THE SO-CALLED education

ANY FOOL CAN KNOW, THE POINT IS TO UNDERSTAND 

- ALBERT EINSTEIN 

Whenever there is a question. “What is education?” there came a universal answer, that it is a process of acquisition of knowledge. Then there comes another question “what is knowledge?” and it is nothing but understanding something. So, in a nutshell education and knowledge are the same side of a coin.

But is it?

We would have come across this situation where people used to ask us what is your ambition? some of us would have quoted to be an engineer and some to be a doctor but have we ever said “I want to become a knowledgeable person? “ 

THE CHAIN 

Our modern society has monetized everything, in which knowledge is not an exception. The commercialized concept of knowledge is what we call education and these educational institutions are privatized training centers cum marketing agencies, where students are its customers. The only goal of these institutions is to produce more graduates.

The passed-out graduates start sweating in their respective fields and within few years they are back into these institutions, but this time to sponsor for their children's education who would one day become a graduate and sponsor their kid in the future, this process continues in an endless loop. Back then, people used to work for their livelihood, but now people work to provide education to their children.

However, this loop isn’t applicable to everyone, there are some who aren’t even privileged to be in this loop as they are already trapped in another bootstrap called poverty. This has been a main factor affecting the literacy rate in our country. The poor cannot even pull themselves into this education as they are regarded as non-profitable customers.

Though our governments have introduced schemes for the non-profitable customers then and now, it all came as political gimmick except for the “Mid-Day Meal Scheme” which worked to a great extent where children came to the school just to quench their hunger.

While the middle class worked hard to provide education and the lower class attended schools just for a single meal, the upper class sat on the bigger chair and watched the walls being built.

KNOWLEDGE

  EDUCATION     IS WEALTH

Being said that, is all the struggle even worthy? These graduates what are they? Yes, they are educated but are they intellectuals? Or at least are they people with any knowledge regarding the field that they studied? It is only few people who would say “Yes “, while majority of the graduates are stuck into a zone, where they don’t have any knowledge of their field nor do they have the skills to apply the acquired knowledge into their work. An uneducated electrician knows better practical concepts than an educated electrical engineer who studied the particular field for a period of time. Nowadays, a Degree has no value nor does it hold any importance, all it does is to sit in a wedding card of an individual.   

So, what is the purpose of putting all the money into this so-called education and getting nothing in return else than unemployment and useless degree certificates? Why do we need this education system which leads nowhere to the development of the country? Is there a solution?

Only if the concept of knowledge is given to the students as knowledge itself. That is, instead of training the students for the exams, teach them the concepts. We are being taught on the basis of marks, the teachers while teaching itself proclaim that this particular concept holds this much marks.

“the topic which we are going to discuss today is a compulsory question for sixteen marks”

“this topic isn’t very necessary for the exam as it just holds five marks, so lets just skip it “

The education system has evolved in a such way that even discrimination has made it’s way into it, the one getting higher rank is considered to be a good learner or a brainy person, and he/she is looked upon while the one who fails is considered to be a dull headed person and he/she is ignored and left out. The so-called brainy person will just be a bookworm, who just omits answers upon the paper.

Yes, of course student evaluation is needed, just to determine if the student has acquired the given knowledge, but it should not be used to determine a student’s intellectuality. When it comes to knowledge, it doesn’t create race between the students. Every student must be considered as a learner instead of categorizing and discriminating them based on their performances.

Knowledge should be qualitative rather than quantitative. Vast syllabus wouldn’t matter if the student doesn’t understand the mere concepts. Likewise, its important that the students should change their mindset towards the learning process, that is, stop studying and start reading. One wouldn’t study a novel, but would read it and hence it remains fresh in the mind, similarly read and understand the concept instead of merely studying it for the exam’s sake.  

CONCLUSION: BREAKING THE CHAIN

Even though education and knowledge should have been the same side of the coin, it has evolved into two different coins in whole. It’s such an irony that we are discussing it as “education v/s knowledge” and its also pity that we stand with education but not with knowledge.

Knowledge should be freely accessible to everyone so that it breaks the chain and puts an end to the commercialization of the knowledge, by this way the lower classes wouldn’t be considered as non-profitable customers, as this will help them break their own loop of poverty and other vulnerable sections of the society can rise up to make their mark.

Knowledge is the key for upliftment of the society. Let there be intellectuals rather than graduates. Let there be an increase in the employment rate, literacy rate and a decrease in the poverty rate. So, let’s break the chain by tossing away the coin of education and let’s grasp the coin of knowledge. 

The next time, when someone asks:

“what is your ambition?”

Tell them:

“I want to be a knowledgeable person”