Beyond literacy: The importance of education

By Malvika Bhatt
Education is not about storing a million facts in one’s mind and yet remaining entirely uneducated. Education is about uplifting oneself morally, emotionally and intellectually. Education does not merely mean acquiring of a few facts of science, history, literature, or art, but in the development of character.
Increasingly educational institutes are making students literate but not educated.Education is a much broader concept than literacy.
Literacy is about acquiring the ability to read and write whereas education is about overall development of a person. Education is about making a person wiser, one who has learnt to distinguish between right and wrong. Literacy teaches us how to read and write and education teaches us what to read and write.
Literacy is fact oriented whereas education is value oriented. Many saints and philosophers, though illiterate, guided the coming generations better than the most of the so-called educated ones.
Certainly, illiteracy is a curse but the power of the mind can overthrow the ills of illiteracy if the person is well trained in the intricacies of life.
Increasingly, we are turning into a literate society instead of an educated one. We are too taken up with the rampant increase in the literacy rate.
Literacy is a fundamental human right and the foundation for lifelong learning but along with literacy we need to include moral values. We must turn into an aware, educated class rather just being an ordinary, literate society with no thought process.
AT DPS Khanapara, we want to educate students in the true sense of the word and not limit ourselves to literacy. We are making an attempt to extend education far beyond book learning. In a lush, green and serene environment, education is a unique and rewarding experience at DPS Khanapara. Nobility, love and compassion are what we want to instill in every child who walks through the corridors of our institution.
The future of any nation lies in its youth and their empowerment in producing the future leaders of our nation. To make them truly educated, we must try to imbibe a strong secular ethos in our children.
We should develop them into individuals with high levels of integrity and dignity with concern and compassion for the less privileged section of our society. Any institution must aim to be one of excellence, gifting society better human beings.
The writer is principal, DPS Khanapara