This article originally appeared in the 40th Anniversary Souvenir of Kakching Khunou College, which was published in 2022 by its NSS Unit I, II & III, and IQAC.

Education is all-round drawing out of the best in child and man-body, mind and sprit

Mahatama Gandhi.

Freedom, Justice and education are the most important elements for man to live a meaningful life in the society. Freedom is the first prerequisite to attain justice and education. On the other hand education is considered to be more important than freedom and justice since real freedom and justice cannot be achieved without education. Here lies the essence of education in human life and it is undoubtedly the vehicle to carry forward human civilization. It is widely accepted that the progress of a nation is determined by the standard of education imparted to its citizens, their character, their culture, their social setup and their decency and not by its income, military might and industrialization.

According to Aristotle educated men are superior to uneducated men as much as the living are to the dead. So the fate of a nation today and tomorrow depends on the system of education imparted to the youths. Education is a systematic training which develops the mental faculties, ideas, moral character, abilities and spiritual power of a man. It is no static acquirement but a continuous process which can ever be completed, ever renewed with ever widening interest in the strange and beautiful life on earth. It makes a man a complete man by making an all round development.

The ultimate aim of education is not mere acquisition of knowledge through book learning but it should be man-making, life – building and assimilation of ideas. According to Swami Vivekananda one can achieve the goal of education by concentration of the mind. With the help of mental yoga one never forgets what one has heard, seen or read. All learning can be mastered in a very short time by chastity of thought, word and deed always and in all circumstances.

Very often we have a wrong notion of an educated man. Then who is called an educated man? A man who has acquired a lot of general knowledge and passed university examinations? Or a man like Gold Smiths Village school master who knows something about everything or a man who knows everything about some thing? The answer is no. Educated men are those who can manage circumstances which they encounter day by day, who are decent and honorable, who are not spoiled by their success, who are philanthropic and who possess lion courage.

The world has seen the devastations left by world war – II. Earnest Hemingway thought that the first thing to be done by the world community after the war was to educate the nations so that they could live together peacefully. The father of Indian nation had a call to youths of the country when he launched the Quit India Movement to come out of their schools and colleges and join the freedom movement. But Guruji Rabindranath Tagore could not compromise with the idea. He thought that there was no harm if India could get freedom a bit later but the youths of the nation should not leave their schools and colleges since the loss can never be made up. In fact human society can’t progress without a continuous and meaningful system of education.

After world War II the population of Manipur was about 5 lakhs and literacy rate was about 5%. There were few schools and colleges in the region. The Manipuris went to Dhaka, Sylhet and Calcutta (now Kolkata) for their higher studies. In those day the educated got a very high order of respect in the society. One was accorded a warm welcome with drum and pipe when one came back to his homeland after finishing a Bachelor’s degree. It was also a common practice among the clergy and noble folks to hunt for educated grooms for their marriageable daughters.

It will be worthy to remember that Thomas Babington Macaulay introduced Anglicist System of education in India in 1835. He believed that this system of education could form a class of Indians who were Indians in blood and colour but English in task, opinions in morals and intellectuals. It was a machine for turning clerks. After independence a member of reforms have been made towards bringing a better education in the country the UGC, NCERT, IIT, IIM, ITI etc. do a commendable job in this field. The new education policy 1981 was a step forward in strengthening our education system. The regional languages have been given their own shares as medium of instructions.

In the recent years the Union Government has introduced and implemented schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), RMSA (Rashtriya Madhyamic Shiksha Abhiyan), which reduced drop out rates in the middle classes and increased enrollment in secondary school. Model schools, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalas have been opened to provide good and quality education to students belonging to economically backward, OBC, SC, ST, and Minorities.

Skill development and Vocational education among students have also being taken care of by introducing several schemes. In the higher education sector also the UGC, RUSA and NAAC have been doing a commendable job to improve the quality of higher education institutions and provide quality education to the youths of the country. In spite of all these the system of education prevailed in India and for that matter in Manipur is largely based on the colonial system of education introduced by the British before two centuries. According to the census of 2011, the population of Manipur was 28,55,794 and the rate of literacy was 79.85%. The total member of illiterate population was more than the total population of the state 50 years ago. This problem of mass illiteracy should not be left unnoticed.

In the last three decades there has been a gradual decline is the quality of education in the state of Manipur. It is alleged that there are irregularities and corrupt practices in the whole education sector particularly in appointment and administration. The enrolment in the government run schools and colleges has considerably declined and some are even of the point of extinction. In the field of teaching learning also, there is no encouragement. The ill gotten University Certificates have little value in the competitive job market. Many students of the state aspire to go outside the state to attain their degrees. It is also alleged that there is disparity between valley and hill in the standard of education.

It is high time that the government and all the state holders come out with a viable solution to improve the health of education in the state. The National Education Policy 2020 may do good and only time will tell.

N. Saratkumar Singh
Head of Department of English, Kakching Khunou College