Friday, January 22, 2010

Purpose of education

Most of us, as children, went to school as a matter of routine. We did not think then of alternative methods of learning or even about the purpose of learning. We learnt subjects which were in the curriculum whether or not they would have any future relevance in our lives. After schooling, we chose streams of learning based on our aptitude, constraints etc. Those courses which resulted in great career opportunities and high paying jobs turns out to be the most popular. Come to think of it, education today is more for earning rather than for learning.

I would like to submit that education should help us to learn how to live and not just about how to make a living. Unfortunately, this aspect is grossly neglected in most career oriented courses today. This results in people competing fiercely for high paying positions. We also see unscrupulous methods widely employed by people both in careers as well as professions. People who call themselves as professionals do not seem to think that they need to show integrity in their approach.

For example, we see a nexus between pharma companies, doctors and medical centers whereby doctors prescribe unnecessary tests or medication for their patients who trust them. Perhaps these doctors have spent a lot of money and time to get their degrees and are in a hurry to recover it. Likewise, we see nexus between policemen, politicians, underworld, legal practitioners, media, judiciary etc. If we look around, we find a dearth of basic honesty and are unable to decide whom to trust.

The purpose of education should be to help us understand who we are, what our real goal is and what we need to do to reach there. Career is not the main purpose of our lives. It is only something that we do while we are in this earth to contribute to the sustenance of the society. There is an urgent need for academics to discuss and revamp our education system.

A good education system should lay adequate emphasis on inculcating values into our lives. Integrity should become the foundation on which we build our lives and careers. If the basic platform of integrity is missing, our careers, society and everything will become shaky and will crumble at the slightest of shocks or tremors. A good education system should help in building character and making us spiritual.

Do you agree?

11 comments:

Rakesh Vanamali said...

Wonderful write Sir! good to see an update after long!

Somehow, I feel the education system today makes a lot of workers and managers but no leaders and that is our real problem!

Anonymous said...

A nice post..The purpose of education should be to replace an empty mind with an open mind..but we find that today's education system is quite ineffective.We often give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve..

"Education should be a movement from darkness to light"

Tyaagi

Anonymous said...

Hi Vish,

Could'nt agree with you more . . . your observations are bingo - on bulls eye.

I guess the corruption starts for eg : when for eg students ( or his parents ) pay huge sums for them to become doctors or after becoming doctor they face the corrupt world. Or in case of a reserach company, the directors buy a well reserached scrip & then release the 'BUY' report.

In any case, the choice always lies with the individual to decide to succumb or not. Its the one time choice in a testing or tempting situation where the values & upbringing get tested. Perhaps building these values is the area education should focus. . .. 3 idiots makes some attempt towards this.

Keep writing buddy !

Best regards,

Pravin Kumar

AutoDT said...

I agree with you totally...education is about learning about ourselves, and to implement the tools we've learnt to help others in society...Money is also an important factor, but shouldn't be allowed to dictate our ethics and morality, etc.

Thanks brother for a great post:)

Namaste:)

Cyrus

Vijay V said...

A thought provoking post Sir.
What you said is absolutely right. Today's teaching method helps us to COLLECT SOME FACTS (which won't make any big difference in anyone's life) instead of preparing us to KNOW THE FACTS.

Anonymous said...

nice post. thanks.

surjit singh said...

Yes, I fully agree with your views:
..'.A good education system should lay adequate emphasis on inculcating values into our lives. Integrity should become the foundation on which we build our lives and careers..'
Thanks for sharing another wonderful article.
God bless.

anupama said...

Dear Vish,
Good Evening!
After a break,I reached yesterday late night.
I believe in imparting value based education.knowledge and information we can get from different sources.But,our culture,traditions and values have a great role in building up the future of our nation.
Thanks for the attempt to highlight the present situation.
wishing you a beautiful weekend,
Sasneham,
Anu

Anya said...

Interesting to read !!!
Have a nice monday ..

Anonymous said...

Nice post and this mail helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you on your information.

arvind said...

the vision of our education system is outer based..

the knowledge we are earning is about the outer world..

not the inner of us..
if they give an insight abt knowing ourselves - then there would be a possibility to us - to think and understand the others too..