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YOUTH AND LITERACY
No skill is more crucial to the future of a child, or to a
democratic and
prosperous society, than literacy said the Los Angeles Times in
its "A Child Literacy
Initiative for the Greater Los Angeles Area". Wise words indeed.
As nations look forward
and plan their futures, they plan primarily for their children.
It is the youth of the nation
who will bear their countries flags high. These young people
should be capable,
responsible and have the flair and aptitude to carry their
country forward to greater
heights. For all this, a good education is important. Forget
important, it is indispensable.
Turning back the pages of history and studying the times of the
great empires of
yore, one startling fact strikes our eyes. It is but this: the
superpowers of the past have all
had exceptionally good education systems, the best of their
times anyway, and their youth
were able to use it to the utmost. Churning this fact in our
minds for some time, we also
discover that they fell to the dust as a result of this
education system of theirs falling
down in standards. It is no coincidence that the superpower of
our times, the United
States has the best education system among all the countries and
it is also no coincidence
that educationists feel that its standards are coming down
comparative to other countries,
at the same time that other experts believe that the United
States is losing its pre-eminent
position among countries.
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a
fire, said William
Butler Yeats, an Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the
foremost figures of20th century
literature. In his later years Yeats served as an Irish
Senatorfor two terms and was a
driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival. To the
consternation of educationists all
over the world, very often education as we see it is nothing but
gross filling up of pails.
Education has been distorted to such an extent that interest is
not generated and a dreary
practice of learning by rote has become the norm. The talents of
our youth are often
censored by this process of mindless following of a singular
method of education. Of
course, blind mugging as this process is called by few, is
constructive is some ways;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irelandhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatisthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century_in_literaturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century_in_literaturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seanad_%C3%89ireann_(Irish_Free_State)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Revivalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irelandhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatisthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century_in_literaturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century_in_literaturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seanad_%C3%89ireann_(Irish_Free_State)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Revival
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Our life must become an altar to learning. For not only will
this learning be
beneficial to us later on in our lives but it also enriches our
lives considerably. Live as if
your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever,
said Mahatma Gandhi,
the widely-admired and loved Father of our nation, the
pre-eminent political and
ideological leader ofIndia during the Indian independence
movement who
pioneered Satyagraha. By these words, the great soul means to
convey to us that we
should live each day with as much piety as we would if we knew
we were going to die
the next day. Compare this with St. Pauls I die everyday, in the
Bible. He also seeks to
convey that we should accrue knowledge as though we need to gain
enough knowledge to
live forever. Only this kind of a proper, deliberate perusal of
knowledge will be useful to
us in the long run.
In India, the literacy rate is however a dismal 68%. The level
is well below the
world average literacy rate of 84%, and India currently has the
largest illiterate
population of any nation on earth. The above statements make for
a gloomy read. But
there is still hope. The 2001 census indicated a 1991-2001
decadal literacy growth of
12.63%, which is the fastest-ever on record. A 1990 study
estimated that it would take
until 2060 for India to achieve universal literacy at
then-current rate of progress. India is
a young country now the marvelous economic growth of our country
is because of this
young population. For us to take proper advantage of this, we
will have to ensure that
literacy in our country reaches as high as possible. China has
been able to do so and
currently enjoys a literacy rate of above 90% which is much
higher than the world
average of approximately 84%. Closer home, we can take the
example of Kerala. It
adopted a style which enabled "fusion between the district
administration headed by its
Collector on one side and, on the other side, voluntary groups,
social activists and
others". It currently has a literacy rate of above 90% too.
India would certainly do well to
emulate the Kerala Government on a larger scale.
PRATHEEK PRAVEEN KUMAR
[email protected]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rajhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_independence_movementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagrahahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illiteracyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rajhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_independence_movementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagrahahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illiteracy
