Education is not merely acquiring knowledge, it is to see the significance of life as a whole.
Today, the September, 5th, celebrated as Teachers’ Day in India, the birth anniversary of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the second President of India.
Education’s significance to life it is fathomless as it has the ability and capacity of changing one’s mind and the entire world, especially when wars, arms, terror and capitalism couldn’t change the world, education deserves a chance. But, it must be good teaching that’s without rewards & coercion that imparts a happy and fearless learning that prepares a person not just as a good engineer or a doctor, but a good human who learns to love nature & fellow humans can really change the world.
Here, Jiddu Krishnamurti, the Socrates of the 20th Century shows the way. For him, a good school must have a global outlook, with a vision of the whole as distinct from the part; there should never be a sectarian outlook, but always a holistic outlook free from all prejudice, it must have a concern for man and the environment as Humanity is part of nature, and if nature is not cared for, it will boomerang on man.
Only the right education, and deep affection between people everywhere, will resolve many problems including the environmental challenges. Finally, a good school must have religious spirit, which includes the scientific temper: The religious mind is alone, not lonely as true religion means union with one another, so such a religious mind must be in communion with people and nature.
Hence, education is not merely acquiring knowledge, gathering and correlating facts; it is to see the significance of life as a whole.
Sadly, in India today, even the traditional and stereotyped process of education is in a doldrums as the country spend about three percent of GDP on education, much less on primary and secondary education, whereas other developing countries like Sri Lanka and even Bangladesh spend more. And, about four hundred thousand posts of primary teachers are lying vacant in the country with close to 106,000 schools have just one teacher who often double as clerk and peon.
In such a scenario, Teachers’ Day will pass just as another day, a mere formability, in all likelihood.