Commercialization of Education..

               Knowledge is divine. Education is the most efficient tool to acquire it. Is it so? Is our education system guiding towards acquiring knowledge. “We want that education by which our character is formed, increases the strength of the mind, expands the intellect and which make one to stand on one’s feet.” These are the words shared to us by ‘Symbol of Knowledge along with Wisdom’, Swami Vivekananda. Unfortunately these words are confined only to the walls of the educational institutions but not to the ‘Hearts of the educational institutions’, Students. Is Plato’s philosophy of education being really implemented? Most of us do not know who Plato is, as we might have left it in choice or it may not be important for examinations. I wanted to say that today’s educational system is focused on the end result, may be marks or finally a job than the actual intent of education. In this misconception most of us are missing the real joy in learning. I rarely saw students who enjoy learning with intent for knowledge. It all starts from our primary education, my teachers did not explain me why 3*2=6. They just asked me to memorize 3 Table. It is harsh to blame teachers but it is the system which has to be changed right from primary education. Suppose take History, The Indian Freedom struggle, we all know the sacrifices and the heroics of the freedom fighters. We should make the youngsters know those sacrifices and the reason behind them, their dreams and the way they visualized the future of India and motivate youngsters to proceed to achieve their dreams. This is how we should show the real respect to them. But today they are taught as an answer to a question but the pain experienced by our leaders is not really discussed. It is over 60 years of Independence and still we are unable to provide sufficient and quality opportunities to our students, instead we are paying huge to the foreign universities for our higher education. Today Education is money. The reservation system still persists and shows our failure in removing the inequalities in the society. Our leaders are busy in increasing the reservations rather than to suppress the inequalities. We are unable to provide quality education to the poor, child labour still exists. In Independent India, a child does not have an Independent choice of study. They are made to study as per financial status or as per market price. Surprised of the term ‘Market price’, I really mean it. If a computer science engineer have more demand in the market, study computer science. This is principle which is followed generally today. A student, who completed his 12^th, had no idea of what he is capable of doing. The fee structure is a real burden on parents which adds an additional stress on the child for the result rather than all-round development. Each and every aspect discussed above reflects the failure of the educational system which is still followed. When there will be a change? Already it is late. The schools drastically changed as per requirements of the parents. Let us compare two different scenarios, one is my schooling that is around 8 years ago and the other is now. Fee when I was in school is around Rs 2000/- or even less and now it is Rs 30,000/- for the same school except that they had built a new build in place of the play ground we had then. Timings in my time are 9:00 to 4:00 and followed by sports from 4:00 to 6:00. We used to have an extracurricular activity period every Saturday where we used to have elocution competitions etc. Now 7am to 7pm with weekly once games for an hour. I really do not know whether there is increase in difficulty of the syllabus or gaining extra knowledge by studying extra hours. There is hardly any change in syllabus but the amount of pressure is enormous. Every school advertise with the number of grades their students have achieved, number of marks their students have achieved. Is there any schools advertising with the number of athletes they had produced to the country, number of hockey players they had produced to the country or any other sport? Are there parents who consider that sports are also the part of education? Yes, there are such parents gifted to me but unfortunately I am not that good at any sport to represent the nation. I salute to my parents who respect every thought which I have. Leaving it here I hope there is a change soon in the important sector of the society, ‘ The Educational Sector’. Jai Hind. Satyamevajayate.