Well, this famous dialogue on Education I got to hear in the Kannada superhit film Yuvarathnaa. The film is special in different ways because it not just talks about the plights of government colleges in India due to privatization but also about the importance of the Kannada language in education and employment for the students living in the state of Karnataka. It is just about the state but even in different states, people who study their own medium language like Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, and several others are always looked down on while they go on to search for jobs and start a new career.
Education doesn’t guarantee jobs ALWAYS
If a person is intelligent and has good grades, knows the subject or the job duties well, but is only lagging behind in his own language and not English, then he or she shouldn’t be deprived of good jobs. The film had given several life lessons but the important lesson that it gave is “Education is a service and not a business”. It is true that colleges and schools are the ones that shape a person’s life and the reason the admission fees for different courses have been hiked over a period of time is to pay salaries to the staff members who are professionals in their own fields.
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But educational fees shouldn’t be so much that a common man or a low-income group parent confuses himself about whether to send his child to a college or not for further education. In the last 10-15 years, education fees have been really hiked even for middle-class parents. Like, I visited my cousin last month who complained about how he had to take money from his PPF account just because he has to pay the school fees of his two children which are somewhere in lakhs per year.
So, why is the cost of even basic education or early years of life so high in recent times? Is it inflation or is it the fear of being left out or having no jobs if studied in government schools or not-so-reputed schools and colleges in India? Where will a common man go if he loses his job? Will he ask his children to stay back at home just because the cost of living has risen like anything before?
If the cost of living has risen, why is there not much increase in salaries and pay of people who really slog hard? Is it due to technology that we have made education a commercial business? Is it the well-equipped amenities and facilities that are making schools and colleges upgrade themselves to the information technology standards and charge parents a humungous amount for teaching the basics of life through education?
Well, I am really of the opinion that education startups, colleges, schools, coaching classes, etc. should come together and normalize the cost of education in such a way that more people show interest in learning than just mugging up the books and passing in the exams. There can be more awareness in this direction that can make teachers and Gurus of life feel satisfied as they impart important life and technical skills to the future of the country.
