Safiur Rahaman Maibam
“A good system of education is one which can make people accept the past, support the present and encourage the future”.
Education is one which can make fulfilled the needs of society and individuals. Education is one which engenders in an individual the sense of values and urge for serving the society, our fellow men and women and that all live. There is a strong relation between education and society, undoubtedly education system affect the society. The purpose of education is to enlarge our vision of the milieu, development of self must be accompanied by the development of society. Human mind can be modified and improved through educational process. Thus there are three main aims of education; individuals development, social and national development, social transformation.
Education to the elastic young mind of children can be moulded for bridging social, economical, political, cultural and language/dialects differences within a tolerable range by the virtue of a good system of education. Education is the powerful instrument and responsible for bringing the different ethnic group together and promote the emergence of an egalitarian and integrated society. Education is a creative activity that shapes the character of individuals and communities and it is responsible for their behaviour and attitudes. A value-based system of education strived to produce more balanced, more sensitive, more socialised personalities in the young mind. For shaping a peaceful, progressive and prosperous society, progressive youth are very important. But progressive youth will bring only when a good system of education is imparting, which is also known as the liberating forces. A Greek philosopher, Diogenes says that “The foundation of every state is the education of its youth”. That why a value-based system of education is needed for a common future of Manipur. The emergent need of our Manipur is the third aim of education that is the social transformation. But the prevailing system of education can fulfilled this aim?
Many questions can arise to the prevailing system of education in today Manipur society. How far the present system of education is confidence in the common future of Manipur? How far this system of education can make the people sense of belongingness? Why this system of education can’t make political consciousness to the people of Manipur? How much this system of education emphasis on the common purposes and idea? How far this system of education can pull out the people from ethnicism? Can this system make confidence in our society? How much this system of education makes understanding and respect the cultural tradition of different ethnic group? In what way this system of education reflects the ways of life of different section of the people? Can this system of education make realisation the fact that there can be unity in diversity? Is our education is only for acquisition of certificates, degrees from a reputed college/university and securing a handsome job? Why most of the so called educated are satisfied after getting a high grade/percentage certificate, degrees or a job? How far this system teaches the people moral, humanistic and mutual tolerance? Is the prevailing system of education purposes is only to make illiterate person a literate one but not to make a person educated? Some of this question is the biggest and most important question to the prevailing education system of sinking Manipur society in my view. The prevailing system of education is somewhere alienating structure as a reason of this our society is now become a sinking society. The most important problem in emerging society is the problem of emotional integrity among the different ethnic group.
After critically analysing the defect of prevailing system of education, need to transform in a very crucial ways. When I am putting this article I think my knowledge is not comparable to those educationalists, it may nothing to them. But I want to share the very thoughts loitering in my mind about the prevailing system of education; the present curriculum should redesign with a holistic approach to promote emotional integration with the view of our needs, achievement and aspirations. And to include the past history of Manipur in the proper chapter will also help in unity among the ethnic group of Manipur. But the history which builds up in majority community hegemony should bring down! Lesson of value-sharing in the past history among the different ethnic group in Manipur society should added. Moral and humanistic education should form as an integral part of our system of education. The moral value will strengthen the feeling of emotional integration. Some chapter added about the cultural identity of different ethnic groups, study of different languages/dialect of different ethnic groups should be made in primary level of education. All of this may help in accepting the past, support the present and encourage the future. Chanting only as our society is a multi-ethnic groups of society and promoting only the majority ethnic group/community culture, language/dialect, literature etc. will not bring emotional integration/mental unity. A multi ethnics group of society should have multi-cultural, multi-linguistic, multi-literature etc. In order to have in peaceful, progressive and prosperous that is 3P in Manipur, all the ethnic groups must strive for a collective identity as Manipuri. This can make by the virtue of a good system of education. Education is not only about learning the facts (information) but also about being able to create new values. Education should also be a transformation-based, valued-based system instead of more focusing on information based system. Yaiphare!! Yaiphare!!
(The writer is a student of DM College of Arts and a volunteer of Personality Development Club DMC Arts. He can be reached at safiurmaibam51@gmail.com)
Source: The Sangai Express
