Sunday, 28 September 2014

EDUCATION FOR ALL- PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS



INTRODUCTION
           The word education can be used in two senses: in a broad sense to designate all the influences to which everyone is continually subjected by the physical , biological and social environment in which he lives and in the more usual narrower sense to designate the special influences organized and devised by teachers in schools and places of further education. The first and perhaps the most important step on the road to educational wisdom is to get a clear realization that life and education are in reality indivisible. Life is education; education in school should give pupils a taste of the good life - life in a specially concentrated form free from many of the regrettable features of life outside.
          “Education is a natural, progressive and harmonious development of all the faculties of the individual – head, heart and hand” – Pestalozzi.  Education can be regarded in two ways - either as a duty that the state owes to its citizens and therefore as a part of the welfare state or as a means of increasing the economic efficiency of the whole community and therefore as a form of productive capital investment. Educated people are the capital of a developed society. Recent years have witnessed considerable progress in the area of universalization of primary education in India. India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when the act – “The Children’s Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act” came into force on 1 April, 2010. People are not aware even about their fundamental rights. Youth is the future of the Nation. Early youth was not compelled to study but now he has to study to deal with the present world as illiterate person may be deceived or may not know his rights and duties towards society and family.
          Throughout the whole world, there is an acute feeling of discomfort among thoughtful and concerned men and women about the problems of education. The different problems and their solutions are discussed here.

EDUCATION
           Education is a process which draws out the best in man with the aim of producing a well-balanced personality-culturally refined, emotionally stable, ethically sound, logically correct, mentally alert, intellectually competent, technically advanced, morally upright, physically strong, socially efficient, spiritually mature, vocationally self-sufficient and internationally liberal. Education is an essential and the only avenue towards wisdom is by freedom in the presence of knowledge. But the only avenue towards knowledge is by discipline in the acquirement of ordered fact. Freedom and discipline are two essentials of education. A.N.Whitehead.

PROBLEMS
                   The educational problem however like all the basic problems of mankind is a complex not a simplex. Education will not progress, develop into a dynamic field unless the problems inherent in it are identified and solved. In an analysis of the situation categorized these problems into several broad areas from lack of money to too many experts”.
Lack of money: The demand far exceeds the supply, and available monies are only for the most basic educational needs of the students... the traditional curriculum. Very small amounts, if any, are available for innovative programs and ideas. Without adequate funding, the ideology and philosophy of education become so many words. The concept of Indian education faces a bleak future characterized by stagnation, insensitivity, inadequate facilities and personnel.
The irrelevant curricula: It is defined that it is schools not doing their job in meeting the needs of their students. Education for sustainable development [ESD] is an approach to the whole curriculum and management of a school is not a new subject. It has its roots in environmental education and development education. ESD denotes the learning needed to maintain & improve our quality of life and the quality of generation to come.
Lack of qualified educators: Materialistic gains, incentives and opportunities entice the qualified educator away from challenging field. There is much hard work and many challenges in the education field. If education is to meet the needs of the students, if it is to have the sensitivity required, if it is to be dynamic and viable, it must have more qualified educators - it must reach the stage wherein it will challenge the educator to take up arms to join its ranks and to improve its lot.
Insensitive school personnel: If school personnel are truly educators, it behooves them to learn about the people they are teaching; to fail in this task is to fail to educate.
Differing expectations of education programs: The aims of education can’t be gained by all in the expected manner. The American educational system is foreign in concept, principle and objective to the Indian student.  The thinking, attitudes and experiences of the non-Indian are the base of the value structure rather than the aspects of Indian culture. Thus the educational perspectives of the Indian are not considered.
Lack of involvement in and control of educational matters: The people have not been able to express his ideas on school program or educational decision-making. When they have been expressed, his participation has been limited and restricted.
Poor application based education: Life is full of problems. We have to apply our knowledge to solve the real life problems. As an example, our medical colleges are producing graduates who are not well equipped to tackle the health care needs of the society. The graduates generally posses reasonably sound knowledge of medical science, they are often found deficient in the performance of clinical skills and problem-solving which form the core of clinical competence.
Improper development of human virtues: Man is a social animal. So he should have the spirit of co-operation, discipline, humanity, love, kindness, and the feeling of brotherhood. The education fails to inculcate these virtues in student.
Difficulties of students higher education: In general, the student has an inadequate educational background as he may have been looked upon as less than college material in high school. He has unusual adjustment problems and usually inadequate financial help.

SOLUTIONS
®   To develop human virtues : The curriculum should be framed by giving importance to such subjects which may inculcate the human values like love, kindness, feeling of brotherhood etc in students. Science, literature, fine arts, humanities, music and dance are some of such subjects.
®   To develop capacity for earning money: After having received education one must enable to earn enough for his livelihood. For developing this capacity vocational subjects should be introduced in the curriculum.
®   Quality of leadership: Education should develop the quality of leadership in students. This quality is very necessary for the sake of democracy and the development of the country as a whole.
®   Vocationalisation of education in schools provides financial helps for further education. Vocational guidance and vocational training must be included in curriculum for the sustainable development of a person.
®   The curriculum should be dynamic according to the needs of the society. The curriculum should include the real life experiences.
®   If curriculum experts would include courses reflecting the positiveness of the contributions of the greater society, another correction would be made.
®   Proper education with adequate experiences must be provided in the primary classes. It should be such that a base for higher education of a student.
®   A former assessment at the end of practice can ensure proper utilization of this period for the development of skills. Feed back to students at every stage, throughout the training is important to help them improve their deficiencies.
®   By changing the format of different examinations and making them more suitable for testing higher level of knowledge and skills rather than mere recall of facts.
®   It should be recommended that merit in the board examinations or competitive tests should be combined with an aptitude test so as to form the criteria for selection tests.
®   Everything possible should be done by the school system to encourage the parents to become involved. When parents participate more in their children’s education, they often undertake to advance their own education by enrolling in continuing education courses. The parents as teachers becomes the parents as learner. Thus improves the standard of the society.

CONCLUSION
     Every nation invades in education because it can produce unquantifiable benefits for individuals, organizations and the society as a whole. Education is provided through formal and informal means. In formal settings the conventional (face-to-face school instruction) and distance education (offered with separation in terms of physical location of instructors and students) have been used to provide educational opportunities to recipients. Some problems would always prevail in a system. We concluded here some basic problems and their solutions in the educational system.

REFERNCES
1.   Barsodi, Ralph (1963), The Education of the whole man, Sardar Vallabhbhai Vidyapeeth, VALLABH VIDYANAGAR,Gujrat.
2.   Huggies, A.G and Huggies E.H.(1960), Educatin : Some Fundamental Problems ,The English Language Book Society & Longmans Green And Co.Ltd.
3.   GCTE Journal of RESEARCH AND EXTENSION IN EDUCATION, Volume:7(1) January 2012 ,ISSN 0975-5144.
4.   Journal of american indian education,Volume:10, October 1970, Alonzo Spang.
9.   http://www.publishyourarticles.net.

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