Itis said If you are planning for a lifetime, educate a person. If you look around you will find that the basic cause of every social, economic and moral problem facing our country is , usually narrowed down to faulty education or lack of education. Thanks to the media, the selfless works of social activists people and the Service Organisations like Rotary who have become more aware of the need and the importance of education. Today people have understood the value of education hence spend a good length of their lives for education. Government also is more concerned about education and sets aside sufficient funds for its promotion and execution.New schemes are developed and devised to provide basic facilities for education.
It goes without saying that the purpose of education is to develop character, increase will power, expand intellect and most importantly enable one to stand on one s feet. But the emphasis on career building has somehow narrowed down the scope of education to acquiring certain skills and becoming experts in certain profession. And unfortunately education has now become merely a tool to amass wealth, to manipulate the ignorant, to exploit the innocent, to find loopholes to escape punishment and to evade responsibility. It has become another major business industry where there is corruption and manipulation from admission to passing out Imagine, that which is expected or supposed to help develop character becomes the very means to destroy it I
Notwithstanding the value of developing skills and expertise, the focus of attention in education should be formation of persons of values and principles. Education should and must help us to face challenges and adversities in our life, to enable us to control circumstances instead of being mastered by them, to act according to our conscience, and to become honourable in all our dealings. That's why John Ruskin said Education does not mean teaching people to know what they do not know, it means teaching them to behave as they do not behave *
Let's spend our resources on education which will result in developing a generation of citizens who can lead our mother land to greater prosperity.
Ashok
Director, Rotary International (2007-09)
Trustee, The Rotary Foundation (2009/13)