IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION

As the importance of light is better understood by experiencing darkness; so is the importance of education can be better understood by dwelling into the lack of it. Perhaps, an illiterate person who has never been to school and who has faced the curse of illiteracy could answer the question- “Why is education so important in our life?” better. He knows the importance of schools and what change could it brings to a person’s life.

The answer to the question lies in the pain that he feels, when he couldn’t recognize neither use the opportunities those presents themselves, the pain in knowing that his aspirations and so his desires are clipped, because he was never educated. He realizes that education could be a key to success and a better life.

The greatest sorrow of illiteracy is dependency. Yes! An illiterate person depends on others for his/her survival. Imagine if you were not educated enough to read this article, what would it have been like? Perhaps, the article would have looked like some alien code to you, impossible to decipher.

Without education any human is like a hawk whose wings have been clipped; educations gives you wings to fly and explore, being confident and opportunistic. Education is like a powerful weapon which one uses to face the adversities of life and overcome poverty, fear, status and achieve success.

How it feels like to be in a race you know you can never win? Wouldn’t it be disappointing and disheartening? Without education life becomes a race, which you can never win despite all your efforts and courage; it is only then you realize that education is the only key to success in life. Education is the ladder we need to climb to reach where we aspire to, to make our dreams a reality; today we walk with pride and strive to achieve the impossible only because we are educated.

Education builds individuals, educated individuals build better societies, and better societies build great nations. From the most under developed third world countries (like Togo and Madagascar) to the world’s superpowers (USA, Russia, China); their only hope to success and development lies in education and providing compulsory education to all.

Below we will go through the importance of education in India as well as other developing countries, understanding its implications as well as importance.

IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION IN INDIA AND OTHER DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

With a Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDP) of 1963.55 USD (United States Dollar) as recorded in 2017; India is recognized as a developing country. The GDP per capita of a Nation roughly measures the amount of money an individual in that nation makes in a financial year. The GDP per capita of a country is obtained by dividing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP or the amount of money a country makes annually) by its population. Though, there is no fixed criterion to decide on whether a country is under developed, developing or developed; the GDP per capita of a country compared with others can be a reference point.

Apart from the GDP while deciding on the development index of a nation, various other factors are also taken into consideration like- condition of basic public amenities, status of living, poverty, social evils and customs etc. Unfortunately, according to the reports of International Monetary fund (IMF) there are still around 150 plus nations those are still developing; India despite being the world’s fastest growing economy is one of them.

ROLE OF EDUCATION IN NATION BUILDING

For any developing country, including India, to achieve the goals of development it becomes imperative that it eradicates social evils like- malnutrition, crime against women, child labor, illiteracy, corruption, gender inequality, crime rates, poverty, poor health and hygiene etc. Apart from overcoming these hindrances a developing country also needs to make its youths skilled and well educated so that they contribute constructively in the economical growth. Education is undoubtedly the most potent weapon to fight against all the social evils and is imperative for any nation to achieve development.

PRESENT STATE OF EDUCATION IN INDIA AND OTHER DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Though India has a high enrollment rate at Primary section- 95% according to 2011 census; the dropout rate after the primary education is also alarming with nearly half of those enrolled for primary education, dropping out at the age of 14 and the other half unable to read or write or perform basic mathematical calculations.

The enrollment rate for secondary and tertiary education is 69% and 25% respectively. Girls are a little behind on literacy at 72% than boys at 86%. Despite all its efforts India is still way behind in achieving the goal of ‘compulsory education to all’ and is today home to nearly 287 Million illiterate adults and the numbers add up each year.

Though, with the efforts of respective governments our literacy rate has increased by six folds, post independence; we still have 35% of the world’s illiterate population.