Tuesday, June 05, 2012
Technical
Education may be defined as the practical application of the general principles
and methods of scientific studies to the teaching of some trade, profession or
handicraft.
In Pakistan where
more than eighty per cent of the population is agricultural and another ten per
cent industrial, it is very harmful to make education merely literary and to
unfit boys and girls for manual work is after life.
In view of
the modern age of industrial and scientific advancement, it is admitted of all
hands that Pakistan
cannot keep pace with other countries in the march of progress unless our
eminent educationists direct attention to the introduction of technical
education in our schools, colleges and universities which is wholly liberal and
hence one-sided. We are taught how to live before we know how to make a living.
Rightly has
it been said by someone that there are only three ways of earning one’s
livelihood:
(i)
Working
(ii)
Begging, and
(iii)
Stealing.
If one fail to earn
by the first method, that is by working, it is natural that one should earn
either by begging or by stealing. Therefore, a youth who has failed to seek a
job and earn by working must inevitably turn out to be either a beggar or a
stealer. The question which crops up before us is, who is responsible for this
production of technical education in our schools and colleges. And if we do not
want our education institution to produce a generation of beggars and stealers
but that of the honest, upright gentlemen who earn their livelihood by the
sweat of their brow, then, it is essential to teach the boys in some special
branch of:
(i)
Industry,
(ii)
Mechanism.
(iii)
Handicraft.
(iv)
Trade, or
(v)
A profession.
So that at the end of their
educational career they are in a position to find employment easily or failing
that start their own private work or business.
Numerous
benefits, both practical and moral, accrue from technical education, in the
first place it solves the problem of unemployment by supplying the industries
with a large body of trained workers in every line. Secondly, it will pay for
the education of our children and make them studious and self-supporting. For this
purpose, technical education and manual work must be introduced in schools and
universities and students required to pay their fees in the form of labour
rather than cash.
The habit of
doing manual work will make our students
healthy, strong and agile. They will have to handle tools in a workshop and
this will put a strain on their muscles and make their bodies healthy, smart
and active. Technical work of minute details will train them in attention to
detail and accuracy. It will also cultivate in them the virtues of patience,
faith and industry. Above all, they will realize the dignity of labour and
practically learn that work is worship.
In this country,
the manual work is looked down upon with contempt by the so-called education
class of people and thrust down into the lowest caste. But with the
encouragement of technical education this feeling of superiority-complex will
gradually disappears as it has disappeared in many foreign countries.
Literary
education is equally necessary and important to hold the scales in balance:
If the present
schools offer a pathetic spectacle of a training ground of clerks, the future
schools would have the dreary aspect of children workers.
A true form of
education is one which aims at the full and harmonious development of all the
factors of human personality. Man has not his body only and he does not live by
bread alone. He has not only a stomach to fill but also a mind to think and a
heart to feel. Chinning has very apply remarked.
A man has to be
educated not because he has to make shoes and nails and pins but because he is
a man.
Mere technical
proficiency in some industry or handicraft will not promote his human qualities
and develop in him those virtues which will make a man of him and render his
life worth living. Literary education should also be imparted to him so that he
may cultivate good tastes and finer sensibilities for the appreciation of:
(i)
Art.
(ii)
Literature.
(iii)
Philosophy.
(iv)
Religion, and
(v)
A desire to follow noble ideals
and aspirations of life.
If literary
education is not given, though well-versed in his professional duties, he will
be devoid of the considerations of
morality and high virtues. He may indulge in bad habits of gambling, drinking
and prostitution and waste his money which e earns by virtue of his technical
qualifications.
No comments
Post a Comment