Education plays an important role in the evolution of mankind. It is an instrument for the holistic development of an individual. It forms the basis of society. It helps in the identification of the problem(s)of a society and at the same time provides a solution for it. Early childhood education is given importance because it is the most critical phase of social, emotional, cognitive and physical development which ensures the lifelong well-being of the individual.
There are many problems that affect society. The problems that cause damage to a group of people in a society are considered social evil. The existence of social evils is due to the blind faith of people in a particular culture or cause. From ancient times Indian society has been affected by different social evils such as Child Marriage, Child labour, female infanticide, Domestic violence and Dowry. Some of them exist because of superstitious beliefs while others existence is due to lack of education and poverty. Uneducated people don’t even realize that they are the victims of these evils. They believe that this is a part of society and that’s how it should be.
Education as a resource to eliminate social evils is helpful in the following ways:
A. It urges us to think and make sense of the world by differentiating between right and wrong; or good and bad.
B. It helps an individual to proclaim the truth, make informed decisions and reach to right conclusions.
C. It makes us learn to be respectful towards different beliefs, cultures and traditions.
D. Education moulds our thoughts and perspectives and expands our vision and outlook toward life.
E. It provides us with knowledge and skills to adapt appropriate reforms
F. It enlightens us about our rights as a citizen which creates awareness that can help an individual fight against any kind of bias and abuse.
G. It also makes us mindful and helps us reflect on our thoughts and experiences.
H. It makes an individual self-confident and a good decision maker.
Therefore education is a powerful agent to bring change that can improve livelihoods and ultimately lead to economic growth. For this, it is necessary that every child is educated. An equitable education system makes sure that all kids have access to the knowledge and skills to sustain themselves in this world making them active members of society which leads to better economic income for the nation. Equal opportunities for education also lead to the development of an egalitarian society where gender, race, religion or age is not used to discriminate against individuals instead everyone is considered equal. This can lead to the building of an empowered nation with ample opportunities for progressive growth of every individual and the nation.
Now comes the question, what can be done to fight against such inequalities? One of the ways by which equal learning opportunities for children can be created is by understanding and addressing a child’s environment and how that environment affects a child. This includes addressing issues like regional imbalance, poverty, deferential standard of education, gender disparity and class difference. Understanding these challenges can help develop effective policies for their education. Other than this, opening more government schools and providing free quality education is one way to ensure every child gets equal learning opportunities. But, I also believe that the expansion of education is not solely the responsibility of the government. Instead, every individual in a community should stand up as much we can for the education of kids. This can be done by volunteering, donating through the help of non-profit organizations that run different programs for sponsoring the education of underprivileged children. One such organization is Wishes and blessings which is based in Delhi and executes a ‘Sponsor a childhood’ program in which the NGO sponsors the education of underprivileged children with the help of donors. Another thing to note is that admitting underprivileged children to schools is not enough. They are not able to retain the knowledge given to them in schools due to a lack of resources. They need some kind of informal education to make them school ready. This can be done by initiatives such as that of Wishes and Blessings running a programme called ‘Street to School’ that provides free education, basic learning materials and free meals.
About the Author
Nabeela Khan is Programme Officer for Street to School at Wishes and Blessings. She has done her Bachelor’s in Biotechnology and Post Graduation in Bioinformatics. Furthermore, Nabeela has done another bachelor’s degree in Education. Nabeela is passionate about teaching and learning Science. She loves being surrounded by children. Nabeela firmly believes that education is the most important aspect of one’s life and it can help in an individual’s holistic growth and development.