Education is the chief defence of a nation-Burke

He kept quite on Arnab Goswami’s heatedly kickass debate on THE NEWSHOUR this Thursday. He was appearing as another Manmohan Singh in the ugly circus of politics. The stoic dumbfounded ‘gentleman’ sat nervously as the host spearheaded his fury on the politician. Yeh #TheekHai right? Anyway, ironically, he is the President’s son who proved that some people in this country lack actual ‘education’. Two words ‘dented and painted’ screwed him; who could have thought? President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, proclaimed despite achievements, it is widely recognised that our country's education system is burdened with demands of both quantity and quality.

He further added that not a single Indian University or institute of higher learning figure in the list of top 200 universities in the world. Is education ONLY restricted to featuring in some random ‘Top Universities Poll’? Is education ONLY teaching kids to build mind-boggling robots who would emulate a freaking human or inculcate web engineering concepts in them to build faadoo websites, or expect them to just know fat books of law or expect them to master the concepts of macro and micro economics? Even if no Indian University fails to grab a spot in top universities, it won’t be that much a problem since Indians, anyway, have been pioneers of many technological advances and software developments. India needs to impart actual education in the social sense so that no moron disrespects a woman again and that unfortunate incidents like the recent gang-rape in Delhi are avoided. This may have a propensity towards a political-social matter but the value of education play a vital role. When you voyeuristically amorously eye a woman with ugly contempt, it shows lack of true education. The need of the hour is not technical education but imparting a sense of morality and teaching people to act responsibly. It is unfortunate many folks lack this education despite being graduates.

I don’t care what ratio an engineering college has or what ranking a university has. Formal education is taught by all universities but this social education needs to be inculcated by us in ourselves. Cases of drunk driving, though plummeted, still are a menace to the society. ‘Formally Educated’ people also have a lion’s share in this nuisance. Now where does the education vanish? India has a long road to travel with regards to properly educating its population. Learning to read and write is a small figment, a miniscule part of grooming yourself. The real exam is when life throws situations at you. Your real application of education over the years is then tested.

This article may appear very...I don’t know...philosophical, but isn’t education a subtlely preached philosophy? It is an “un”mandatory doctrine which is rarely followed. I agree we need technological universities and formal education is a necessity but for what? Well, maybe for finding a suitable bride or ostentatiously showing off your brethtaking degrees in public but the real QUALITY and QUANTITY lies in your all-round development, your outlook towards the people, the way you behave and the way you project yourself. When a country of billions is actually educated in the real sense, we can expect light at the end of this never ending dark gloomy tunnel through we are skating.

Note: This article is in reference to the article featured in TOI on Dec 25th.