"If You are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people” – Chinese Proverb
Education is a social establishment that bridges the gap between the members of the society with substantial knowledge, including skills, cultural norms and values, and basic facts. A society that strives for the right path towards development realizes the significance of education through good schools and educational institutions. Education benefits society through improved personal life, and aids the smooth functioning of a society. Dr B.R. Ambedkar considered education very important to eliminate existing social inequality and social injustice in Indian society and to establish equality, brotherhood, co-existence and mutual acceptance in society. He believed that ‘Education is not only the birth right of every human being but also a weapon of social change.’ Prof. John Dewey says “Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not preparation for life but is life itself.”
India upholds Right to Education through its Constitution and various amendments made therein. Consequently, there are myriad laws that aim at educating underprivileged sections of the Indian society and girls.
An educated society nurtures its younger generation to adapt to their surroundings better than an illiterate society. Educated youths grow up as happy and contented individuals, contributing to the nation’s betterment and growth.
Education forms the essence of all human actions in society. Education is a tool that extends the horizons of our knowledge with other economic, social, and emotional constraints. Society tends to behave depending upon the status of education and literacy of its people.
Societies that lack or are unable to provide Education to its people push them to unethical activities to feed and nourish their families. This leads to the deprived, malnourished fate of the individual as well as the society.
Below are the importance of education in society and the perks of an educated society and its success over the perils of an illiterate society:
1. Development of society: An educated society is either developed or strives toward Development. It paces steadily towards financial, social, economic, and infrastructural development. Society adapts fearless means in the advancement of science and technology.
Educated society progresses through grand visions of net income, capita, Development, improved living conditions, and high quality of living. The scope of Development of a society is in the Education of its people.
2. The chain of Illiteracy: A well-educated society makes sure that its predeceasing generation also remains educated. An illiterate and ignorant society builds a fortress of struggle to meet their necessities and in life.
A literate society implements schemes and makes sure that children and young adults are educated to benefit society and nation by providing necessary infrastructure and logistics.
3. Health and Hygiene: A well-educated society implements better health and hygiene facilities in the society. An educated individual evolves and becomes aware of the threats and the schemes needed to tackle health and hygiene-related issues in life.
The importance of education in society gives the people an upper hand with knowledge regarding medical advancements and schemes in the country and demands the same from authorities.
4. Better Political State: Education plays a vital tool for the establishment of a better political setup in a country and understands the pros and cons of a nation’s growth and development. Educated individuals step-up and make the right and unbiased decisions in choosing the right political representatives.
5. Creating Modern Society: Education is of key essence for modern society. One needs to learn about culture, history and other important aspects so that they would be able to contribute to modern society. Education molds people into leaders not only with knowledge about (college) subjects, but it also shows them how to lead with emotions and true values. Educated people can easily differentiate between right and wrong, thus education helps reduce the crime rate. Bad events are happening around the world – only competent leaders can help guide us down a good and right path.
6. Empowers Women: An educated society empowers its women and abolishes old customs such as Child Marriage, Dowry System, Sati, etc. Educated women stand against injustices and help in the development of society as well as the nation.
7. Creating equal opportunities: The importance of education in society has always been great as it is irrespective of caste, race, gender, religion. Educated people are treated as equals on the basis of their knowledge and competence. In addition to this, educated people are open-minded and are able to listen and accept other people’s views regardless of the fact of how different they are. Education offers a possibility to live independently and thus be free. It is our shelter against financial storms and wrong decisions.
8. Decides Social Status: One of the main reasons why education plays such an important role in society is because of the Right to Education system in India, as it’s the sole decider of your social and economic status. It’s no secret that highly educated people have better career and business options compared to those who’ve no or lesser education.
An educated person can take excellent jobs that match their qualifications and rise out of poverty. And they can help others overcome poverty as well by educating others. Education allows people to be able to enjoy a better lifestyle. Enables them to take appropriate political decisions, promote democracy and oppose dictatorial moves. Education also helps directly and indirectly in prevention of disease and epidemics. It creates better communications and promotes dialogues among people and societies. Education helps to find ways and means to create newer things that help improve the quality of our lives. These are some of the reasons why education plays such an important role in society.
Finally, we should never give up education. Failures in exams will come and go, but education must continue at any cost. Poverty, Helplessness, Failure, Depression should NEVER stop us from getting higher education. Education is one and only way that can help us to change our life and march with honour to a better, stable and prosperous future.
Degree of Thought is a weekly community column initiated by Tetso College in partnership with The Morung Express. Degree of Thought will delve into the social, cultural, political and educational issues around us. The views expressed here do not reflect the opinion of the institution. Tetso College is a NAAC Accredited UGC recognised Commerce and Arts College. The editors are Dr Hewasa Lorin, Dr Aniruddha Babar, Nisha Dahiya and Meren. For feedback or comments please email: dot@tetsocollege.org
