Education is a blessing and has a positive
effect on a society’s economy. It has been assessed by economists that India
has the potential to take a prominent role in production and trade in the
coming years. India’s education system over the past few decades has made
considerable progress in becoming one of the powerful instruments of social
change; however there is still a long way to go. There is shortage of skilled
manpower in every industry sectors from carpentry workers to doctors and
scientists. This deficit can be met by India if the Government focuses more of
its resources on education. Education acts as an infrastructure for national
development, promotes revolution of technology, develops dignity of labour,
removes space between manual and mental labour, helps in fair distribution of
income, promotes consumerist abilities, motivates people for change and boosts
aspirations of citizens.
Education has economic as well as political
significance. Education promotes participant democracy in a society to have
individual contribution by citizens in political decisions and polices that
affects their lives. This can be made possible only by literacy, a product of
education, which allows full involvement of the people in democratic processes
and effective voting. Education drives economic development to a large extent.
The local labour class’ skill level is one of the key drivers of local job
growth. If they achieve better skills, it will increase employment and pay
rates in the local economy. Education also acts as an integrative force by
communicating values that unite different sections of society. It can provide a
child the fundamental knowledge of social skills and values of wider society
which would facilitate them to interact with people of different social
backgrounds.
Education serves as a means of cultural
transmission from one generation to another in any given society. The society
is able to achieve basic social compliance and ensure that its traditional
values, heritage, beliefs and attitudes are maintained and conserved. A good
educational system is linked to the level of culture, industrial development,
rate of urbanisation, political organisation, religion, climate, family
structure and other institutions of the total social system. Education also
helps in the arrangement of the entire society through the social structure and
plays a significant role in fixing educated individuals into different social
classes. Education is also a social phenomenon preparing a child for his future
occupation of life. This is one of the main economic functions of education and
this is in interest of both the nation and the individual. A child is educated
to perform his role effectively within the social structure understanding the
network of inter-relationships among the different social institutions that
make up the society.
There are three areas in which India should
go forward radically in the education domain. They are Primary education,
Higher education and Technology. Primary education is very significant in the
development of a country. Unfortunately, the system is broken in India and
needs to be fixed straight away. About 20% of Indian children are not enrolled
in school. Even among the enrolled children, half of the enrolled drop out
before Grade Five. The quality of Primary education in India has been a concern
for quite some time. Even though there are policies with a vision of raising
children’s education profiles, it does not underline on developing their
learning skills. The teaching system needs to cater the students to develop
incomparable skill sets at the primary level. The Government should hire
sufficient number of Primary education teachers in the rural areas of the
country and increase their training facilities. The content and techniques of Primary
education should be improved by providing ample teaching and learning
materials, advanced infrastructure, adequate institutional support for
teachers’ professional development, etc.
Higher education is as important as Primary
education. As India endeavors to compete in a globalised economy in areas that
require highly trained professionals, the quality of Higher education becomes
progressively more significant. Individuals who attend college are employed at
higher rates with greater consistency and have work prospects which help them
to stabilize their income in varying times. Higher education helps to
continuously improve one’s profile and their knowledge base in order to go
higher up the on the competitive ladder. When it comes to Higher education in
India, the education sector should have financial reforms. It’s time the
Government encourages and motivates both profit and non-profit organisations to
set up educational institutions with a view of improving quality and
transparency in the Indian Higher Education system. It should also provide
scholarships and educational loans to the underprivileged making educational
institutions relevant and approachable. The system needs to create a pervasive
access to low-cost high-quality university education for students of all
levels. At present, most of the college and universities lack first rate
research facilities. Advanced research and quality instruction can be provided
only through developed libraries, sophisticated technology systems,
laboratories and classrooms. The Higher education system should take up an
international facet by including exchange of knowledge, interactive networking,
mobility of teachers and students and global research projects with regards to
the national cultural values and circumstances.
Technology and education are a great
combination when applied together with the right reason and perspective. The
ever evolving Technology can be used positively in our country to improve the
quality of education. The new technologies proffer immense opportunities for
development in all domains of life especially in economic growth, improved
health, better service delivery, improved learning and socio-cultural advances.
Technology possesses an amazing selection of tools that can endorse and enhance
learning making it an extraordinary experience. Through technology-aided
education, teachers would get a chance to collaborate to share their resources
online, students could develop research skills at a young age, and students and
teachers can have access to plenty of resource materials. The role of
technology in education is imperative and this is an area where the Government
should take a keen interest. With the effective use of technology, we can
definitely determine the venerable tension between excellence and fairness.
When technology improves education, it is a luminous step towards forming a
better society and thereby, a better nation.
The relationship between education and
society is strong and shared. It is not possible to detach them because what
happens to one affects the other. Knowledge is in our DNA and a knowledge
economy like India depends on its educated workforce. Those who have attained
education can manoeuvre the path of development and progress of our country and
work together to form the backbone of India. A nation becomes relatively
developed when education becomes a chief provider to its economic growth.
Having an educated country can help to keep the society under control which
then helps to contribute to the national development. Our chances of rising as
a superpower evenly rest on our education system and how well it reacts to
meeting domestic and global requirements for talent. It is a key prospect which
India cannot afford to lose.
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