Student: job holder or knowledge holder?

By Jayaram Injarapu. Jayaram, 20, is currently an undergraduate student at GMRIT college. He lives in Srikakulam, India.

In my view, nowadays the role of education is useful only for getting marks in education and finding jobs but not for knowledge. Some students only want to get knowledge instead of marks. Hence why they are not ‘developed’. Students leave their technical knowledge behind after getting a job. This is due to today’s competition, students’ mindset and their parents’ mindset.

In the past days, 15 years back, education was very tough but the competition was less. Even though people were struggling to find a job. But these days people prefer candidates with knowledge. Nowadays getting marks and grades are a primary and priority. That’s why, we have so many brilliant people, but we still work on old inventions.

Education is definitely for humans. Because after coming out of mother, the rest of our life depends on our education. One proverb is that a ‘Man without education is like Bird without wings’. That is the power of education. But we are wasting that power. Nowadays there are so many facilities for students to study with a purpose. But they are misusing this. They are not studying for knowledge, they are studying for better marks and grades. In some cases learning ‘by heart’ is good. But in every case, we are learning ‘by hearting’ our studies. This is not correct. This means we are using our brain for ‘getting’ only, not for ‘thinking’.

In India, there are IIT institutions. So many outstanding, brilliant students study here. But no one in these institutions does anything for society. They always want to get a job abroad, or something else not beneficial. Some ordinary students make miraculous inventions because they are interested in the concepts but not marks. Not just in India but in every country.

From childhood onwards, we have to study for the concept itself, not just for only marks. I also agree that the marks are important. But we are giving more importance to marks. We struggled very hard for examinations. We write very well. We get excellent grades and marks. We are promoted to another class. After a few days, if anyone asks us any questions regarding our previous classes, we are behaving like stammering people. Why has this happened?

In the olden days, people were very clever; even though they were not so highly educated, they used intelligence and solved problems. Alexander Graham Bell, Issac Newton, Edison, Albert Einstein, J.C. Bose, etc. all used their intelligence and become famous people. Not only these people, but there are so many people who create wonders using their knowledge. In those days, they did not have any equipment, technology, or facilities, but they used their brain for miracles. Do you know? Einstein used 8% his brain, but we are now using 1-2%.

Blame not only belongs to students, but also to parents and teachers. Parents want to see their children in a good position. That’s why they want their children 1st in studies. This is not wrong. But then they force their children to get higher marks. Their intention is good, but for a child’s perspective this is forced on them. That’s why, instead of learning, they are memorizing subjects by heart. Teachers also force students to focus only on good marks for their institution’s reputation. It is not correct, we should educate students in a peaceful manner, but not in a painful manner. Students are spending half of their day studying. Is this required? In some institutions, teachers separate students based on their marks and grades. What is this? How can we estimate student by his/her marks. Is Einstein a topper? Was Mark Jukerberb an outstanding student in studies?

For example, in early education, we learned alphabets, numbers, rhymes, etc. Till now we know all of those. But if we learned anything for later exams, we quickly forget after the completion of that exam. This is because, at the initial stage, we don’t know about studies, marks, competition and there is no pressure on us. But now they are all there.

Finally, I want to say that nowadays the role of education is only for working life not for broadening minds. It’s true. Students only have book knowledge and don’t go outside of this book knowledge. The unfortunate thing is that, even for interviews, we search for answers on how to “Introduce Yourself?”. We don’t know ourselves?! Think about this. Today’s education is only for the purpose of finding a job. That’s why instead of scientists, for instance, being an employee in any field will do. Tell me the person in the present day who studies only for knowledge and not for a job. The day when knowledge means more than marks is the day that I agree that education is used for broadening minds. Some students wrote exams in their own words regarding a topic. But some teachers correct these answer scripts based on notes or textbooks. If a single word is missed, they cut marks. That’s why so many students don’t want to write in own words. I’m not blaming all teachers, only some teachers. Am I correct or not?

Getting a job is important but that doesn’t mean education should be a “job machine”. Some students should study knowledge for another purpose. Some parents and teachers should also encourage students to work towards knowledge, instead of marks. Some educational institutions also give good education to current students and this should be utilised. That’s way, students will invent so many useful inventions. I hope that these types of situations will increase soon.

My suggestion is to teach students lessons, not only from books but also from practical examples. Give jobs to students not only based on marks. Give them some working tasks related to their lessons. Counsel them that marks are not solely important and also tell them marks without knowledge is useless. Give some topics to them and tell them to write an article regarding that topic (like this contest). By doing all these things, even though they might forget the textbook part of the lesson, they will definitely remember the tasks they did for that particular lesson because they expressed their views in their own words. Not only teachers, parents should also take care.

If anybody feels hurt because of my words, don’t take it as negative. Think about it positively. I think that some of you also agree with me. If you don’t agree with me, answer this question without using any source (if you can do that, then I would agree that, you are a genius): “Who invented the computer screen?”

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