Education
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I have been developing randomly on this topic and wanted to put them down so that I get a coherent picture out of it.
Let’s first think about basic or elementary education. The purpose of basic education is to make us literate, make us communicate, express our ideas by reading and writing. The purpose also lies to make us aware of our surrounding, our history and some basic mathematics. In short the purpose is to make you fit for facing the world and finding your way out. This being said, I wish to develop on higher education, the education you need for excelling in this world
What is the motive of education? Is education something we get in the form of lectures in schools or colleges coupled with slides on OHP or projectors? Why should we get educated? How do we measure success of education or most important how do we know that we are educated or not?
Education is not earning degrees after degrees, it is not passing out with excellent grades, and it is not studying in some 'self proclaimed' best school. Education is not getting out as a product from the assembly lines; neither is it measured by the high paying jobs which one gets after coming out of those assembly lines.
These days I quite frequently see, hear or encounter those products from fashionable assembly lines who will be wearing the name of their school on their sleeve. They are quite good and efficient in what they do, for they are taught only that. Their education has given them ready made solutions, they know what to do when the conditions are A and B. But you will see their real worth when the condition is not A, not B or both, their whole education crumbles down. Education is not about giving ready made solutions, education is to develop the power to think independently, come out with ideas, ability to judge those ideas, form value and act in pursuit of those values. I don’t think that one needs to be in an air conditioned, acoustically maintained, state of the art classrooms to get this. One can get educated working in a countryside agriculture farm.
Ever wondered why the universities are not certified as 'ISO 9001' or assessed for ‘Six Sigma’? It is because they are not supposed to manufacture same kind of product with strict quality control management having variations less than 3.4 in one million. Their purpose is to produce individual with independent thinking capability, to come out with different approaches, to judge which one of them is correct and then to have the conviction to stand by them. I find it fit to mention here the Structural Design class we had (I am a Civil Engineer, if I never mentioned that), in that class the professor judged the effectiveness of his lecture delivery if every student was able to come out with different design(beams, channels, etc…) for the same problem. There the requirement was to think - which will not produce same result for every student.
On the other hand you will find training institutes certified as 'ISO 9001' and such, because their purpose is to produce individuals with a certain and limited set of skills specific to a requirement. This is exactly the reason they are called as training institutes and not learning institutes. Well some times this situation transcends from places of training to that of learning. Micorsoft has already been established, it has now to be operated so there is a huge need of people who can do procedural jobs, Pepsi Co has already got market share so there is need for people who can analyse the balance sheets. They need pen-pushers so they go, offer high salary and hire from those fashionable schools. This is the perfect example where the concept of training institutes transcends to learning places.You will not have people from these schools being used for turn around of Harley Davidson.
Just as Bullish phase in a stock market will discount any warning, these schools are not worried. They are manufacturing products which are eagerly sought for doing procedural jobs, a win-win situation for the school and the students.
Education is something which inculcates ability to work in uncharted domain, ability to steer out of situations, ability to develop conviction, ability to develop strength of character and lastly to adhere to all of these.
I have been developing randomly on this topic and wanted to put them down so that I get a coherent picture out of it.
Let’s first think about basic or elementary education. The purpose of basic education is to make us literate, make us communicate, express our ideas by reading and writing. The purpose also lies to make us aware of our surrounding, our history and some basic mathematics. In short the purpose is to make you fit for facing the world and finding your way out. This being said, I wish to develop on higher education, the education you need for excelling in this world
What is the motive of education? Is education something we get in the form of lectures in schools or colleges coupled with slides on OHP or projectors? Why should we get educated? How do we measure success of education or most important how do we know that we are educated or not?
Education is not earning degrees after degrees, it is not passing out with excellent grades, and it is not studying in some 'self proclaimed' best school. Education is not getting out as a product from the assembly lines; neither is it measured by the high paying jobs which one gets after coming out of those assembly lines.
These days I quite frequently see, hear or encounter those products from fashionable assembly lines who will be wearing the name of their school on their sleeve. They are quite good and efficient in what they do, for they are taught only that. Their education has given them ready made solutions, they know what to do when the conditions are A and B. But you will see their real worth when the condition is not A, not B or both, their whole education crumbles down. Education is not about giving ready made solutions, education is to develop the power to think independently, come out with ideas, ability to judge those ideas, form value and act in pursuit of those values. I don’t think that one needs to be in an air conditioned, acoustically maintained, state of the art classrooms to get this. One can get educated working in a countryside agriculture farm.
Ever wondered why the universities are not certified as 'ISO 9001' or assessed for ‘Six Sigma’? It is because they are not supposed to manufacture same kind of product with strict quality control management having variations less than 3.4 in one million. Their purpose is to produce individual with independent thinking capability, to come out with different approaches, to judge which one of them is correct and then to have the conviction to stand by them. I find it fit to mention here the Structural Design class we had (I am a Civil Engineer, if I never mentioned that), in that class the professor judged the effectiveness of his lecture delivery if every student was able to come out with different design(beams, channels, etc…) for the same problem. There the requirement was to think - which will not produce same result for every student.
On the other hand you will find training institutes certified as 'ISO 9001' and such, because their purpose is to produce individuals with a certain and limited set of skills specific to a requirement. This is exactly the reason they are called as training institutes and not learning institutes. Well some times this situation transcends from places of training to that of learning. Micorsoft has already been established, it has now to be operated so there is a huge need of people who can do procedural jobs, Pepsi Co has already got market share so there is need for people who can analyse the balance sheets. They need pen-pushers so they go, offer high salary and hire from those fashionable schools. This is the perfect example where the concept of training institutes transcends to learning places.You will not have people from these schools being used for turn around of Harley Davidson.
Just as Bullish phase in a stock market will discount any warning, these schools are not worried. They are manufacturing products which are eagerly sought for doing procedural jobs, a win-win situation for the school and the students.
Education is something which inculcates ability to work in uncharted domain, ability to steer out of situations, ability to develop conviction, ability to develop strength of character and lastly to adhere to all of these.
posted by greensatya @ 3:26 AM
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