The Covert agenda of Education

The education has been a part and parcel of the Indian history since the ancient times and this can be verified by the presence of the Takshila and Nalanda universities which still exist. But the point to take note of it is whether we are travelling the right path and motive on which these institutions were set up, are we keeping up the spirits of education.

To know that we have to understand what actually the motive was to start such a system where education was not just the mere experiences a person had in his life or the systems he learned via observing others practising it. Why the need arise for a systematic education? The answer to this in the ancient context would be the sharing of the eternal “gyaan” of the gurus and to keep it alive for the generations to come. Is this system dead by now, well not exactly some experts say that the existence of Aashrams and Madrasas are following the same path till now, and to a certain extent I feel that path is very right if considered in the right context.

As the people started to get more civilised (leaving aside the controversies of the subject civilisation), they felt the need of a better and strong education system. So the subjects like science, arithmetic, arts, history, civics, economics, political science, anthropology was introduced into the system and the trend of introduction still continues and it is very righteous to do so. People started to learn about the subjects with their own convenience they kept what they wanted form history and omitted the facts that they felt would create a wrong impression about the person or the era, same is the case with other subjects. When did all of this started happening? It was not the era were the man was still happy with his “Kheti-Kisaani”, this all started with very first wave of globalization through industrialization. The agendas that we have been talking about till now was the overt agenda. The covert agenda of education can be understood if we understand the industrialisation phase well.

During the time of industrialization there was a requirement of people because the industries had opened up jobs for many in the towns (for which some political leaders are throwing people out of “their own state” what crap!! ), which saw a huge flow of populations from rural areas to towns. Primarily these folks were just got trained about the job they had to do but later the crème-del-a-crème of the society thought of introducing this “system of education” and they showed all of us the rosy pictures through the overt agendas. So began the rise of premier institutes offering various courses under numerous heads but if all of this was the overt agenda what could be the covert agenda? It’s very simple just needs a little analysis and there you are in front of the truth.

Take a good note of all the subjects you have learned in your school and put it to a test. If all the subjects we study by now are put together for a reason and motive then they can be generalised under three heads: 1.Punctuality, 2. Obedience & 3. Repetitive work.

Why were these needed is much easier to understand- to create a better workforce for the industry. Well there can be no offences to this agenda also but where the pain lies is that it still continues to be the agenda of our education, the world is no more in the phase of industrialisation it has moved. We now have more entrepreneurs to the list then the numbers of industries in the whole nation. Then why we still stick to the same regime? This question can’t be answered in fact it doesn’t need to be answered. What we need today is the change where every individual is given the choice, the choice to decide what he wants to do. There should not be any social discrimination on the basis of the amount of books a person has read or the no of alphabets he/she puts beneath their name. We have always sited many examples regarding this like Bill Gates to Dhirubhai Ambani. Well some of the people still feel that basic education is necessary even I feel the same, but we have to be more precise about the term basic, to my understanding here the term basic is to be defined as the daily practicalities of a common man which he has to fight to earn a loaf of bread, now to combat that he needs basic education do you think that learning about the people of the history or of economic world going to earn him that? If yes, then think again.

 And why is there is always a set age to learn particular things, there should be no age barrier for studying something that someone likes at any point of age in his life. Some countries have taken a step towards revamping their education system, India is one of them, kudos to that but i feel devastated when I see the rate at which it is done. The action plan started in the year 1998 and a decade after that we are not any far from where we started. Every budget we have allocations for different things then why not spend a little money on this cause which will make us at par with the first world. The choice lies with us whether we want to be the first world or want to continue being the third world on some or the other fronts....