Is education just a degree nowadays?

Is education just a degree nowadays?
      ‘Knowledge is the strength that will gain you respect anywhere you go’. Therefore it is very essential to gain the education that will not only provide you with basic elementary knowledge but would also help you in better understanding of life. But now the question arises is education all about attaining degrees and jobs. Is that the motto, we are trying to achieve.

Well, that is a matter of concern because if 99% marks and lakhs of annual income can provide you tranquillity and happiness then why according to 2015-16 National Mental Health Survey (NMHS) survey, every sixth person in India needs mental health help of some sort. Of all the age groups, it is the adolescents who need the most help with mental health issues. Undoubtedly, India is among nation with the largest youth population but if this is the reality of the youthful population, is it actually our strength. Paul Krugman, a Nobel laureate economist, said “India’s working-age population is projected to grow substantially. Countries across the world from Japan to Italy to China are suffering or are about to suffer from lack of manpower to propel their growth.” But what if this demography is not healthy to carry the work ethics, culture and labour on their shoulders.

    The Indian education system has its roots in our Vedic culture and the whole culture of guru-shishya parampara commenced from the Indian soil. The only difference we had with the earlier education system and the present is the objective and principle on which they are functioning. Earlier the purpose of education was to build a strong character of any individual along with moralistic and human values as the skills were taught with training whereas the present education systems lay more emphasis on skill-building than human and moralistic values leading to lack of human values among individuals. We are teaching them to be skilful, competitive, rich, and successful but are driving them away from the human values that are necessary for happy living.
 It’s not that the present generation doesn’t value human values but its more in words than in implementations. We are witnessing an era, where everything is in abundance, the motivator speakers, and positive ideas everywhere especially on Facebook community pages, viral videos and many such things. Now, the question arises if everything is so positive in mind, why is the number of depression and suicidal cases increasing in India especially among youth.
  It is because of the inner engineering of today’s individual is imbalanced. We have developed an air bubble around us that keep us away from rational thinking. Our thinking is derived by the societal norms and our introduction is what they perceive about us. We are living for their approval and finds ourself misfit if we cannot match up to their expectations and approvals, which leads to depression. Be that education, relationships, life goals, our identity, jobs, we are living for the approvals because if they would have realised the worth of their life, no one would have been rude, unpleasant, unethical, insensitive, and disobedient towards another human life. Their rationality would have helped them to respect all gender, maintain cleanliness, follow ethics, follow rules and live a healthier and happy life.
    It’s good to grow economically, politically and socially but it’s more important to stay connected to the roots of our culture. It’s high time to invest in the character-building of the youth along with skill-building otherwise we would have everything in form of infrastructure, jobs , skills but what would lack is the healthy manpower to run these resources.
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Dr. Gitanjali Kalia

A learner at heart with 13 years of experience and still growing. From field experience to academic ambience, people interaction and exploring new ideas have been my area of interest and has proved to be stepping stone towards my achievements. Creativity is my core skill, be that vision to see the world or to work towards something aesthetically, creativity exists in everything. I am an academician by profession and the creativity is my passion. Academician: Shifting from advertising field to teaching advertising wasn't in my dreams but I must say it is one of the most challenging and coolest profession altogether. What keeps it ticking is to be with Young minds!! I have written research papers and got by books chapters published in the international books by international publications . Poet: I am a poet and got my poems published by Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi in Kavya Lehri and Kavyanjali. I also have an ebook to my credit titled 'Lyrical Emotions'. Writer(Blogger): A writer who loves writing and has written for numerous magazines, online portals and newspapers like Time of India(Youth section), The Identity, Contemporary Vibes, The Higher education, etc. A Blogger who runs her own blog. An artist who works towards improving her skills every now and then. A traveller who knows learning is much more outside the classroom. As a leaner is never satisfied with his/ her work, I believe to utilize the gift of human birth to the fullest and enjoy.

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