Why Education is Important

I guess we all take for granted that it's the educated people that are driving India's current economic growth. What is it that makes education so important? Can a person not survive without a formal education? Yes, he / she can most definitely survive.

This whole concept that we need to be educated in order to make it big in life has been imbibed in us by our society and the systems under which we work. It doesn't necessarily have to be that way.

That apart, let me get to the pros of a good formal education. We all know that education disciplines us and teaches us a whole lot of things. It adds a lot of value to you as a person. Moreover, our systems are organised in such a way that only a person with a good education gets a good job and only one with a good job, read good pay, is respected in society. When I was in school my dad used to tell me (especially when my grades were not good enough), that all I had to start with in life was my education and nothing else. What he meant to say was, I'll provide for your education and the rest is up to you; don't expect any material wealth. I probably didn't take it seriously at the time; but today when i look back, I see the truth in his words. I've got a job and am doing well in life at the moment thanks to the fact that my dad sent me to school and college. I now have a good platform and I can build on it from here, but what about those children's whose dads' prefer not to send them to school?
My dad gave me an education because his father gave him one and my grandad gave my father an education because his father had given him one and so on. If you follow this family line or tree, you will notice that at some point in time, there was an uneducated father who decided to send his son to school and provide him some education. That is the turning point.

I saw this unfold before me in college, where one of my friends from a rural background is now working for a multi national and is at present in the US. His father was an agriculturist and a mason. The turning point was when he decided that his son would not be a mason but become something better. He sends this boy to school; the boy does reasonably well. School life is over; now comes the question of whether he should go to college or not. His father decides to send the boy to college. The fees are very high compared to the livelihood that he is earning but he doesn't give up. He somehow gets money on loan and sends his boy to college. The boy does well at college, learns things quickly, excels in his studies, finishes college, struggles in finding a job but eventually gets a nice job in an MNC. After a few months, he gets the chance to go to the US and is currently over there. So, now what made this guy from a remote village in TamilNadu land a nice job and go to the States. I agree that his hard work and effort played a major part in it; let's not discount the importance of hard work. But i believe, the seed for his growth was sown a long time back when his father decided to send him to school. What if his dad had thought that eduction was not important and he could be an agriculturist just like him? This is where the tide turned and now by that decision he has ensured that the standard of living of his son and grandchildren and much better that his. This is just one case. There were a lot of guys with me in college who were the first graduates in the their families. The point I'm trying to make is that the decision by one father has changed the life of many generations to come; how much more can be changed if many such fathers decided to give their children an education. That is the power of education in the current context of our society.

I'm not saying that we have the best education system and all (there are a lot of cons too), but I only want to drive home the importance of primary education. It gives you a good foundation from where you can become successful if you are willing to work hard.

A friend of mine once gave me this one-liner on the purpose of education and it has stuck in memory ever since - "Education is to train the mind to think". Doesn't get much simpler, does it?