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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