According to the Duke of Edinburgh, education ought to produce a complete man.  And a complete man is one who possesses a specialized knowledge of any branch of learning along with an awareness of human obligations.  In other words, he should be good in his profession and at the same time be an ideal citizen.  His thinking should be rational and objective and he should have the ability to behave in a reasonable manner.  Sir Richard Living Stone, in his essay, “The Essentials of Education”, says that the aim of education is to know the first rate in any subject that we study.  And among the most important fields of study, he includes the art of living in addition to one’s vocation. Einstein thinks that the aim of education is the “Training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, see in the service of the community their highest life problem.”  All these  ideals put together lead us to but one conclusion – the aim of education is the professional, intellectual and moral training of an individual.  Judged by this, our modern system of education is a complete failure.

The so-called liberal education does not impart any professional training to our young men.  Our education is not job-oriented.  Even after spending the most precious years of their lives at schools and colleges, our students find their future stretched before them, dark and uncertain.  They are so ill equipped to face it that quite often they are subjected to utter frustration.  In our universities, there exist no facilities to ascertain scientifically the aptitude and caliber of a student.  The careless planning causes uncertainty and this uncertainty in return breeds unrest.

Our system of education is highly theoretical.  The best method to learn a thing is to perform it or to experience it.  But in our educational institutions, students are exposed to only theoretical lectures that often tend to be dull, insipid and ill informed.  Students are mostly at the receiving end.  This slackens their natural curiosity and dampens their enthusiasm.

No effort is made to turn the students into fine human beings.  The ethical aspect of a student’s personality is completely neglected.  Most of our teachers are irresponsible lot who do not realize the sanctity of their job.  They are not imbued with any spirit of idealism.  Besides, students are entrusted to them in large wildly groups.  There is no personal, intimate contact between the students and the teachers.  Outside the class, no healthy outlets are provided to the students.  Facilities for games and other extra curricular activities are inadequate.  For want of healthy channelization, students often took to undesirable activities.

But the talk of the town is the ‘Sex Awareness among the Students’, which has remained slacken.  Man is a social being and therefore for the smooth functioning of a society their should be harmony among men and women, which is very desirable in the modern era.  Our society is shrouded by multifaceted problems.  Among them most are related to the molestation, eve teaching, sexual harassment and rape cases too.  There hardly passes a day when we do not see the glaring headlines exposing the ‘brutality of man’s nature’.  As matter is just out of place, so is a man brutal, if he happens to renal his inner emotion at the wrong place and at the undesired time.  Man is the supreme creation of God and henceforth he has to know his real worth.  He should learn to restrict his emotions else he carves out his own downfal

Thus, India’s crying need of the hour is ‘Sex Education’.  Though the term may sound vulgar to some, yet to maintain decency in the school arena one has to go through these classes to realize the distinction between vulgarity and modesty.  In the schools and colleges of the U.K. and the U.S.A. and France ‘Sex-Education’ has boldly build up healthy citizens in the long run.

Before infusing ‘Sex-Education’ into the system, the first prerequisites are to build up co-educational schools and colleges where men and women will learn and grow together with a feeling of one ness as a whole.  But this feeling of union has to be injected into them slowly.  For the development of the country, people who are on dignitary posts should come forward albeit they are criticized.  The classes for sex education should be made compulsory.  The students may have a little hesitation about it, but soon they will realize that it is a part and parcel of their life.  With the spreading education some benefit can be achieved gradually.

Some compulsory classes, talk shows and video clipping on sex – awareness will obviously have a positive impact on the students where they will learn to respect women as a whole.  It is the men, who should realize that the “Hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”.  So any disgrace to women will lead to the degeneration of mankind.

So, our aim of education is to build character, to impart some sort of moral education and inculcate certain traits, which help a person in leading a responsible life, a life in which he is able to strike a happy balance about his obligations towards his society, towards the state and himself.  Though there is dissatisfaction with the current socio-economic-political milieu and they have rejected most of its basic tenets.  But there is no satisfactory substitute.  They are falling a prey to the lure of the hippicutt.  The students should display intellectual maturity and discretion in ascertaining their course of life.

Only a positive fortitude towards life will enable us to maintain peace and sanctity.  Thus we are reminded to Keats’ line “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever” but we should have the mental set-up to cherish that beauty for ever is not to be demolished with our brutal hearts.

Timir Kumar Sengupta

Principal

Arunodaya Public School, Thane