Concept and Scope of Education
Education in India is worship and sacred thing.
According to the ancient sages, “Education is the third eye of a person”. It
gives insight into all affairs. It teaches him how to act justly and rightly.
Education is solution for all our individual, social, national and universal
problems. It leads us to our salvation. Education leads to all around progress
and well being. The Indian Education Commission (which is known as Kothari
Commission) report rightly said that “The destiny of India is now being shaped
in her classrooms. This we believe is no more rhetoric. In a world based on
science and technology, it is education that determines the level of
prosperity, welfare and security of the people. On the quality and number of
persons coming out of our schools and colleges will depend our success in the
great enterprise of national reconstruction whose principle objective is to
raise the standards of living our people”.
(A)
MEANING OF EDUCATION
Etymologically, the term
‘education’ is derived from three Latin words:
i.
‘Educare’: This means ‘to raise’,
‘to nourish’, ‘to bring up’ and ‘to train’.
ii.
‘Educere’: This implies ‘to draw out’,
‘to lead out’.
iii.
‘Educo’: The letter ‘E’ means ‘out
of’ and the word ‘duco’ means ‘to lead out’.
Based on the above meaning
it can be understand that there are two views on meaning of education i.e.
1.
Education is ‘to draw out’ process.
It is a ‘growth from within’.
2.
Another view on meaning of
education is ‘the teaching or training’.
It is an ‘acquisition of knowledge’.
Thus the education is both acquisition of knowledge or art of teaching and the
drawing & development of potentialities which already exist in child. It is
the development of skills, attitudes, virtues, habits etc.
1.
According to Socrates, Education is “dispelling error and discovering truth”.
Education means ‘bringing out of the ideas of universal validity which are latent
in the mind of every man.
2.
Plato
says,” Education is the capacity to feel pleasure and plain at the right
movement.
3.
Aristotle:
“Education
is the creation of sound mind in a sound body”.
Indian
view on Education:
Education in India is
essentially spiritual and sacred thing. There are many terms we can seen in
India which are equals the term of education.
1.
The term ‘Siksha’ (which equals the term education) is derived from the
Sanskrit verbal root ‘Shas’ which means ‘to discipline’, ‘to teach’, ‘to
instruct’ or ‘to control’. By this it is clear that disciplining mind,
instructing or teaching is the education.
2.
The term ‘Vidya’ (which equals the term education) is also derived from the Sanskrit verbal root ‘bid’ which means ‘to know’. Thus the word ‘Vidya’ really
means ‘knowledge’. Education is the process of acquiring knowledge.
3.
The term ‘Sanskara’ (which is equals the term education) also can be seen
general way in India. ‘Samyak Aakaram iti samskaram’ which
means giving the right shape to an individual. It is clear that modifying or
giving the right shape to individual is considered is right education in India.
There are 16 samskaras in every individual life. Every modification is treated
as samskara and celebrated as sacred rituals which starts before birth and ends
after death.
Based on above acquisition of knowledge, disciplining the
mind, Drawing and developing the innate potentialities and developing virtues
and values are considered as meaning of education in India. Education is sacred
worship. It is the second birth “Dwityam
Janamam”
1.
According to the Upanishads, “Saa Vidya ya vimukthaye”.
Education is a mean for liberation. It liberates with all evil acts.
2.
The Rigveda regards “education as a force which makes an individual
self reliant as well as self less”.
3.
Yagnavalkya:
“Education is that which makes a man of good character and useful to the
world”.
4.
Koutilya
says, ‘Education means training for the country and developing love for it”.
5.
According to Shankaracharya, Education means the realization of the self and
attainment of moksha (liberation)”.
6.
Swami Dayananda Saraswathi:
“education is a means for character formation and righteous living”.
7.
“Purification of the mind and heart”.
– Ramakrishna Paramahamasa
8.
“Training the intellect, refinement
of the heart and discipline of the spirit”.
9.
Swami
Vivekananda says, “Education is the
manifestation of divine perfection existing in man”.
10.
Gandhiji
defined, “By education I mean an all round drawing of the best in child and
man-body, mind and spirit”.
11.
Tagore
defined, “Education means enabling the mind to find out that ultimate truth
which emancipates us from the bondage of the dust and gives us the wealth, not
of things but of in her light, not of power but of love, making the truth its
own and giving expression to it”.
12.
Sarvepalli
Radakrishnan, “Training the
intellect, refinement of the heart and discipline of the spirit is the
education”.
B)
NATURE OF EDUCATION
There are several ways of explaining
the nature of education. Education deals with knowledge which leads to quality
of understanding.
Chief
Characteristics of the Nature of Education:
1.
Education
is Purposive: There is a definite purpose
underlying all educational activities.
2.
Education
is Deliberate: Education involves care and guide.
3.
Education
is planned activity: All the educational process is
systematic and planned.
4.
Education
is life-long and continuous: An education
begins from birth and it ends till death.
5.
Education is mature persons
(Parents, teachers) influence on learners.
6.
Education is Balanced Development:
Education is concerned with the development of all faculties of the child.
7.
Education
is Tri-polar: Education involves the teacher,
the student and social environment. Society also influence on modification of
child behavior.
8.
Education
is Psychological as well as social: Education helps
in development of higher and broader state of mind and it develops social
efficiency among childrens.
NAROW
AND WIDER MEANING OF EDUCATION
i) Narrow meaning of Education:
Education
means only specific influences and experiences which are deliberately planned
to modify the behavior of the child. Schooling is education in narrow sense.
Narrow meaning of education usually implies imparting information or giving
instruction, or schooling or training, or making people literate or teaching or
preparing for trade or vocation. Education is confined to class room
educational experiences only. It ends with acquiring certificates.
Narrow
meaning of Education Includes:
a)
Narrow type of education is
imparted in planned institutions like schools.
b)
It is limited to the teaching of
ready-made material.
c)
Education is regarded as synonymous
with instruction.
d)
It is deliberate, conscious and
systematic influence exerted by the mature person i.e., the teacher, on the
immature person i.e., the child.
e)
This type of education is
intentional rather than incidental.
f)
Knowledge is considered as the
accumulated experience of the human race. It is more or less fixed.
ii) Wider Meaning of Education:
According to this view, Education is
life-long and continuous process where modification of behavior will be seen
progressively. It is universally accepted that an individual begins education
or learning when he/she starts ‘breath’ and continuous till ‘cremation’. It
includes all influences, direct and indirect, formal and informal, deliberate
or incidental, planned or unplanned. We learn whether we are conscious of this
fact or not. Education includes all influences- cultural, domestic, economic,
geographical, political, religious, social and spiritual.
Wider
meaning of Education Includes:
a)
The process of education is a
life-long process, from infancy to death or from ‘womb to womb’.
b)
It includes experiences gained
through the various formal and informal agencies of education. Child can learn
from home, school, temple, cinema, club, press, travel, friends, physical and
social environments.
c)
Every experience is said to be
educative.
d)
We receive education many a time
when we are not conscious.
(D)
EDUCATION IS A PROCESS
Education is considered to
be a process which contributes to the natural and harmonious development of
man’s innate powers, brings about complete development of his individuality,
results into desirable behavior changes and ultimately prepares him for good
life.
Various
views on process of education are under following:
i) Edcation as Unipolar process:
The process of education in the
ancient period it may be east or west can see education as uni-polar process.
Ancient education considered as teacher centered education. Teacher plays an
active role in the educational process.
Modern education is also
uni-polar process but the difference is now it is child-centered education. All
the educational activities are for modification of behavior of the child. New
child-centered innovative techniques and apparatus are using to create
effectiveness in the educational process. Here student is active and
encouraging him in participation of educational activities. Student is focal
point in the educational process in the modern education.
Adams pointed out that the
activity of the educator and educand pole comes to a point of redistribution
when the child tries to acquire certain skills and knowledge or develops a
pattern of behavior. Here teacher is nothing but a means by which the child
educates himself. Teacher is no more in the foreground. Thus education becomes
unipolar.
ii) Education as Bi-polar process:
According to Sir John
Adams, Education is a Bi-polar process. In this process both the educator
(teacher) and educand (student) are involved. There is an interaction between
these two persons i.e. educator (teacher) & educand (student) and results
of their efforts in education.
Education in this way
becomes a ‘shared activity’ or sharing of experiences. Both the teacher and
student influence each other. The personality of the teacher modifies the
behavior of the student.
iii) Education as a Tri-polar process:
According
to John Dewey, Education is a Tri-polar process. The modern concept of
education is said to be ‘three dimensional’. The process of education contains
three poles namely 1. The Teacher, 2. The Child, 3. The Society.
Fig: Education as Tri-polar
Process
The Tri-polar process of
education is involving the interaction of the personality of the teacher of
that of the student in a social setting which affects the modification of the
behavior of the student. A system of education devoid of its social
significance is not complete. Society provides directions, channels, goals and
material to educational activities. In return, it expects from us to contribute
to its progressive development.
SCOPE
OF EDUCATION
Scope education is as vast
as life itself. There is no aspect or dimension of life which is not covered
under education. In fact all education is life and all life is education.
Education is a life-long process. Education is formal, non-formal and informal.
Education is concerned from aesthetic, cultural, ethical, intellectual,
physical, religious, social, spiritual and vocational development of the
individual. Education has moved away from preparing pupils to fit into a
particular society but it seeks to make them feel that they belong to the
larger world family.
The
following are may be included under the scope of education:
1.
Aims
of Education: As we know that education is
planned and purposeful activity where aims are playing very important role in
the education. Without an end or objective no purposeful activity will have
that real force which directs it and makes it meaningful. Philosophical,
psychological and sociological principles are determinates of aims of
education. Self realization, liberation, character formation, development of
social efficiency, citizenship, training, personality development etc. are the
aims of education.
2.
Curriculum:
The Curriculum is the ‘sum total of educational experiences’. Curriculum can be
considered as total of learning experiences provided to the child in the
educational institution. Curriculum can be constructed based on the nature,
interest, need and aspiration of the child and society. Philosophical and
sociological principles help in effective construction of curriculum.
3.
Methods
of Teaching: Modern education involves in
discovering and implementing the innovative methods and techniques for
effective educational process. Question and answer method, problem solving
method, Inductive & deductive method, play – way method, activity method,
project method etc. are some of the examples for methods of teaching.
4.
The
Teacher: Teacher plays key role in the educational process.
All most all philosophers, psychologists, scholar’s opinion that the teacher
should play the wise and ideal role in the success of education. Education
discusses about various ways of teacher role for effective education. It is
expected that there should be good, favorable and parental relationship between
teacher and student.
5.
The
Student: The essence of education as all round
development of the student. Physical, mental, social, emotional, ethical,
economical and spiritual development is expected. The student should have the
curious state of mind and interests towards learning or acquiring knowledge.
Modern education expecting that the student should be active and participate in
all teaching learning activities and attain aim of education i.e. integral
development. Encouraging self-learning.
6.
Discipline:
Discipline
also plays silent role in the modification of behavior of the child. All the
philosophies explained discipline in their own way. Idealism emphasizes
discipline in the educational process. But Naturalism denied the discipline and
proposed natural discipline. And Pragmatism explains importance of self accepted
discipline for effective education.
7.
Education deals with problems
and issues of education such as vocationalization of education, population
education, moral education, non-formal education, technical education, national
integration, universal education, environmental education etc.
8.
There are many new subjects
evolved from education such as philosophy of education, sociology of education,
educational psychology, economics of education etc which provides bases for
education.
9.
