“Papa kehte hain bada naam karega”

Really a tough line for the kids now-a-days.  Why do we get educated? Is it only to become doctors and engineers? I found a good definition for education. Here it goes. Education in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another through institutions.

I know all these are bookish terms for us. Fine let me talk something practical then. Education for us is to make the younger generation learn some special skills, make them capable of facing the real world on their own. The most elementary requirement is to make money and this can be respectably earned with proper education. So only engineers and doctors can make money, ain’t it? For that we need seats in reputed colleges and for that high percentages in examinations! The expectations are sky high from the students and competition is just horrendous.

One small figure I would like to share. In Orissa, to get a medical degree is a dream too challenging and a hard to win battle. Because the total number of medical colleges is 3 (I am excluding the high tech colleges which is started just a year back) and seats available for general quota is somewhere around 300+. Numbers of students competing for that are around 2 lakh. How can each parent expect their kid to become a doctor??? Of course all parents are aware of this gap, then why are they pushing their children so hard for this target? I don’t intend to say people should not dream, but let’s get real first. Let us identify what the child has interest in pursuing as his/her career and think from the kid’s prospective. Is the child capable of doing what we are selecting?

In this century there are plenty opportunities and kids are born with great talents. 9 year old kid is singing like an efficient trained professional singer, so he need not end up writing java codes for an MNC. And for becoming an engineer the kid need not study hard as if he has to top the state or something. After all the minimum percentage required can also be the target. (My targets were always of this sort!).I mean today my branch topper is writing the same bullshit c programs that I write (not to forget I make more money than him).

All I want to point out is education is for learning skills and be civilized. Let’s not force the young kids to suffer from mental trauma which in turn results in something irreversible.