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Positive and negative effects of education

Education is supposed to be an enlightening process that aims at magnifying our wisdom and store of knowledge. It was a word created to have only positive impacts. However, like every other realm of humanity, education too has its demerits.

Employment, career, etc are possible only if education is present in the equation. Right from the time we are born, it is stressed to us that education is the key to success in life. We are admitted to a school (or started with homeschooling), regardless of our opinion about it. What demerits can this wonderful and apparently essential process have? We shall discuss further in this article.

Positive and negative effects of education

Positive effects of education

• Economic Development
A huge percent of those living in this world come under the category of “poor”. They can’t even afford basic necessities of life like food and clothing – let alone education. However, if educated, a lot of these people can come out of the clutches of poverty – as has been proved by a number of people like Charlie Chaplin and Oprah Winfrey. Yes, indirectly I am pointing at the fact that if you need a job, you gotta get an education!
While the standard of living of individual increases with a steady job, the economy of the country as a whole develops as well.

• Health
Education plays an important role in maintaining the health of an individual. With increased store of knowledge, people are often careful of small symptoms and avoid epidemics. Also, the rates of child mortality amongst the educated class are much lower than that amongst the noneducated ones. HIV is another issue to combat amongst the uneducated. With education, contraception, childbirth, and mating find a whole new meaning which is advantageous not just for the individual but for the society on a whole. It helps the whole society/ region develop as an unhindered race.

• Malnutrition
Malnutrition is a major problem, especially in countries that are underdeveloped. Lack of organizational skills, farming capabilities, and nutritional values lead to malnutrition in the youth of an uneducated society. Malnutrition leads to depletion of a race. It strikes a society with various diseases that may be fatal. Education helps fight this problem and make a society see the path of progress. As Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Negative Effects of Education

• Moral Impact
Education is worsening the level of moral values a child has. It inculcates a kind of competitiveness that borders on unhealthy relationships. Right from the moment, they are admitted to school, children are embedded with an attitude that says personal achievements are everything. They are taught that marks and trophies are everything you need to lead a successful life. The how and why are not so important, just mug up the what – that’s what is taught to a kid. And that’s what he grows up learning. The society has sunk far too deep in this muck to get out now – it is a custom, a tradition to teach our kids to come first in class and no less. This is creating not a wholesome adult but a competitive animal out of our little kids.

• Social responsibility
Education is killing our sense of empathy. If you’re an Indian pedestrian and are run over by a car, it won’t be the car owner who’d rush to help you. It won’t be the manager of that Haute restaurant or the prim and proper secretary from “Mills and sons” who saw you get run over through the glass doors – no. It would be the local tea vendor, the rickshaw driver, and the security guards who lacked educational qualifications to hold high posts who’d rush in to help you. It isn’t the fault of the rich and well-educated ones that they’re incapable of empathy, but it is the fault of education. Modern education systems teach kids to think about themselves – and only about themselves!

• Lack of wisdom
The modern education system is all about getting loads of garbage into a little mind. It expects a student to complete huge portions and that’s what students are doing – but in a wrong way. Rote memory is being stressed on rather than the creative one. This is one of the saddest aspects of modern society – we have knowledge but no wisdom to use it.

To quote John F. Kennedy, “The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.”

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