  the  principles of truthfulness, austerity, simple living, common-good, cleanliness, caring & sharing , social responsibility & respect for nature that has  sadly gone missing in our country  today will be made prioritys in the education of the upcoming  generation. Doesnt the media have a major responsibility in this regard to raise this awareness in the society so that we can emerge from this intellectual abyss , bereft of questioning and thought-provoking ability and bring about change in our thinking for the sake of the next generation .

Our whole education system is at fault. Because as a society our thinking is at fault about the role and purpose of education . Today a school report card simplistically wraps up an entire human being in numbers . And because of our obsession with marks & rank,  the numbers obtained by the child  is made to spell  status  for him , success or failure for  him , in the eyes of parents , teachers , peers , the  society he lives in and thus even in his own self-esteem  . This is the attitude we have  in our society today and we all must ask who created this ethos in our society? What changed our thinking so much that education turns out to be just a ticket for wealth accumulation today ? Rememeber we are the same nation that preached the importance of spirituality to the world . Our ancient education system not only had helped create a wealthy society that attracted invaders  , but also created health and well being in society . No wonder then to overpower India by changing the Indian way of life , it was first decided to break the back-bone of India -by doing  away with our ancient but  successful education systems that gave us our cultural & spiritual strengths   . Hence today we all must again ask "is education  all about  marks & only a ticket to socio-economic success- & not about right thinking or good living "? Restricting education to only this aspect is a very limiting notion of the aim of good education.  Many of us know it  but we  seem to act ignorant of the implications or we couldn't care less because we ourselves are engrossed  in the race to wealth accumulation ! The rot in our Nation & society should wake us all up . Shuldn't we voice our concern ?  Good education , besides feeding just information for memorising  & reproducing it for  being summed up in numbers must  focus more importantly on inculcating values in the child ; teaching self-management , developing intellectual strength and helping  develop the art of deep  & clear thinking . How many of these important paremeters matter in  our society today and thus  are imbedded in our current education system aped from the west?NATION BUILDING MUST START IN OUR HOMES & FROM OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM.

There are fundamental issues governing the principles of eduation  today – more so in our country .Thanks to the  profit driven world that we live in ! Erstwhile Govt solely focussed on economic /GDP  growth for statistics purpose; & society was made to think  material acquisitions only are the solutions for all lifes’ problems   ; and a  corupt-media drove the  frenzy for only buying & wealth accumulation through any means!! We now have  an  educational system in India that has lost direction and emerged  as one  not  for making healthy minds but  for  only making wealthy careers  ; not for gaining wisdom but only gaining knowledge ; not for developing  intellect but only for developing intelligence ; & finally not for well-being in  life , but only for being well-off.   Thus we have education institutions becoming  thriving businesses or profit centers rather than they rendering service to the society . A relook into the Gurukal system of education in ancient India may be a worthwhile exercise to find answers .

As a society we need a  fundamental shift in our  thinking . Are children just  clay to be moulded in the form we wish or seeds with infinite potential within  waiting to be nurtured into  mighty oaks through a path of self discovery ? We need a total rethink on the current educational models in the country ,on our prioritys we set ourselves as a nation & for the next generation and finally  on  the  responsibilities of the media in this context . We also need to shift our focus regarding  the  criterias we as a society set for  young individuals  -the children , and how we evaluate them  in terms of ability to stand up to the rigours or tests of a modern globalized world . And thus how much importance we must attribute to the school our child must study in and the marks in his/her  report card .

The relentless pursuit of higher income & material wealth has already been proven beyond doubt in the developed countries as well as in developing countries like India that  it  is leading to unprecedented inequality and anxiety , rather than to greater happiness and life satisfaction in the world. On the contrary , in some commercial organisations it has already been  undoubtedly  proven  also that , even in this  globalized world , instead of merely chasing profits  or income growth , if we build the  institution based on values - innovation, integrity, community relations , customer service  and care –where every employee is respected as a human being & given an opportunity to do meaningful and fulfilling work, then improved quality and efficiency automatically ensues -resulting in higher profits and growth for the organisation .  So also we must realise that instead of merely chasing  examination results and numbers in report cards  , if we as a society can bring up the next generation as creative and sensitive human beings focused on  right values  & right living , empowered and energised to make a contribution in this world - to make this world a better place , then  everything else - money, social success, good health & security - will automatically fall into place for them .  Let us relook  into our homes, our society & the whole education system  with these objectives . 




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