R. Hingba Paul
Asst. Prof., St. Josephs’ College Jakhama, Kohima, Nagaland “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”, Nelson Mandela
What is real education to this modern competitive world? It can mean to any learning for a purpose with quality. Education is a call of attracting attention, herein education serving as the eyes, the ears, the languages and the soul of the modern society. Today quality education is the need of the hour worldwide not spearing India, especially in the states of North East India. The educational quality that could fosters potential transformation in the society. The educated as quality individuals reconciling, as role models through self change as a formative forerunner. Ernest Dimnet stated, “Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate”. An education learnt should enable meeting of the ever changing ratiocination. An education that has to be rationalized, reaching realistic realm. An education that fulfils required reputation. An Education, a Quality that is respected as resourceful magnificence. Quality education that promotes to enables transcendence of sights, hearings, listening and performance beyond transcontinental transmitting vicissitudes.
Earlier education was meant just to read, write and speak; today it’s the art of mastering them and being able to be efficient dynamic professionals. Education didn’t start only at college and university levels; it starts from conception, to pre-primary education from birth, to elementary education, to primary education 6 to 14 years age groups and so on..., to the standard of becoming a research scholar. Confucius stated “Learning without thought is labour lost, thought without learning is perilous”. Reflecting on the statement we sense quality education has an in-depth implicit implications. Thereby education is to learn and learning should be related to practical usability in life. By quality we mean producing men and women of capacity through educational empowerment. The quality that make ones fit with skill and knowledge, making a person successful, effective, dynamic, and creative as leaders, enriching the mind, enables personality development, initiative and activities, employable and be useful of the learned knowledge and experiences for self and the society in general as well. Educational system has to be standard, qualified, marketable, up-to-date, innovative, exploring and useful to be qualitative and competitive and globally recognised standards.
For instance, though the Indian government centre and state has been given due responsibilities with the constitutional provisions, yet still the system we have in our society is so pathetic. Broadly speaking to trouble-free education the Indian constitution makes provisions for education which we at time are ignorant and have left it out off our reach, not realising of those provisions, especially by the remote and backward regional sections represented by the responsibility deficiency leaders i.e. the standing government, since time and till date. Some of those provisions: Article 41 states, the state shall make provision for right to education. Article 45 states, Free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14. Entry 25 of list III of seventh schedule states, Vocational and technical training of labour as the joint responsibility of the centre and states. Article 46 states, Promotion of education in the weaker section of society. Article 282 states, Provision for grant for education. Further under seventh schedule list III state, Education as joint responsibility of the centre and the state, after 42nd amendment Act. The educational establishment from streams of subjects to vocational to technical has to be leading focus for quality and standard maintenance of education. These provisions are not taken as a priority by our leaders on the advantage of the ignorant masses, or still loving the expensive exurban fees in disguise encouraging those business making institutions, that left to a deplorable condition of lives of the majority masses.
Quality in education can be improved in numerous forms that need to be focus and worked out all together. For quality improvement and maintenance the first and fore most important task is to look into standardisation of the curriculum. Education has to be parallel with that of the professionalism, i.e. job oriented. Education needs to more of practical based then theoretical in system for purposes. William Butler Yeats stated, “Education is not filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire”. Quality Education should be able to motivate, inculcate and foster innovation through cognizance. Thereby an individual has much to do but the real impact reaches when society as a whole responses to the call of a vocation, that will quality the societal existence of the intellectual and moral dignity of humanity. Be an educated, stay educated and quality of education will stand as a brand ambassador for quality changes and quality transformations as leaders, as commoners, as students and learner and educators by profession and choice for quality all round development in Indian education system and especially the remote and deficit technical institution regional’s of North East. There by quality education should be developed to increase productivity, achieving of social and national integration, accelerate modernisation and cultivate social, intellectual and spiritual values all together as integrated global citizens.
