What should be the purpose of education?

While starting our venture Gurukul.guru, we discussed the purpose of Education with our team members. And to our surprise, the question, “Purpose of Education”, raises many more questions which we kept on discussing and came to a few conclusions which have been given in this article.

When we talked about what should be the purpose of Education, we came up with below a few more questions-

Has our education system an answer to this question?

Does the purpose of education change with time?

Is it important to define the purpose of education?

Have you ever asked this question to your teachers or school? Have you ever thought of this question?

I don’t know if you have ever pondered over these questions. However, you can begin pondering over it right away with us.

Let’s start pondering together - What should be the purpose of education?

To learn to think?

Is it to learn knowledge - reading, writing, and arithmetic?

To learn to be a productive citizen of the world?

To prepare a student for a job?

Or something else?

Many educators, thinkers, and philosophers have great answers to this question. We, at Gurukul.Guru defines the purpose of education in our own way. We think every educational institute, the educational system must define the purpose of education. There should be debates on this topic. There should be introspection if we are achieving the purpose of education or not? If not, how can we?

We, at Gurukul.Guru take this opportunity to start a debate to define the purpose of education?

We define the purpose of education in a single line - “Education must prepare a student to succeed in his/her life.

How do we define success? - This is a very tricky question. Success has a different meaning to a different human being. However, we can define success in general term. We call a person successful (after education) if she/he earns money for basic needs, has a meaningful and joyful life, can face any kind of challenge in life, has a healthy body and mind.

Syllabus of education, Methodologies used for teaching may change with time, but purpose always remains the same.

I will discuss 3 major inventions/discoveries from the past that changed everything - from living style to way of thinking, to education. These three major inventions/discoveries are 1) Agriculture, 2) Heat Engine, and 3) Internet. These inventions/discoveries led to 3 great revolutions of the past. I am going to talk about these revolutions and its’ impact on education.

Before these revolutions, People had to travel continuously as they needed food to eat. The people were roaming like loafers. The education was very limited in this period. The education mainly involves how to make weapons that kill the animals, how to kill animals, how to secure yourself against animals etc. We had not much to do, we just needed something to eat and survive.

The Agricultural Revolution

After the Agricultural revolution, everything changed. The direction of human history change. The new era started. People started living together. They started building homes, family. Indus Valley Civilization, Harappa Civilization, and other great Civilization were established in this era.

Education also changed in this period. People had started asking philosophical questions. They wrote great Vedas, Puranas and other spiritual books. They were searching for the meaning of human’s existence. The education not only focused on agriculture, but it also focused on philosophy, the teaching of Vedas, Puranas, well being of humans. It became more diversified. It also includes teaching how to use weapons in the war.

In this revolution, we created the Gurukul Education system in India.

The Industrial Revolution

We created the heat engine in the 1700s. The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the US. The economy was booming for many countries that effectively used this revolution. Big factories were created to manufacture clothes, cars, bikes, and many other mechanical materials.

The education changed in the era as well. The companies required workers for factories. The education was more focused to prepare a student who could work in those factories. The people were becoming rich after working in factories. They started sending their children that were providing the training to work in factories.

Then, education had more focused to train human to do a certain type of works, especially for the factories.

There was less focus on philosophy, mind development, creative thinking, well being of humans in this newly formed education.

Our Gurukuls were not functioning as it used to in the past as Invaders were ruling India for a long time and they did not pay any attention to Gurukul Education. Then the British came to India to do business and somehow they started ruling us. They created a new education system that could cope with the recent demands of workers for the factories in India. They also destroyed remaining Gurukuls.

The digital revolution

We are living in this era. We are living in an age where any information is just a click away. We are now seeing the emerging trends of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The factory workers are being replaced by machines and AI as Machines and AI are capable enough to do the task of factory workers.

Many thinkers raise concern for mass unemployment due to this phenomena. But, we are witnessing that this trend is increasing day by day. We, have to be prepared for this very soon.

Yes, we need a different education that can make a student successful in the current modern era, that doesn’t prepare us to a certain type of task, rather train the mind that can think beyond Machine and AI. We need an education system that teaches us how to be a creator, original thinker, innovator, leader. We must focus on less preferred subjects by our parents such as Arts (Music, Dance, Dramas, Fine Arts), Sports and many other subjects.

Many developed countries are changing their education system to cope with the digital revolution. Unfortunately, It seems Our government and educational Institutions don’t care. They are living in the era of the industrial revolution. There are very few changes made in the education system that was created by the British. That’s the reason Indian students, Teachers, and Parents are more concerned about exams. Students are forced to involve in rote learning, memorization that does not make any sense in the current time.

What are the biggest contributions of India to the world? You start saying Yoga, Meditation, Indian Classical Music, Many dance forms, Zero, Ayurveda, Chess, Surgery and many more. We proudly can say that India has many great contributions to humanities and world. Our pride may shatter if one asks about the recent contribution of India. We can give a reason like we were under Invaders and British. But what did we do after independence?

We always boast about our IITs and IIMs. But the fact is that we are far behind in terms of innovation, creativity, and original thinking. Gone are the days when we were leading the world through our education, inventions, discoveries. Why don’t we study how our Gurukuls were excelled in that past?

Gurukuls were successful because it allowed a student to think beyond limitation, it rewarded original thinkers, it allowed debates without any bound, it allowed learning by doing. And the most important Gurukuls knew the purpose of education.

You can see the education always change with time, but the purpose of education will always be the same.

“How to prepare a student for the future”

This should be the purpose of any educational institution. A perfect education system takes care of every aspect that is required to make a student’s life successful.