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FINNISHING TOUCH?
From time to time, countries face issues, both global and internal, that
seek to threaten their very existence, and with the world becoming more
and more complex, the multitude of issues that each country faces has
only grown. In the wake of these threats, be it economic slowdowns,
terrorism, global environment concerns or scarcity of resources, every
country needs to increase its ability to cope. Coping well would entail
developing a strategy to effectively deploy resources to ensure a better
chance of growth and survival in this big, bad world, and the one strategy
that is imperative for every country to adopt right now is: investing in
itself. Indeed, social progress is often used as a yardstick to measure how
well a country is doing presently, and how well it is bound to do in the
future. To this effect, a Social Progress Index has also been developed to
quantitatively analyse the global standing of each country in terms of well
their citizens are doing. The SPI recognizes a key factor influencing the
effectiveness of a countrys coping mechanism- the mutual dependence of
a country and its citizens.
The power of citizens to give back to their country depends on the
countrys planning and investment in its education sector. The SPI too
recognizes the importance of education towards the true progress of a
country and its citizens. It uses access to education as a major criterion in
developing the SPI. In fact, the importance of education in a countrys
growth can best be indicated by a comparison- Finland v/s India.
There do exist some similarities between the two. Both the countries have
certainly identified education as a major influencer of public welfare.
Insofar, they have both made elementary education compulsory for
students, and both of them try to ease up the process of the general
public facilitating educational reform by providing incentives like
subsidised or completely free meals in schools. And yet, when Finland
stands 7th on the list of top 68 performers on the SPI, India hasnt even
made it to the list. So what is it doing wrong?
First, India has either ignored the educational reforms undertaken in other
countries, or clumsily borrowed bits and pieces without adapting it
according its own needs. Now is the time where it needs to extensively
study the one education system that has gained huge success- that of
Finland and plan accordingly:
In order for the equilibrium of give and take to be maintained between the
citizens and the country, India too needs to realise that the power the
education sector holds in terms of facilitating social progress and the
degree to which education needs work. Insufficient attention,
overestimation of traditional education systems and inability to scale and
adopt some of the worlds best systems as per its own needs has reduced
Indias education system to a mere process that is repeated over and over
without reaping significant results. Housing 1.2 billion people in its vast
lands, India needs an urgent review of present practices of education so
that its benefits can trickle down to the masses, who in turn can help in
ensuring sustainable growth for the country. The stronger the shield of
social progress, the greater will be its ability to meet global and internal
offensives, quite like, and someday perhaps more so than, Finland.