Illiteracy in India
Illiteracy in India (disadvantages; propositions)
Education acts as a refuge in adversity. It empowers the people. It is the tool that breaks the chains that resist a nation’s development. If the growth of a nation is to be people-centric, and if development is to be whole, then the people must be empowered and stimulated through education.
Current situation (disadvantages):
India is the largest democracy in the world. Quite interestingly, 30% of the world’s illiterate population comes from India. The literacy rate of the country is around 57%. Of these literate people, most reside in urban areas which constitute around 10% of the inhabited land; rural areas occupy the rest. Clearly, rural India is dominated by illiteracy.
Lack of education has resulted in growth of unemployment, poverty and a substantial increase in rate of growth of population. Most of the voters are illiterate; votes of the literate people (which are already meagre in number since literate Indians often choose not to vote, considering the fact that almost all candidates are illiterate and incompetent) do not affect the election process in a major way. In consequence, votes are influenced by factors such as religion and caste of the candidates, and, the nation ends up with a government made of people who are corrupt and who don’t spare a thought before accepting bribery to do something that would harm the country. Most of the politicians can’t be blamed; being illiterate themselves, they do not have the power and sensibility to make intelligent decisions.
Illiteracy has proven to be a major handicap. It has percolated through the various systems that determine India’s growth. It doesn’t help that the Educational system itself operates on nepotism and corruption. May I add that people who have never been to school themselves run it!! The whole system is based on rote learning, the curriculum is rarely updated and teachers in rural schools lack necessary qualifications and
Education acts as a refuge in adversity. It empowers the people. It is the tool that breaks the chains that resist a nation’s development. If the growth of a nation is to be people-centric, and if development is to be whole, then the people must be empowered and stimulated through education.
Current situation (disadvantages):
India is the largest democracy in the world. Quite interestingly, 30% of the world’s illiterate population comes from India. The literacy rate of the country is around 57%. Of these literate people, most reside in urban areas which constitute around 10% of the inhabited land; rural areas occupy the rest. Clearly, rural India is dominated by illiteracy.
Lack of education has resulted in growth of unemployment, poverty and a substantial increase in rate of growth of population. Most of the voters are illiterate; votes of the literate people (which are already meagre in number since literate Indians often choose not to vote, considering the fact that almost all candidates are illiterate and incompetent) do not affect the election process in a major way. In consequence, votes are influenced by factors such as religion and caste of the candidates, and, the nation ends up with a government made of people who are corrupt and who don’t spare a thought before accepting bribery to do something that would harm the country. Most of the politicians can’t be blamed; being illiterate themselves, they do not have the power and sensibility to make intelligent decisions.
Illiteracy has proven to be a major handicap. It has percolated through the various systems that determine India’s growth. It doesn’t help that the Educational system itself operates on nepotism and corruption. May I add that people who have never been to school themselves run it!! The whole system is based on rote learning, the curriculum is rarely updated and teachers in rural schools lack necessary qualifications and