When does a person become educated? Mahatma Gandhi correctly remarked that education begins in the cradle and ends in the grave. Hence education is a life-long process but many don’t believe in this wise counsel. They stop learning once they are in a job. One of the indicators of a continuously learning individual is in the time the person spends in reading, thinking, engaging, reasoning, intellectual sparring etc. Opportunities for such exercises were few and far between in the 60s and 70’s. The age of seminars and workshops began in the 80’s and has now assumed a robustness of its own. Every problem under the sun is discussed at seminars and workshops and often resolutions are proposed, many of which land up on government desks for implementation. The process therefore is healthy for the individual who participates and for governments and institutions that receive these well-considered suggestions.
Intellectual lethargy becomes apparent when the educated voice their comments only from newspaper articles which are often based on limited arguments and references. Most universities insist that their faculty read up and discuss the core theme of the book/s they have read. This of course happens as part of the faculty development exercise which most universities seemed to have dispensed with. Information Technology is a great learning tool. Most advanced studies on different subjects are available as online courses over the internet and from reputed universities like Harvard and Princeton in the US and Oxford and Cambridge in the UK apart from other universities. But few avail of these opportunities for learning through research. For the most part, in India, scholars only use material from the internet, not for referral work but to pass off as their own work. This is pure and simple plagiarism which is punishable if detected. And a lot of such plagiarized work has gone into the acclaimed scholarship of many a scholar. These days there is software to detect plagiarized stuff.
The purpose of any research is for the researcher himself/herself to learn as he/she delves into a research question through field studies, data collection and computation, group discussions and evidence based studies. The person then becomes a specialist in the subject researched on and is able to disseminate the findings to enlighten many others who perhaps might be desirous of learning about the subject matter from the researcher. Hence education is like running a relay race where knowledge is gathered and passed on from one person to the other. Learning therefore never stops, no matter what a person’s age. Unfortunately this concept is alien to our education system. We have an entry and exit point and do very little after exiting colleges and universities. Research therefore becomes a compulsion to meet the norms set up by educational authorities like the University Grants Commission (UGC). This status quo must end. Education in this country needs a revolutionary change!