Meaning of Education- Nelson Mandela had described it as, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”It is true that education is primarily responsible for all the inventions and discoveries that have led to development of the mankind. Our entire progress can be attributed to the boon of education by making successful use of it.
Role of Education- Then, how can education help in bringing change desired in today’s world, as expressed by late Nelson Mandela?
World of the day is beset with many problems. Some of these are enumerated as follows:
§ Diseases
§ Excessive population
§ Global Warming
§ Hunger
§ Lack of Healthcare Facilities
§ Lack of Sanitation
§ Nuclear Holocaust
§ Poor Environmental Conditions
§ Poverty
§ Premature deaths
§ Scarcity of Resources
§ Terrorism
§ Violence
§ Wars
Of course, education cannot serve as a magical wand to solve these and other such maladies but it can, certainly, give a positive direction to the humankind towards finding the solutions.
Good Education- This calls for the need of good education. What, then, is the good education? Martin Luther King Jr. had said, “Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.”
It is very important for inclusion of moral education in our basic curriculum. Therefore, character-building is an integral part of the good Education.
Good Education can be described as a gift that places a person on a higher pedestal in life, compared to his or her unfortunate fellow human beings who could not avail of it, in world of the day.
To quote WB Yeats, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
So, true education can ignite the fire of intelligence. Education should also be conversant with international requirements so that a person can easily adjust in any part of the world. This calls for developing global vision.
A successfully educated person can lead the world to be a happy place where peace and tranquility would rein to bring in the prosperity. Therefore, it is important for everybody to avail of good education for seeking true knowledge.
However, only wandering in the forest of education or diving to the deepest possible depths of the ocean of knowledge, aimlessly does not serve any purpose.
How can the education turn bad? Education can cause immense harm also, if it does not have moral content in it. Osama Bin Laden is an example of it. He had studied Economics and Business Administration. Probably, he had also taken a degree in Civil Engineering or in public administration. He had also attended an English-language course in Oxford, England.
However, his degrees in education could not serve any useful purpose for the mankind. He masterminded 9/11 attacks in USA in 2001. Nearly 3000 people lost their own lives and innumerable ones, their near and dear ones. Loss and damage of the property was unprecedented. This date opened the floodgate of terrorism in the world that has brought a definitive and worsening change in the world. It was all a result of his negative bent of mind that he used against the face of humanity leaving deep scars behind. It gave a new life to this demon. Since then, this massive loss of life and huge damage to the property spread in geometric progression all over the world.
Thus, truly meaningful education can be the sole path that can give us wisdom to face present and future challenges of the world. It only requires burning passion to acquire it with absolute perfection in whatever field we choose to pursue.
Therefore, Good Education is true panacea for people of the world.
If ambition is the vehicle for taking you to your chosen destination in life then education is the only fuel required for it.
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