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.
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