Ritesh Rawal says that it’s time we start moving ahead of just imparting literacy and focus on quality education so that better results can be reaped

As Nelson Mandela says, a person’s development is very much dependent on education. It is only through literacy that a person can change himself/herself into a better one. It is only through the wheel of education that a peasant’s daughter can transform into a doctor and a mine worker’s son can become the head of a mine. Knowledge plays a very crucial role in designing and shaping an individual’s life. As per a survey, there exist only 34 million people in India’s organised sector which forms only a small fragment of our total population. Even if India’s literacy rate is going up, will we able to cultivate a kind of education which we can call — quality education? The answer would not be very pleasing. In India, a major chunk of educational institutions are focused on bringing up the literacy rate without considering the importance of quality education. There are multiple roles that a qualitative education can play:

Making our society peaceful and just: The overall goal of education should be to shape humans, who can further contribute to the creation of a peaceful and just society. Given the vulnerable times we are living in, it is very crucial for us to promote peaceful societies which can boost sustainable development, justice and equality in the society. This goal can be attained only if accountable citizens can be curated with the help of education.

Eradicating poverty and hunger: There can be no second thought to the fact that education is the main vehicle riding, which the human civilization can combat problems like poverty and hunger. As per UNESCO, one extra year of schooling uplifts a person’s income by 10 per cent adding to average annual gross domestic product by 0.37 per cent.

Promotes gender equality: To be an ideal society, it is very important to achieve gender equality and encourage women empowerment. A country can not be fully developed and achieve 100 per cent literacy rate unless education is promoted among its women too. Quality education enables women to unleash their full potential in all the spheres they are present into. As shown by a study of Plan International, a country is on the risk of losing more than $1 billion a year if failed to educate girls and boys at the same level. The gender disparity that begins at the school level, prevails through out the life. Hence, it is important to promote gender equality right from the educational level so that we can create an unbiased society at large. 

Economic growth of the nation: To better understand the worth of quality education, we must look at nations like Australia, Japan and USA, which are extremely rich and come with high per capita income. These countries also come with high literacy rate. On the other hand, the underdeveloped nations fight with problems like poverty, high crime rate, low per capita income are the ones with low literacy rate too. There are various global studies which have shown that an additional year of schooling to its citizens can increase the average annual gross domestic product growth by 0.37 per cent. Hence, this clearly implies that a country’s economic growth is much dependent on the literacy rate.

Makes an individual a self-dependent person: The most important purpose that quality education serves is that of making us a self-dependent person. Not only does it make us financially independent but also makes us wiser, enabling us to think critically and take the right decisions for ourselves and the ones around us. 

Each one of us are entitled to the right to education but it is time that we start moving ahead of just imparting education and focus on quality education so that better results can be reaped.

(The author is the founder of the Ritesh Rawal Foundation.)