One of the fundamental facets of a professional is his or her attitude towards the job, the higher management and immediate superiors, as well as team members and juniors. There is a certain finesse that only a strong foundation can provide. To bridge that gap between essential learning in school and college, and how to handle yourself in your new job, The Goan presents a new column in career building called Crash Course. Here you find everything you need to know about building a career and becoming an astute professional
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Education is not knowledge alone, but also the capacity to utilise it. The quality of education depends on the ability it imparts to make proper use of the learning.
In other words, acquiring knowledge coupled with the ability for its proper application is the real education. As such, the traits which impart the skill of applying the acquired knowledge are of great significance. Without the requisite skill of application, the knowledge is a mere treasure trove in a sealed locker. Education includes all that which completes the personality of an aware and cultured citizen. True education must therefore provide also the skill of application and enable development of the traits, which nurture its future growth. The ethical component of education is an element, which caters to this need. It is in the different ethical values of the knowledge makers that we find the cause for the difference in their contribution, even though they are equipped with the same level of knowledge.
The purpose of education is to produce knowledge makers with the capacity of making profitable use of the acquired knowledge. The university is the instrument of the state for the conservation of knowledge, for the discovery of knowledge, for the distribution of knowledge and above all, for the creation of knowledge makers. 21st century is said to be the century of knowledge and that the intellectual capital of a nation, its true asset and the index of its development, would determine its level of development and ranking in the world.
Today, education must fulfill the realization of the needs and ideals of the society. The government must transform itself into an agency of society from its role as an instrument of power. National institutions must catalyse the process of social change. The ideals must become the aims of education in our socialist, secular, republican, democratic polity. The educational system must be geared to accelerate the social change into a welfare state assuring distributive justice. True education requires the operationalisation of fundamental duties enshrined in the constitution so that full human resource development is achieved and the nation’s richest asset is augmented, thus imparting ethical values as a significant constituent of education is no longer merely persuasive but a constitutional imperative. It being essential for development and for realization of full potential of the human person, its significance need hardly be emphasized.
The right to development is an inalienable human right. Universal emphasis on education as the most potent tool for human development is long recognized. Nation is not just a conglomeration of people within a geographical boundary with a self government.It is something more. Nation building is a process by which emotional integration of the people is achieved. The emotional integration can be achieved and sustained on a strong ethical, legal and material foundation which can assure dignity of the individual equality and equal opportunity for development of all the people. The aim of education must be prepare each individual for the task. Education must equip the individual to the duties of a citizen in a satisfactory manner. The significance of ethics as a constituent of education cannot be overemphasized. It is necessary not merely to achieve personal excellence, but also to enable the nation to rise to higher levels of endeavour and achievement.
Martin Luther King said that we have guided missiles and misguided man. This must be changed for the better by infusion of morality in private and public life. Ethical component of education to equip the future generations to meet the growing challenges is the only effective answer. All education must therefore be ethics oriented to equip the future nation builders for the performance of their task. The real purpose of education must be fulfilled.
- Naguesh Sardessai is a career counsellor and quiz master
