Education:

Before one reads my thoughts about education, it is essential to highlight some of my achievements within the span of 7 years since my university degree. Really! Not quite. However, in a nutshell, it is important to understand that achieving the highest marks in the country in A-level Mathematics and managing a multi-national business are completely different ball games. Books although help to achieve grades and knowledge, education on the other hand imparts one with the principles to become disciplined, persevere goals and learn from mistakes, most importantly be ethical, social and positively impact the economy. My point is: does being reasonably educated mean we are equally humane? If not, there has been a fundamental mistake in the method or the message. The goal of education cannot be to lead a luxurious life. Luxury might be the outcome of hard work. The true success of education would be to create a responsible human being. Education really starts from home and in fact, the learning seldom ends. If mathematics and accountancy accustoms a student with numbers, sociology and history brings the civilized citizenship out of a child. Likewise, personal actions towards a sustainable future and giving back to the society a part of what we have gained are true values of education in my opinion. However, some of my acquaintances may not agree with my theories. This might primarily be because of their success, methods and progress in life. Success although is a relative characterization, I do not dispute the fact that it is important to benefit from the hard work and forfeit that a child has gone through in order to complete, for instance, a post graduation degree. But it is equally important to understand that such a person has the potential to bring about a positive change or at least follow the constructive wave of collective living. Therefore, we need to make sure that while a child learns and gains knowledge, he/she also impacts the lives around him/her positively (including oneself of course). Mathematics can be a brilliant example to prove my point. Both primary and secondary research suggests that only those who love numbers and the subject matter itself has been a successful mathematician and/or pursued a career in the same. In other words, there is no point to enforce the love for Mathematics as it is unlikely that it would be a profitable foray. Similarly, there is no point in seeking compassion from a terrorist but there must be significant hope to edžpect a “Philip Noel-Baker“ stance or a “Florence Nightingale“ attitude out of everLJ child into whom we are devoting our considerable energy in providing education. Debasish Bose 30th Dec 2016.