All World
Gayatri Pariwar

‘Education is a means to get a job’. This is the definition of education that is etched in everyone's mind today. Even while studying, children start aiming for a job. Parents, too, educate children only so that their children will get a good job and will be secure from the perspective of earning their livelihood. Parents believe that upon getting a job, their children will be able to earn a fixed monthly income that will ensure carefree existence and will not have to lead a more non-deterministic life when running, say, a business of their own.

People also dream of getting senior positions that will provide better salary and more comforts. They believe, it would not only earn them more respect but also give them an avenue for secondary income through unfair means (e.g. corruption).

For someone who likes to daydream, this would all look very enticing but if one looks at it from a practical viewpoint, this is all eyewash and is far from reality.
There was a time when the number of educated people was very limited. The British Empire had to get their work done with the help of local population and hence with minimal education people were inducted into jobs. Often anyone who had studied even a little, used to find a job. But now, the situation has changed drastically. There are lakhs of students who are completing their education every year. How can so many students find jobs every year? Neither as many people are retiring every year nor sufficient number of new jobs are being created to ensure jobs for all these students.   In such a situation, the students who have been studying only in the hope of finding a job will be disappointed. The number of educated, unemployed people is rising day by day. For every vacancy, there are thousands of applicants. Only one out of them gets the job and the others have to face disappointment. After trying for years, when people cross the age limit for the government jobs, they start queuing up for jobs in the private sector. It is almost impossible to get good salaries in the private sector since there is a lot of competition amongst this large number of unemployed people. One is forced to compromise and settle for lower salaries.

The biggest problem facing such individuals is that of mental dissatisfaction. A senior position in the government sector is the only dream they live for. They feel shattered when they fail to realize that dream. They are left clueless as they never cared to learn a skill that could help them live independently in the event of not finding a job. Neither they nor their parents would have ever put any thought on the complex situation that arises upon not finding a job. When they hit the impediment, they fail to find a solution and in absence of that their situation becomes similar to that of an insane individual. Inferiority complex engulfs them and they feel suffocated. They had been chasing a mirage and are now forced to spend the remaining days of their life in frustration.

This is a problem of not one or two individuals but the society at large. Its resolution requires fresh thinking and determination. It has to be acknowledged that not everyone can find government jobs. Senior positions and high salaries are all the more unlikely. If these facts are digested at the very onset then other solutions can be found and a new course can be charted out.
In the childhood, the body and the mind are not developed enough for a child to think about earning a living. Childhood is the time to focus on developing strength of the body and increasing mental ability. From this perspective, education is necessary and suitable. But, at this stage one should not start thinking that good job is a certain outcome of education. Rather, one should start considering options other than finding a job and the other ways of earning a livelihood. Focus should be to determine what work can be easily taken up in a given situation and the independence in earning livelihood should be given prime consideration.

There is a lot of scope for every industry in our country. If cottage industry is embraced with appropriate improvements then it can easily stand its ground against industrialization. While factories can produce large quantities, they also have high cost of production because of interest on loans, breakages, thefts, damages etc. Consequently, the price of goods produced in factories is considerably high in the market. Layers of commissions make these goods even more expensive. Such botherations are a lot lesser in small industries. Swadeshi movement needs to be started again with a new vigour. Like Khadi, if other handicrafts are also promoted and people change their mindset and start embracing ordinary homemade items over the glossy factory produced items then the trend of cottage industries can be revived with new intensity. Lakhs of educated people, artisans and vendors can get ample work and make a new beginning.
In the name of business, primarily all that is done in our country is to put up a shop to sell manufactured goods. This is not as useful as actually producing goods. Sales can provide employment to only very limited number of people. If there are a thousand shops in a town then with the logic of one owner and one employee per shop, employment for about two thousand people is all that these shops will provide. Even a single supermarket can provide employment for almost similar number of people. Focus should be on manufacturing that can provide livelihood to lakhs.
In addition to cottage industry, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry are two industries where a lot of improvement is possible with the help of science and technology. There is vast scope in Carpentry and Blacksmithing as well. If manufacturing of bricks and tiles is also included in the scope of potters, in addition to manufacturing of pitchers, then this industry too has the potential of providing employment to a large number of individuals.

The real purpose of education is character building. Resolution of complexities in personal and social life should be accomplished through education. Basic purpose of education is to make students expert and proficient in topics like how to nurture harmony and righteousness. To fulfil this purpose, educational institutions need to put in whole-hearted efforts. Parents too should start admitting their children to schools with this objective. The system of education which today focuses only on jobs needs a complete revamping.

Because of frequent transfer in jobs, the circle of friends and neighbours gets broken. New rented accommodation needs to be found, which drains a large part of the income. The service that is due to the motherland remains unaccomplished. People need to migrate from villages to cities due to lack of jobs in villages. Considering all this, education needs to be linked to children's future. What should they become or what should become of them? In finding answer to this question, it is best to keep the topic of jobs out of the discussion because in days to come, it will become more and more difficult to find jobs. To feed oneself, enough work is available in the villages itself where the cost of living is low and life is easier with the love and cooperation of kith and kin.

The land where one is born and brought up is akin to one's mother. Just how one serves one's mother, it is also a duty to serve one's motherland. Surely there are numerous sources of livelihood where one is born. Cities are becoming costlier, dirtier, more unhygienic and centres of evil intentions because villagers are migrating towards these cities on a very large scale. If villagers remain settled in their villages, it is possible to improve the situation in villages itself. Migration of educated people from villages to cities is equivalent to the brain drain from a poor country like India to developed countries in search of better salaries. This brain drain benefits the foreign countries but creates a shortage of talented individuals in India, who could have helped in making our country more developed and prosperous.

In Gurukul tradition of the olden days, bookish education was limited to the bare minimum that was required to resolve problems one faced in one's daily life. The pool of knowledge is vast. Even multiple life times may not be sufficient to cover it all. If education has to be made meaningful, topics that are never practically used in life after school must be dropped from the curriculum. In the crammed curriculum followed at schools today, many important topics get left out while lots of futile nonsense gets stuffed into the students' heads. Futile, because it does not serve any purpose - even the purpose of earning a livelihood is not met with this kind of education. In such a situation, there is an urgent need to rethink on children's education.

What is learnt and taught should be useful even if one does not find a job. If such knowledge and experience cannot be earned from the current education system, then the Gurukul system of education needs to be adopted again. Compared to the amount of money and time that is spent on education in Government schools, it is possible to run schools based on Gurukul tradition and throw light on practical problems of life, at a much lesser expense. Not only can such education focus on behavioural aspects but also on building skills that would allow people to earn their livelihood, while staying back in their villages.
An important aspect of education is the hostel life. Environment at home is typically not conducive to enhancement of one's qualities, actions and character. To lift one's values to a higher plane, one needs the right kind of environment. If parents and families are unable to create such an environment, then this should be accomplished through hostels that can also regulate the students' daily routine.
It is unfortunate to see such rampant negligence in a field like education, which is responsible for the future of the children and families. The past styles and patterns in education are followed blindly without analysing whether they resolve the problems and if they do not, what alternatives can be constructed. Drastic relevant reform in the education system of the country is the dire need of the hour. It requires immediate attention and action – before it is too late.