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When you are walking on a railway track, knowledge tells you to move away from the track on seeing a train coming in that direction, but it is the knowledge, which went into the nervous system and gets converted into action that moves you away from the track. There are many actionless engineers who went on to become taxi cab drivers in Mumbai. Knowledge and action are inseperable if knowledge is induced through the nervous system.
Unfortunately, the saddest part of education in our country is that very few people and very very few institutions are realizing the importance of knowledge with action. Teachers must accept this reality and develop more passion for teaching and not cheating. The teacher should be a guide and not a guard.

If the purpose of education is to make people eligible for employment then many employments have silently proved that no formal education is needed. Employment is only a means in itself and not an end of every thing. Being educated properly, correctly and responsibly should make us obligatory to give back something to our society. Educational institutions must put premium on three most important fundamental virtues of humanity, i.e., Honesty, Courage and Self respect, without which acquiring wealth makes living absolute rubbish and selfish.

The Heads of the educational institutions must be masters of teaching and not master of teachers. It is imperative for all concerned to see and ensure that learning is a journey and not a destination. The emphasis should be on questioning the answers rather than answering the questions, which does not require great talent and skill. The questing spirit which our forefathers had eventually led human beings to spread over the face of the earth, crossing deserts, mountains and oceans at enormous peril. Each plunge into the unknown was a move towards the kind of life we lead today. The present generation should not lose this spirit and all of us are obliged to see that this doesn't happen. So the education process should mean discovering ideas and not covering content. Let us all resolve today that,

Our Goal - opened minds, not closed issues.
Our test lies in being and becoming, not remembering and reviewing.

Finally, a question which lingers in everybody's mind - "What is an educational Institution?"
My straight forward answer to that is - "Whatever we choose to make it."

Concluded.

* Contributed by -
Hanumantha Rao Turlapati,
Manager - Administration,
Delhi Public School, Hyderabad.
Published in Times of India, August 11, 2005.