“RIGHT TYPE OF EDUCATION: THE NEED OF THE HOUR”

- Ratan Kaurinta1

What is the right type of education that is needed for our society at this crucial
juncture when a lot of changes are noticeable and perceptible around us particularly
due to the emergence of globalization? A question comes to mind as to what type of
education is required now? Is it the same old traditional type be carried forward or
education with specific direction. Probably, the later draws the attention of many of us.
I am also induced as a teacher to see that my students after obtaining proper education
do not remain unemployed and frustrated or disconcerted. I, therefore advocate for the
just and relevant type of education for our society today.

Education is one vital needs of every being in any society. Today, education has
become the largest single activity in the world in terms of the number of people
engaged in it. Education is a process of human enlightenment and empowerment for
the achievement of a better and higher quality of life. A sound and effective system of
education will definitely result in the unfolding of the learner’s potentialities,
enlargement of their competencies and transformation of their interests, attitude and
values. Therefore, the objective of education in the present context is not only to
promote equality and social justice but also to provide the right type of work ethos and
culture, professional expertise and leadership in all walks of life. It is an endeavour to
foster among teachers and students the integral development of values inherent in
physical, emotional, national, aesthetic, ethical and spiritual education and transmit
through them in the society. We also know that in the area of education, it is quality
which is increasingly becoming more important than quantity.

Our present education system has become somewhat outdated, as it was

designed, basically to cater to the requirements of the white collared jobs. But today
not only the numbers of govt. jobs have reached saturation point, the nature and
requirements of white collared jobs themselves are also undergoing drastic changes.
As a result, our educational institutions are turning graduates, who are ill equipped to
meet the demands and challenges of society. In other words, they are not competent or
skillful enough to bag white collar jobs under the Government and private sectors,
which are becoming tough and competitive in a globalize job market. At the same
time, education has also weakened their limbs, making them mentally unprepared for
jobs involving manual labour. Some have even become alienated from society, so
much so that, they may turn into anti-social elements.

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Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Nagaland University, Kohima.
 One indication of the major deficiencies in our present education system is the
fact that, while there is no serious unemployment amongst those who are not educated,
there is a serious unemployment amongst the educated. Hence, reorientation of our
education system is the need of the hour. We need education that will equip our
students with the skill they need to face reality, and to compete in the global job
market. We need education that will turn our youth into real assets for the society, and
definitely not liabilities as rendered.

Mahatma Gandhi once visualizes education as “an all round drawing out of the
best in child and man – body, mind, and spirit”. Education is a lifelong process of
learning, which begins at cradle and finishes at the grave. It is a gradual process of
development of manpower for the battle of life.

Education in the present Naga society has made a lot of differences to status in
general and the students in particular. For that matter, students apparently hold and
expect that they be given good, high quality and viable knowledge and not merely a
mark-sheet oriented education. That is not to undermine that scoring high marks is less
important for eligibility and security in job market but career orientation is of more
significance. Students in the present days are looking forward to confidence building
measures from their teacher, to motivate, inspire, enthuse hard work, and for timely
guidance.

Quest and thirst for excellence, motivation, determination, and hard work have
not made much headway in the present generation of Naga society except for a
dedicated few. Here, I think, we as teachers are also partly to be blamed, as “we can
not give what we do not have”. Having acquired knowledge is not enough to be
qualified as a teacher, guide, and leader. Teaching skills and techniques are absolutely
necessary to impart qualitative education. As such, the major focus should be on those
factors which contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of teaching and learning.
For this purpose, teacher’s training programmes, seminars, workshops, discussions,
debates etc. are to be organised periodically to help teachers to update themselves with
latest developments and to equip with qualification to teach and acquire wider range of
knowledge all to the benefit of the students. While moulding the minds of the young
people, the teacher will do well to take the leadership to mobilize and motivate
students to work towards career and job oriented enterprises and undertakings. That is,
lessons and core curriculum should be deliberately proactive and future oriented
combined with successful team interaction and effective leadership.

The teaching community is the backbone of a society’s progress and

development. Therefore, teachers in one capacity or the other should do well to
remember that the nation’s destiny is literally shaped in the classroom. It is a well
accredited fact to reiterate that the destiny of the country is decided in classroom.
It therefore becomes imperative that students should be shaped well to stand the stress

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and strain of life with confidence and honesty. Education will be of little or no use if it
does not shape a student’s character well suited to a life of virtue with high caliber.
The need is to welcome and synthesis or blend creativity and professionalism. The
challenge is to work on it with the philosophy of working to commitment where
students do not learn just their curriculum but problem-solving skills as well.

My thinking on the right type of education has been drawn to teaching career
oriented and vocational subjects such as IT, Business Administration, tourism as an
industry, fashion designing, international trade, banking, insurance etc. along with the
formal subjects for the benefit of students and more so towards creating the much
needed entrepreneurs in the State. Here, mention may be made of the need for such
type of education.

 Nagaland as we all know is an economically backward State

 There has been an increasing dependence on Central Govt. for funds
which is not a welcome feature
 In such a situation, revenue generation from within the State becomes
imperative
 Adequate manpower requires to be developed to undertake commercial
and other economic ventures in the absence of Government jobs
 The pass out students with their acquired level of education need not
wait for govt. jobs when other ways are open to build an entrepreneurial career.
In fact, entrepreneurs enhance the flexibility and adaptability of economies
because individuals can move much faster than large bureaucratic corporations.

Entrepreneurship education becomes indispensable particularly in Nagaland,

although the existing system of education can not accommodate such type of education
unless some changes are made. Most of the institutions have not kept pace with
changes. In a situation of resource imbalance, the challenges to entrepreneurship
education are tremendous. In this region i.e. in particular the NER of the Indian sub-
continent, there have always been shortages of trained personnel in various functional
areas of management. On one hand, there are large numbers of educated unemployed
who are mostly looking at Government to give them jobs. On the other hand, they are
not adequately trained so much so that they can not exploit their own potential. Of the
various resources, the human resource is considered most crucial and important.
Unfortunately, the major chunk of the educated youth of the State have not realize and
have also not been given exposure about managing their own projects and careers.
Thus a large number of employment opportunities are being lost. It is felt that through
entrepreneurship education the important tasks of developing enterprising youth can be
accomplished. This is not to say that teachers cannot develop, learn and gain from new
ways of doing things. Teachers are well educated, thoughtful, amongst the most
articulate people in society, and if asked and honestly listened to, I have no doubt that
any teacher could exactly describe how they teach and their reasons for doing so.

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 Yet, with changes like globalization, deregulation, disinvestment, open
competition and technological changes taking place, our society is becoming an
entrepreneurial society where individuals faces tremendous challenge, a challenge they
need to exploit as an opportunity, the need for continuous learning and relearning.
The educational system requires radically new thinking and approaches. Such as
change in attitude, technology and system. “The ability to generate original ideas and
solve problems appropriate to the contexts” is what I feel the right type of education.
Prior to the current education streamlining, ‘education’ was compartmentalized and
subject-based giving little scope for academically weaker students, which to some
extent are skill-oriented—for example, the use of various creativity strategies, like
brainstorming in problem identification or creative and critical thinking in computer
problems. However, the present requirement is to move education away from the
polarity of learning that is either subject or skills-based and to breakdown the
compartmentalizing of knowledge.

Attempts should be made towards vocationalisation of our existing education

system at all levels. Consequently, another important area which should become a part
of formal education is information technology.

 Today knowledge of IT has become essential for everyone. Be it web-based

services, e-commerce and software engineering, etc they all have emerged
as the new wheels of the Indian economy.
 The IT revolution has become the new mantra in our economic landscape.
 The high potential of IT to generate wealth and employment has already
caught the imagination of every body
 Computer is being used almost every where, for e.g. education, business,
government, family, welfare organisation, research centre etc.

It is therefore absolutely necessary for students to learn at least to operate a

computer if not becoming an expert. All our educational institutions must make it a
point to start IT as one compulsory course. A beginning has already been made in this
direction under the aegis of SCERT. Use of e-content and e-based courseware and
support material like graphics, animation and demonstration can benefit teaching
tremendously. In view of these requirements, the need of the hour is to develop skills
in computer and internet usage, use of content development software, working with
software wizard, create globally competitive courseware etc. Ideally, IT is being used
for all purposes. As a matter of fact, resorting to the new technology does not in any
way reduce the role of a teacher; rather it adds value for the better. With such new
input, it would both create new learning and help teachers to innovate on course
content and teaching methods. Again, it would create congenial atmosphere for higher
education by removing greater inequalities and by creating virtual educational
facilities. This would eventually lead to the empowerment of the students’ community

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in general. Therefore, all possibility should be explored to create courses in tune with
market trends and needs and IT can be one such courses. IT acts as an agent of social
transformation and harbinger of knowledge-based society in the present century. The
full benefits can be achieved only by maximizing the reach of IT and its tools among
the general public. The target is not to create experts rather the objective is to break
the fear of unknown and create smart users of IT tools.

Some professional courses like the MCA, CA, ICWA, MBA, CS, law, medicine
and engineering etc. are still demanding. It is however, unfortunate to note that in
Nagaland we do not have any institution offering many of these courses. It is urgently
required that atleast some new institutions should come up or our University (NU)
should offer, if not all few of these courses without any delay. Also, the present
curriculum does not prepare the students wholly for facing the competitive exams as
well.

With the onset of 21st century and the incorporation of education in the service
sector, the country is facing completely new and complex challenges particularly in
higher education. Every institution with a potential for excellence will be grappled
with many of these issues in the near future as it seeks to build up on its position as a
modernizing and efficient institution of academic excellence as the seminar theme
rightly propagates.

So far as I understand, the most important challenge that today’s teachers as

well as academic administrators have to meet is that of combining excellence in
teaching and research with social responsibility. If a teacher can be equipped to take
on these challenges on a positive note, one may say that, more dynamism and
competitiveness are required on our part. These in turn, demand not only a new
mindset on the teaching community, but also acquiring of new skills and techniques.
Indeed, nothing less than a wholehearted endeavour to put modern technology at the
service of education. The National Policy on Education (1986) GOI strongly
documented the critically important role of teachers’ motivation, but then, such
impetus are not automatic, it had to be inculcated and perpetuated by means of a
continuous improvement of the professional competence and communication skills of
the teachers.

Our vision, as I envisage should be to make the job of a teacher both exact and
demanding. As we are all aware and as pointed out by our earlier learned speakers
very tactfully. We can safely say that acquisition of knowledge is a two way process-
i.e. it is between the teacher and the taught and therefore, collectively we must
advance the frontiers of knowledge. “Future lies in the hands of those who dare to
pave a road rather than tread on it, who decides to give the world what it hasn’t seen
and who have the ability to turn ideas into solutions”.

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