“Education is our safety, outside this ark, everything is a deluge” –Horace Mann
Since the dawn of civilization, the man had the urge to educate himself and discover the secrets hidden underneath the surface as of even, above them. Mans’s sappetite to know more had been the first step to educate themselves. With years, the craving to discover and invent heightened and formal institutes were set up. India, the land of divinity hosts the presence of one of the oldest universities in the world. This age has been classified as the Golden Age in ancient learning. With advancements, the education system in India evolved.
In the process of evolution, India lost its title of the global educator. The colonialization of India and its aftermath had affected the priorities of people. Now, the priorities were to meet the ends and have food, shelter; education had taken a backseat. After several years of independence, India stands at a 74.04% literacy rate. Ironically, many educationists have called India a land of rapid literacy growth but stagnant educated mass. Several reasons for this asymmetric growth have been observed, but, the most notable one is the intervention of politics.
The idea of political intervention is a big no, because political stand changes after every five years, but, education is an everlasting impact. Taking a political stance creates torrents of waves and biased views, which in turn creates a sense of fake patriotism. It is not a veiled thing that rival political parties would condemn each other thought process. But, that rivalry is limited to politics though, such a radical mindset can’t be undone in the minds of students. The most critically acclaimed textbooks, by NCERT, had faced such backlash by politicians for missing out certain nationalists. This was not the job of political leaders to intervene in an educational framework and caused a massive uproar. This is an example enough to prove that political intervention is not required in the educational sector.
In the tender age, full of youthfulness, students should rather focus on the development at the grassroots level.
Education and politics would go hand-in-hand if a mind develops enough to understand that they are being used as pawns and will be sacrificed in the fire of dirty politics. The original reality is often hidden from the naive eyes of students and seditious speeches cause enough damage to their already brimming adulthood. The politics are often done at the cost of dead martyrs which indeed is the most degrading truth.
A youth dominant nation like India which has capabilities to make a vast difference in the world order sadly is entangled in the political mess. Indians have been subjected to mediocre teaching systems due to this massive intervention, in one way or the other. Many bright minds prefer tp study abroad because they can’t withstand the whirlwind of politics. They get massive success but they don’t prefer to return. Such questions should haunt the leaders of India and active measures should be taken to improve the situation.
Politics and patriotism should not be presented as the same for young students as it takes the necessary element of education. Many bright minds go unnoticed due to political patronage. This is very unfair to students and an immediate solution must be provided as “Padhega India tabhi toh Badhega India.”
Courtesy : ayushi rakesh @SpaceNova