Recent Supreme Court order upholding
right to education, a brain child of Kapil Sibal is probably the first big and
bold step towards a free and vibrant India.
In this nation there exists a huge gap between have and have-nots. While have -
have it all be it better education facilities and thus better job opportunities
and have-nots mostly have no education facilities at all and none at jobs.
Hence while rich become richer poor have become poorer. Films like ‘Arakshan’
have laid bare the gap between education of Economically Weaker Sections of the
society and the rich class. Reservations in jobs and promotions though may get
more votes and thus help some make money but that does not make a better nation
or a better tomorrow. For a nation to excel, its foremost duty is to provide
equal opportunities to all starting with education and health.
Education is a necessity. Our economic
system depends from growth. "Growth" economically is defined by the
increase of turnover of goods and services. Theoretically that either results from
destruction (natural disaster, war) or from "replacement" of old
ones. That "replacement" process is only possible by innovation.
"Innovation" comes out of Research and development, R & D is
depending from "education". Any economy not investing into education
is shoveling its own grave.
It has been generally perceived that
children belonging to rich families and who have studied in so called top
public schools are better suited in civil services than those children who have
not studied in public schools. A person born in a poor family is considered
inferior to a boy who is born in a rich family. A person may be born in a
poor family but he may be more talented than a boy born in a rich family.
Experience has shown that talent is inbred in a child and has nothing to do
with his social status. A rich culture to which a boy has born does not
give him inherent talent which is required for a nation. Had a poor boy
been educated in the similar circumstances as a rich boy would bring out the hidden
talent of that poor boy. The situation had come where talent and natural
gift had not been taken in qualifying for a right to a higher education and
only money counted.
It is intolerable to think that year
after year millions of our children who have higher natural gifts and talent
have been deprived of higher education in the same institutes as the children
of rich people, even though those children may not possess single vestige of
inherent talent. It is true that a man can be trained to a certain amount
of mechanical dexterity just as a poodle can be taught incredible tricks by his
clever master. But such training does not bring the animal to use his
intelligence to carry out those tricks. Similarly, it is possible to
teach men irrespective of talent or not talent to go through certain exercises
but in all such cases the results are mere mechanical and inanimate as in the
case of an animal. It is possible to force a man of mediocre intelligence
by means of intellectual drilling to gain knowledge but that would not
increase the intelligence of such person and his knowledge will remain
sterile. A man may be walking dictionary of knowledge but when time and
circumstances warrant he may be found lacking in that intellectual analyze that
situation demands to think promptly to take corrective decisions.
Such people cannot be
considered fit for service of the nation and this nation till date has been
deprived the use of million of its children who have been born in the
economically weaker section of the society. It goes without saying
that gifted and talented people are found in every sphere of life. The
talent must be brought out by enabling those children to be educated in the
same schools and educational institutions whose door till date have been closed
to them. Here again the author would like point out that stock of
knowledge packed into a brain will not suffice to make discoveries, but only
that knowledge which is illuminated or guided by the natural talent of that
child. Here the author means that every child in whatever
sphere of life, is not equally talented in all spheres of life. Every
child has a particular talent which can goad him to higher spheres of life.
Thus it is the duty of the nation to give every child an automatic right to
higher educational institutions which will then determine the talent of that
child.
This has been imperative necessity for thus alone it
will be possible to develop the body of talented leaders/Govt. Servants/IAS
Officers to serve the nation, unlike the robots that they have become
today. There is another reason why the higher social classes must
intermingle with the people of so called lower social strata. It has long
been cut off from those people considering all along that those people are fit
only for menial and manual labour thereby they themselves live in
seclusion from vast majority of the people of society. It is the duty of
this nation that talent of its citizens wherever it may be must be brought out
so that the best people serve the nation. And there is no strata of
society who feel aloof from the welfare of the nation. It is the duty of
the nation to select the best people with talent and knowledge who can serve in
civil services and train the best brains for those branches of public service for
which they show a natural aptitude and placing them in such offices where they
can do best and contribute there best for he good of the community. But
on this issue, I will speak exhaustively in my next article.
KAPIL DEV AGGARWAL.
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