1. Damodarshree 2012 Submitted By: Nilanjan Bhattacharya
Education for the making of a complete individual
I am born into a definitive Bengali middle class family and I have inherited the
opinion that, education is the most profitable investment one should go for as
it always grows.
Education is the basis for the learning process, and like all basis, it is too
abstract in nature and hence, I cannot define education in precise and absolute
terms. But still everyone has to admit that education plays a vital role in a
person's overall development.
I prefer to call education an infinite process, it has no beginning and it has
no end, as one cannot say when people started to learn. The abstractness of
education is quite visible as one cannot answer that how or why we started to
learn, what was the immediate cause that motivated us to learn.
It would be very unjust to say that education is merely, mastering some art, or
it is a gateway to employment, that create means for earning money.
Education is a channel via which knowledge is imparted, and knowledge is the
cause that widens our mental horizon. It gives us power to think rationally
and act wisely.
Education creates a wholistic environment, where giver of education is
learning too and evolving. The learner are trying to see the perspective of
the educator, hence increasing his own pool of ideas.
It is very interesting to observe that education creates a sense of
confidence,as well as it forces us to doubt. This not a contradictory nature of
education but shows that,education builds a rational sense in an individual.
This rational sense guides us to take decisions and act. If there would have
been no rational sense in us, then we would have been guided by the The Pied
Piper of Hamelin and would have fallen off the cliff.
Education bridges all the barriers,it makes us appreciate the entire
learning process. It makes us understand about our past and it gives us a
vision to move forward to the future.
Limiting education to schools,colleges or other formal institute is trivializing
the magnanimous image of education. I consider that we are subject to
education from the time of our birth,when parents try that the moaning
sounds made by an agonistic baby should resemble to the sound of “Ma” or
“Baba” or when a child is scolded for not doing things properly. Education is
also accompanied with sense of understanding and humility,that is very
important for one's life .
If education can not make us think, or give us an insight,then it should be
called set of instructions rather than education. The idea behind educating one
person should not be levying his own thinking or point of view on others. It
should be about sharing knowledge and that would make the learner a
thinker. Following set of instructions is attribute of a computer or a robot and
not of a human being. Education always makes one liberated and free person.
Observing a fellow human,understanding his thought is also a part of
education. This sort of education helps a man to be helpful towards other
person. It makes one feel that he is not only for himself,but his actions also
affect the people who are associated with him. The interaction with other
people makes one social,so that he can build a friendly atmosphere with other

2. Damodarshree 2012 Submitted By: Nilanjan Bhattacharya
fellow beings. We can also say that education makes a man a congenial
creature.
Learning from past experiences is also a form of education which makes a man
cautious of all the mistakes that he has committed. This learning helps him to
understand the effects of action on certain situation he faces. This sort of
learning improves a man. I used the word “improves” intentionally because
when a person acts he always thinks his action is right. If a person knows his
action would cause negative effect he would not act,no action can ever rise
from void conception. This kind of learning improves one's previous knowledge.
It makes a person evolutionary and more open to changes. If education does
not make a man open to changes then the man would soon perish, because
change is law of nature and with time he would be obsolete. Education
makes one immune to obsolescence.
Education is a rigorous process,learning is a duty of the educatee as much as
educating is the duty of educator. The mutual respect of duties ,makes a
person disciplined so that each can perform their due roles.
If education would have been,just reading books or completing a course then
every one would have been educated in no time. The completeness would have
been achieved by a person, the way we download a song or surf the internet.
Learning demands patience and practice. Patience does not means just
waiting for the time to lapse,and practice does not mean repeating
something that educator has imparted.
Scrutinizing one's work and improving it,is actually practice,and
patience is a form of determination which is required to iterate
through the scrutinizing cycle until the desired perfection is achieved.
Practice and patience is both cause and effect of education because will of
gaining education is necessary. Education exhibits recursive nature.
One of the notable aspect of education is that everyone is eligible for
education. There is no age boundary for education. When one has a desire to
be educated, he can seek education from a teacher. It is a moral duty on part
of teacher to educate anyone without any discrimination if one wants to be
educated.
Even self education can be achieved the way Ekalavya a character in
Mahabarata achieved when he was denied education because of his low birth.
So, the will to be educated plays a very vital role in one's education.
Moral education or value based education is taught to children at home and
schools. This education is very important too, because,it forms the base of
one's consciousness and conduct. A person with high moral value has a strong
character. This strength in character makes a man bearer of all kind of
situation without being subject to dysfunctional rationale. If education doesn't
provide moral values and self culture then it does not amount to education but
it can only be simply called commands to be followed.
The basic goal for all sorts of education should be to build an insight within the
students. It should make them morally ,socially aware and cultured. If
education cannot strengthen the inner will and self disciple then, it will loose
it's prime place in it's role played as an overall developer of an individual.
Nowadays,there is such a rat race for existence,such cut throat competition
exists in our society. It seems that one prefers to master at some trade

3. Damodarshree 2012 Submitted By: Nilanjan Bhattacharya
whether it is business or engineering. The individuals are of opinion that one
has to educate themselves in order to be more employable.
People now prefer to educate themselves as per the need of market.
This trend threatens the purpose of education, as it is meant to fill
one's own void and not to satisfy the need of market. If one tries to fill
void of market at cost of his own educational feeds, then one’s completeness is
at stake. By this, one may satisfy his materialistic needs, but his esoteric and
Meta physical needs will go unsatisfied.
I'll share a couple examples,which were professed to me at school, and I
believe those examples are unintentional misguides to the children.
One, teacher always say that one should guide own self to a specific aim, the
way the horses are guided by the eye strap. Probably intended virtue to be
learned from this is hard-work and perseverance,but side effect interpretation
can also be drawn that,”move to your goal,see nothing apart from it,trample
everything that comes in your way”.
Another malpractice according to me exists where teacher always lays stress
on students to study texts as prescribed in syllabus. If education is limited
by syllabus then our thinking sphere would be as constricted as toad
of pond.
In my perception marks based assessment also hampers education and
learning process,although we never fail to admit the fact that,marks sheet
prove nothing but we still use marks sheet as a tool of judgment for
individual's caliber. So education that was supposed to be an impetus for
overall development of the educatee is sidelined because one would always
aim to score marks at first place than to educate himself. This change in
priority may make a man successful in one dimension but life has a
multidimensional outlook and everything is to be balanced.
I would share a global incidence,which makes us realize that our uni-
dimensional thinking can be very harmful. Just after the industrial revolution in
Europe,the European countries tried to colonize entire world in order to build
market for their finished goods. This came at heavy cost of wars and creation
of third world countries whose natural resources was squandered by the
Europeans. Still these countries are trying to reestablish themselves. Now,
globally countries are working together to uplift them.
Despite of having knowledge about technicalities of business warfare,politics
economics etc. Europe at that time was still uneducated,as they lacked
knowledge about universal harmony or mutual respect for humanity because
they treated everyone in a beastly way.
In modern world,we do not care for nature and environment in
general,although we study Environmental Education as a mandatory subject in
all courses. This also proves a point that just reading or studying a subject is
not enough to educate us. If we would have been educated then we would
have been taking active steps to protect our environment.
Till so far I started off discussing what is education or what all qualities should
a learning process instill in one to qualify as education, I shared a few problem
that prevails in the process of imparting education. Some real world illustration
were taken to prove that still we are not educated enough to call ourselves
complete.

4. Damodarshree 2012 Submitted By: Nilanjan Bhattacharya
In this closing segment I will share my own imagination that how a complete
individual would be after attaining education.
An educated person would be a sublime person who would respect every one
and there would be no vanity in him because of his knowledge.
He should be skillful enough in the trade in which he aims to master so that his
skill and working potential be a service to mankind. To serve humanity skills
need not be tangible, for example both Buddha and Edward Jenner did a great
service to society by enlightening our spirit and protecting our body by
vaccines respectively. All services provided by educated individuals are equally
important.
An educated person is well aware of his rights and meticulous towards his
duties. Being aware of one's right and performing one's duty towards society is
an important aspect of education.
Being just and unbiased are also qualities that is instilled in one by education,
these are key qualities which governs our conduct with others.
Education is an important aspect of our life which separates us from other
animals of this planet. Like them we eat, sleep, excrete, respond to stimulus
and reproduce. Only the education factor places us at the top of animal
kingdom, that is what makes us human, as well as lets us dream about
completeness of ourselves so that we can make world a better place to live,
where everyone love each other and live in harmony with our fellow beings and
nature.
Only education is a means that can bridge all the gaps present in our society.
It can make all of us tied in a single thread of love.
The following poem by Rabindranath Tagore tells the problems that persist due
to lack of education.
“Where the mind is without fear”
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”
This poem has always been the source of my imagination of a complete
individual.