Education is something we experience in our everyday life and how learn new things. It also means acquiring knowledge or transmitting meaningful knowledge and purposeful activities or skills.
According to John Dewy "Education is the development of all those capabilities in the individual which will enable him to control his environment and fulfill his responsibilities".
Therefore the foundation of education for every child should have a strong and purposeful beginning. Since parents are the first teachers of a child, their first and early education should be guided by moral values such as kindness, love, respect and sympathy towards others.
The environment that a child grows up in plays a very important role, so it should be free from violence, discrimination on any ground so that the child will develop a positive mindset and whenever they step out from their home, their actions will be guided by values.
The system of education today needs to be child-centered rather than too much emphasizing on bookish knowledge. In fact, a child should be made to imitate a sponge so that he/she can absorb the important aims, meaning and goals of education. The teachers play an important role in upbringing and molding the child in the formal setting of education and so they are to be constantly conscious of their actions and radiate good qualities through teaching and through their personality. The child who is a good imitator will automatically instill those qualities in him. As in the words of Mahatma Gandhi, for "all round development", a proper and purposeful beginning in education is needed right from the start and it is the result of the collective efforts from parents, teachers and society as a whole to take responsibilities in order to make their next generation a better one and to culminate a peaceful environment to live.
In addition to that, a child should be spared from mental stress to allow him to grow with a positive mindset for the purpose of education and life. It is very much prevalent especially in our society that a number of parents have got the "sickness" or problem of ignoring the state of a child's mental health in the pursuit of providing education at different levels. Parents tend to ignore and address the mental needs of the child and many children, in this course, lose their zeal for life and hinders their way of thinking and eventually leads them into making poor choices in life and in return, the child will eventually fail to meet the minimum requirements of receiving formal education, which will in turn become an obstacle to at least earn his livelihood and fulfill his basic needs without depending on others, relatives, and his parents. So, this problem needs to be tackled early to prevent children from going astray. We see many youngsters making choices that lead them to drop out from schools, colleges, universities and rebel against their parents, as a consequence of parents paying less heed to them and their problems, lack of right education or they were misguided or even lack of support and encouragement from their elders or parents.
Education is very important to be successful in life. It is the responsibility of parents and teachers to impart the right kind of education for every child from an early age so that they get to be an active and responsible citizen in the society and to lead their upcoming generations. Children are born with curious mind and they have the tendency to catch up on things very quickly, so they should be nurtured in a right way to avoid failure in life .They should be be allowed to pursue their interests to gain mastery if their interests and develop innovative things which can be beneficial for everyone. A child must be encouraged to do well if there is potential in order to boost his confidence. The environment and classroom should consist of teachers and classmates from different backgrounds, so that they can train themselves to be good listeners and develop respect for every opinion and cooperate with other fellow beings and to make good connections. A blend of different backgrounds will give them the opportunity to have patience towards others. The most important thing to invest in a child is to give a good foundation in education which will allow them to have a bright and successful future. Vocational education should be included in the curriculum to empower them with skills so even if they give up studies due to financial problems, ill health or family problems, they can still earn their livelihood with the help of the skills they have previously acquired.
When a child is given a proper meaning of education, a child will have a positive outlook and mend his ill ways to spread positivity to the society through his works and live a purposeful and successful life. He will have the qualities and courage to face the challenges that life has to offer him and get through hard times wisely. The existing problems such as unemployment, human trafficking, violence, discrimination, and immoral activities will drastically decline if such early detection and remedies are made in a child's learning stage.
The Degree of Thought Column is a weekly community column initiated by Tetso College in partnership with The Morung Express. The column explored contemporary social, cultural, political, and educational issues and challenges around us. However, the views expressed here do not reflect the opinion of the institution. Tetso College is a NAAC-accredited, UCG-recognized Commerce and Arts college. Currently, the Degree of Thought Column is managed by the department of Mass Communication, and the editorial team are Dr Jenny Lalmuanpuii, KC Gabriela and Rinsit Sareo. For feedback or comments, please email:dot@tetsocollege.org.
