What is the value of education?

When 28-year-old Dhruv Lakra, an MBA graduate from Oxford University, launched Mirakle Couriers, he did more than start a business. The former student of HR College, Mumbai, quit a high-paying job in Merrill Lynch to contribute his mite to the differently challenged in society; all the employees of his company are deaf.

Proudly citing Dhruv's example  Indu Shahani, principal, HR College, pointed out, "It's easier to teach academics. It is more difficult to inculcate a culture in students that makes them responsible for society and towards it."

Continuing in the same vein, she explained, "I have always felt very strongly about the importance of holistic education. The true value of education is not restricted just to academics but it is intended to let the students grow as individuals and focus on the problems of the community.”
She added,”I don’t deny that academic curriculum is important but it is also equally important that students must be sensitised to the needs of the outside world. That is why it is mandatory for every class in the Bachelor of Management Studies course to do one project with an NGO-get involved with its activities that are carried out throughout the year."

In the last year one third of the students of HR College have taken placements in the NGO sector. "There is so much focus on profits," said Shahani. "The true value of education is how students respond to the needs of those not as privileged as themselves once they step out into their individual workplaces and the real world.

In the ultimate sense, what is the value of education? In the literal sense -the most monetary - the value of education could be measured by the amount one invests in it. And by extension be monetarily determined by the pay-offs one gets when one finishes one's formal education.

But is that all the value that education offers? In the holistic and ultimate sense, all of us would agree and say, 'No!' Education is not about numbers and results though in the current scenario of chasing college seats and getting marks most of those in the system would feel that that is the be-all and end all of education.

In simple terms, education can be defined as acquiring skills and a sensitivity. There are as many ways to be educated as there are subjects to be studied. There are formal methods of education and informal ones-where lessons learnt at home, in a family and in the community hold a value that cannot be measured.

If one were to define education as being lettered and view it as acquiring degrees under one's belt - degrees that indicate the skills that you have learnt - then one value that is directly placed on it is the economic remuneration it results in.

But the actual value of education goes far beyond it as Nandini Sardesai, social activist and former head of the Department of Sociology, St. Xavier's College, opined, seeing true education as value education. She points out, "Value education is an essential but unfortunately a neglected aspect in contemporary India. Very often, morals/religion is confused with values -since the former are subjective and even ethnocentric perceptions, they lead to jingoism and fundamentalism.”
She highlighted, “Values have to be internalised as a self image. There can be no compromise and this is not easy in a changing world. Having been in the education field for over 30 years it is appalling that both teachers and students pay lip service to values -there is a lack of genuine concern and so much hypocrisy/sycophancy. Being lettered does not suffice if we want persons of principles."

Two 'principled' names come to mind immediately in the contemporary context. At the last general elections, many socially-sensitised people had put their hands together for Meera Sanyal, the independent candidate who stood for elections from Mumbai South constituency.

In her campaign she had announced, "If good men hesitated to challenge the system, the good women should!" Though she lost - pitted as she was against another socially committed candidate, Milind Deora - what she did was to set a sterling example that one hopes other professionals will follow and make a difference in Indian politics.

The second name that springs inevitably to mind is that of 54-year-old business baron Nandan Nilekani. He is the man who has been the much admired poster-boy of India Infotech, the man who made IT a buzzword amongst Indians.
His decision to join the government to head the Unique Identification Card programme that will give every Indian a biometric card was nothing if not laudable. After writing an book Imagining India, Nilekani is putting into practice what he believes. More power to him and his kind!