What Is Education?
Education is meant to prepare an individual for life, to make him emotionally, mentally and physically strong to overcome challenges in life, and thereby bringing change in society. But the system is so rigid that students can’t change themselves. So, bringing change in society is way far than one thinks. When a child is born, his brain is like a blank slate, so, whatever we put and give him, he will acquire those things.
The Indian Education System
Our system is structured in a way that it produces machines, not human beings. Education is far more than just acquiring bookish knowledge, which we are taught in schools and colleges. Let’s go back into the past to find its root cause. In 1867, a famous philologist Max Muller had written letters to the secretary state of India, saying, “Indian has been conquered once. But India must be conquered again and the second conquest should be a conquest by education.”
The history syllabus which we have studied and are still studying in our schools is not the actual history. This history is seen through the British lens. They had customized all the information and molded it to deviate us.
They wanted clerks and factory workers. So, they created a system where only workers were prepared. They did this to suppress patriotism among youth so that they don’t ask questions to their teachers, or any authorities. What they are capable of is only following. And since then, these concepts have not been eradicated from our education system. In today’s India, most people cannot even think beyond the set of professions like government jobs, engineering, medicine and MBA.
In Australia, even cricket is pursued as a career. You can get a degree in a sport there just like we graduate in engineering or any other field. Here, if you talk about taking cooking classes, or spending money on any other vocational course, people will laugh at you. This has to change; you can choose whatever you like as a career path!