India, the diverse,culturally flamboyant land of intellectuals ;a land of
notable,renowned savants graced by the birth of Tagore,Ramanujam,JC
Bose,Mother Theresa to name a few.And it is tacit that ours is a strivingly
progressive nation.We have always endeavoured to meet global standards in
terms of economy,defense,not to mention population.And today's youthful
masterminds behind commendable achievements of companies like
Google,Yahoo,Apple form one branch of the economical dichotomy while
organiztions like Infosys,Flipkart showcase indigenous talents on the global
platforms.Yet, a reform in a much more wider,tangible sense hasn't been
witnessed in our country.While people play blame games with props like
corruption,population explosion,retrograde mindsets,sexism so on and so
forth,it isn't realised that this is mere listing of symptoms rather than
addressing the source.
We all want modernization,urbanization,development,infrastructure without
knowing the nitty gritties of our longing.People have become more "educated"
and informed and this mirrored in the "rational","informed" discussions
palatable for a light hearsay or a slurring debate and then it is back to
square one.How can we,literally we as responsible citizens (and not mere
perfunctory machines lugging at an MNC,travelling on this illimiatable train
of job,marriage,reproduction,death with sporadic cases of
hypocrisy,irresponsibility,failure and a pitiable success rate otherwise) have
surprisingly never been the question of epiphany.Though we have been proximal
to the answer to all our nation wide predicament and that is education, we
have never had a holistic,uniform approach to tackling it and with certain
"reforms" all we have done is feinted.
And success doesn't come as ex gratia by electing a new leader or by migration
or by reproach.No heavenly creature will shower boonupon us pitying our
delirium, and no external party can help us recuperate from this abysmal
impediment we are ensaring ourselves in.What we need is an antidote to
approach this problem of pseudo education at a very nascent stage.We need to
realise that there is no uniform code for educational reformation;we cannot
borrow bits and pieces from other nations and expect every thing to fit in
like a jig-saw puzzle.
Our nation is unique and strong in its own way,we have an extremely large
population and the amount of intellectual and manual labour we can extract
from this humongous number is very reassuring.'Make in India' is a heralding
of a great hope, but it needs sallying.We produce lakhs of engineers,doctors
every year, but where is the output reflected?.What we need is the
proclamation of 'Stay in India.',we need a strong persuasion for the youth, a
hope,a vision that assures the citizens that there are ways in which we can
succede and rule the roost by staying in here and contributing rather than do
the same thing abroad, and this doesn't happen in a fortnight.We need
egalitarianism,yes we do,but not in oxymoronic ways like reservation and
stratification.18 years is a long time but it has lost its earmarked purpose
years ago and still we are meandering about the same issues.It does hurt the
morale of a meritorious person if he/she doesn't get admission into a
particular institution because of the cut-off, while his friend who is
financially well off but deemed economically inferior on paper,gets the
preposterous privilge!!.If the aim is truly to abridge the social gap,then
policies such as financial support, and fee waver should be done reasonably
and enforced at a very early stage so that it isn't a burden on any stratum of
our society.
Promotion of other fields of interest such as arts,sports etc as a career path
and not just a hobby should be done in a true sense, by providing scholarships
and financial support and kindling interest, and not just on paper.We need to
delve deep into a child's interests and strengths at an early age and nurture
it so that education per se doesn't become a burden and monotony.While Mary
Kom is an immensely succesful and respected face of India in the world of
boxing,credit has to be endowed to Priyanka Chopra,Omung Kumar and the team of
'Mary Kom' for channelising and aggrandizing the outreach to a larger segment
of people.
Edcuaction is something that cannot be vouched for by a mere certificate and a
six figured salary,and this is something every truly educated person will
understand.We do not need lakhs of students with engineering degrees
graduating every year when they do not know how a spark lighter works, we need
a rather passionate,diverse,informed set of members who can perform as a team
to upraise our stature on the global platform.This can happen only when we
realise the true value and meaning of education and it doesn't help if we
realise this on our death beds, bidding farewell to mortality and potential
contribution, we need this imbibed in the minds of the young and curious.We
need to make sure that once they learn their words, they do not return to
unfathomable,uninformed,uneducated babble.
