To study is to score?

The recently released SSLC results effected many thoughts in me. The result percent is close to eighty six and as usual girls performed better than boys. Again the notion of studying in a private school enables a student perform better results is proved wrong by the excellent top results produced by the students who belong to government schools. Five students scored 496 out of 500 and came out as state toppers (first place), twelve scored 495 to occupy the second place. About 12500 of them scored a centum in Mathematics. And the details followed in the same fashion.  Students, parents, teachers and the school management were ecstatic of their results and celebrated incessantly. Television presenters called the toppers over the phone and asked the inevitable questions, ‘which group are you going to select for the higher secondary? What is it you want to become in your life?’ etc. They have along with them the specialists in Education who suggested the students about their selection of groups in the higher secondary level and even compared the present year’s results with the previous years. They were concerned about not many students getting centum in Tamil and suggested the examiners to encourage the students by giving them centum in Tamil, thereby avoiding the danger of students opting for other languages instead of their mother tongue.

            Students’ ambition for the future revolved around either Engineering, or Medicine or Indian Administrative service. Rarely did I hear a student announcing her true desire to study anything other than the above said fields, for which the students cannot be blamed. They have been always taught that once they complete their education they must be settled into a profession which provides them with sufficient wealth for their life time. Education is primarily a helping tool to achieve this goal. You top SSLC to get into your desired group in +2; you score high marks in higher secondary to get a professional seat in a reputed institute; you top your graduation to get a placement in one of the numerous multinational companies to settle down in your life. And that is it. This is, and has been the ambition for the parents and students and even teachers for the past many years.

            I just want explore the possibilities education offers to an individual to grow into a complete person. Keeping aside all the incorrect notions about education, let us ask ourselves the question, what is the true purpose of education?

 Education aims at improving the overall personality of an individual. Education given to a person enables him to think independently and provides him an opportunity to realize his true potential. It offers him unlimited possibilities to act upon a current situation in relevance to agreeable standards of social responsibilities.

Education prepares the learners for an unpredictable future. When he is presented with an unprecedented state of affairs, he is able to draw inferences from the storage of his acquired knowledge to comprehend, compare, analyze, determine, and to react to a given situation.  Education gives him the skills, knowledge and the courage to plan for a change in the conditions of life about which he becomes aware of.

Of course, by acquiring the necessary education an individual can earn a living; lead a life of comfort and refrain from involving activities that will cause damage to society and the surroundings.

According to John Dewy (1938), the true purpose of education is to ascertain the causes for the conflicts and to provide a more deeper and inclusive plan of operations. .

However much we dwell on the purpose and benefits of education, the present set up and the social expectation do not allow either the learners or the educators to employ the concepts of education. It has always been a case of transfer of information from teacher to students and from students to the examiners. Once the assessment of the concepts is completed, the concepts are forgotten, as though. As for now the primary purpose of education is to help the students with high grades. They do not have to continue their pursuit once their intention is fulfilled. Even during the period of learning, the learning strategies are only aimed at producing material benefits; not spiritual. Students are in an intense race, and hence they have to adhere to the techniques which will provide them factual results.

There is no hope of doing perfect research

The question of whether doing a perfect research is possible or not is based on the degree of perfection expected out of the results of a particular research.  Researches in any field are undertaken with an intention to improve upon the prevailing conditions. Doing a perfect research in my understanding is obtaining a set of perfect results at the completion of the research which are absolute that should not lead us to further investigation.  A perfect research demands desirable conditions, maximum number of specimens with all possible qualitative aspects, absolute precision and accuracy in measurements throughout the process.  Errors due to the biased approach of the observers, time constraint, and limited access to gathering information may prevent us from conducting a perfect research.

 The meaning of the word research is a methodical investigation into a subject in order to discover facts, to establish or revise a theory or to develop a plan of action based on the facts discovered (Microsoft Encarta Dictionary, encarta.msn.com).  Obviously the results of a research can always be improved upon further by doing researches again and the theories established by one research can be revised or even negated by the next one.  Hence it is impossible to do a perfect research. I intend to support my argument by discussing with detailed reference to two examples of research done.

I happened to come across a research article in the NCCAM (National Centre for Complementary and Alternative medicine) website, originally published in Clinical infectious Diseases. The researchers at the University of Michigan conducted a study to see whether drinking cranberry juice is better than placebo, a simulated medical intervention, in preventing urinary tract infections (UTI). The study was conducted among 319 college aged women with symptoms of an acute UTI. For six months they were randomly assigned to drink either 27% cranberry juice or non-cranberry juice (placebo). Periodically the participants provided urine specimens and completed questionnaires. The results of the study showed drinking cranberry juice offered no better protection compared with placebo (“Cranberry juice no better than placebo” nccam.nih.gov )

 However findings from a previous study in similar populations in which cranberry juice proved to reduce the recurrences of UTIs. The researchers cited that the previous studies were unable to detect a significant effect because they were inadequately powered (“Cranberry juice no better than placebo” nccam.nih.gov ). Hence it is proved that the previous studies were not perfect. Also the present research is aimed at establishing the effect of cranberry juice against that of a medical component, while cranberry juice has been used primarily as a home remedy for UTIs. There could many factors such as the size and average age of the population, the duration of the study, the condition of the urinary samples, the details given in the questionnaires which may hinder the accuracy of the study thereby preventing a perfect research to be conducted.

 Another article published in the US National Institutes of Health website, I read that scientists discovered that calorie restriction, along with various other factors, can prevent people from aging. They have conducted a research in some animals and found up to 40 per cent of fewer calories than normal showed significant effects on disease and markers of aging (“Can we prevent aging?” nia.nih.gov). It has been found to extend the life of many species. The article also said, “Early findings of the Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy (CALERIE) study show that slightly overweight adults who cut their calorie consumption by 20 to 30 percent lowered their fasting insulin levels and core body temperature. Both of these changes correlate with increased longevity in animal models” (“Can we prevent aging?” nia.nih.gov). Hence it can be concluded that calorie restriction will prevent us from aging.

But there are some contradictory factors found along with the positive results. The effects of calorie restriction are not universal. Several species did not show any lifespan extension by calorie restriction. In some species, calorie restriction appears to shorten lifespan. Hence these factors prevent us to conclude that calorie restriction can definitely extend lifespan in humans. Therefore further research needs to be conducted to establish the truth of the fact. This proves that the research on calorie restriction is not a perfect one. Hereditary factors, climatic conditions in which the humans live in and the type of food they take strongly influence human lifespan. During research these same reasons could have hindered the prospect of producing a perfect research.

On the basis of these arguments, I completely agree with the statement that there is no hope of doing perfect research. Though doing a perfect research is impossible it must be accepted that researches are being carried out in various fields for the betterment of mankind and we must encourage researches as the studies continue to evolve towards the peak of perfection.

Works cited

n.p “Research.” Microsoft Encarta Dictionary. n.pag. n.d. encarta.msn.com  Web. 03 May 2011

 n.p  “Cranberry juice no better than placebo at preventing recurrent UTIs.” n.pag. 24 March 2011 nccam.nih.gov. web 03 May 2011

Barbosa-Cesnik C, Brown MB, Buxton M, et al. “Cranberry juice fails to prevent recurrent urinary tract infection: results from a randomized placebo-controlled trial.” Clinical Infectious Diseases. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.2011 Jan;52(1):23-3. Web 4 May 2011

n.p.  “Can we prevent aging?” 27 Aug 2010. n.pag. nia.nih.gov. web 04 May 2011