Education..the foothill of prosperity

Food, clothing and shelter are considered as the basic needs required for surviving in a civilized society. The Maslow’s hierarchy of physiological needs includes food, love, shelter and the choice to mate as the survival needs. There are several other theories also that elucidate the basic requirements of human beings. The significant note is that most of these theories omit education as the fundamental need for survival.

What is education? Well it can be defined in numerous ways. The best definition as per my knowledge and understanding is that by Mahatma Gandhi. He says, “Education is an all round development of the best in the human’s body, mind and soul”. Education draws out the best in us. It is education that makes us realize what we are and what we can become. It brings the confidence in us to act and put an opinion Education helps us in identifying and then relating to the outer world. It facilitates in addressing all our needs and procuring them. We become self sufficient and self dependent. It makes us a free human at last. 

Without education we are always at the mercy of others. We have fewer opportunities, limited choices and almost no say in our own welfare and development. Life remains stagnant with no growth. Another laidback is that an uneducated person would hardly put effort to educate his or her children. Thus it ensures another generation suffering with fewer opportunities, limited choices and almost no say as a result. The democratic system of government is in fact superficial in such a situation. A democracy is successful only when the people are educated and are aware and confident of their rights. A democracy cannot expect responsible citizens if it is devoid of education  

An uneducated person is therefore a burden on himself, his family, his society and his country. So it is the responsibility of all the four to make sure that none of us is left behind from it. However the conventional mode of education starts at a young age and so it is the duty of the family, society and country to ensure that no child is left uneducated. We are a fortunate nation as our government has realized the above and granted Right to free and compulsory Education as the fundamental right. As per RTE Act every government school would provide free and compulsory education to all its students and every private school will make certain that 25% of its seat is filled by children from poor section under no fee scheme. We also have a strong law against child labor. Thus the country has done its duty by laying down strong laws to ensure an educated nation. The same needs to be done by the society and the family. We as responsible society need to raise our voice against the workplaces that employ children as cheap source of labor and devoid them from education. We need to work really hard to bridge this huge gap of educated and uneducated class that persists in India and hinder our development measures.

Education has the capacity to rejuvenate mankind. It is fundamental demand and should not be compromised. We need to amend our theories which ignore the path to education which in turn is the foothill to prosperity.