DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION

EDUCATION FOR ALL- A DREAM

Why is education important, and what is it exactly? While every person has a different understanding of its true meaning, here are some of the most inspiring quotes by some legendary people.

• “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
• “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” — Malcolm X
• “The secret of life is not enjoyment but education through experience.” — Swami Vivekananda
• “True education must correspond to the surrounding circumstances or it is not a healthy growth.” — Mahatma Gandhi

The Importance of Education is an important issue in one’s life. It is the key to success in the future and also to have many opportunities in our life. Education has its own advantage. For instance, it illuminates a person’s mind and thinking. It helps students to plan for work or pursue a higher education while graduating from university. Having education in an area helps people think, feel, and behave in a way that contributes to their success, and improves not only their personal satisfaction but also their community. In addition, education develops human personality, thoughts, dealing with others and prepares people for life experiences. It makes people have a special status in their own society and everywhere they live in. I believe that everyone is entitled to have education “from cradle to grave”. There are various benefits of having education such as having a good career, having a good status in society, and having self-confidence. First of all, education gives us the chance of having a good career in our life. We can have plenty of chances to work at any workplace we wish. In other words, opportunities for a better employment can be more and easy.

By educating everyone, we can change the condition and status of our society as well as of our nation as education helps to improve social, economic and mental status. It also plays a very important role in shaping our country’s status in terms of development and various other factors which contributes in the Global presence of our country.

In our country, people are still unaware of how the education can transform lives for the better. It is a sad state of affairs when people across socio-economic strata think that investing in education is a waste of money. The fact that they would justify is even more disheartening, that they would send their child for labour to earn money for the family instead of sending them to schools. Early education can be instrumental in shaping the society towards progress. When a child is educated, he/she is empowered. They can make their own decisions, raise the standard of living for their family, generate more employment options and reform the society as a whole and thus fosters nation building.

The government has been making persistent efforts to increase the availability of education through various schemes and programs. One of such scheme is SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan). It is the world’s most successful school programme. It was launched in 2001 towards the culmination of Ninth Five-Year Plan (1997-2002) to achieve the goal of universalization of elementary education in the country.

 

SSA is an effort to improve the performance of the school system and provide community-owned quality elementary education. It envisages bridging up gender and social disparities in elementary education. It has special focus on educational needs of girls, SCs and STs, children with disabilities and disadvantaged children. It is also an effort to universalize elementary education by community-ownership of the school system.

As part of the SSA, the central and the state governments undertook reforms in order to improve efficiency of the delivery system. The states have made an objective assessment of their prevalent education’ system including educational administration, achievement levels in schools, financial issues, decentralization and community ownership, review of State Education Act, rationalization of teacher deployment and recruitment of teachers, monitoring and evaluation, status of education of girls, SC/ST and disadvantaged groups, policy regarding private schools. Many states have effected several changes to improve the delivery system for elementary education.

Schools churned out more than 17 million students eligible for higher education in 2008-09, three times the number five years ago. Similarly, 14.2 million children joined schools in 2008-09, increasing the enrollment to over 206 million, about 96.4 per cent of the child population. A 15 per cent increase over enrolment percentage of 80, when the programme started in 2001.More than 34,000 schools were added over the last five years-almost 30 per cent of the 1.2 million schools in India. World Bank has called the SSA, “World’s Most Successful Programme”.

Education today is more important than ever before, and has reached new heights with new understandings of what it truly entails. Ask yourself “Why is education important?” and it will surely not be the same as anyone else’s answer.

While in modern society, holding a college degree is considered to be highly beneficial for a successful career and to be socially accepted, it is not the only means of education. Education is all around us in everything that we do, so use it wisely!