EDUCATION AND DIFFERENCE BTW EDUCATION AND LITERACY

TOPIC- WHAT IS EDUCATION

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EDUCATION AND LITERACY

Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, morals, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include teaching, training, storytelling, discussion and directed research. Education frequently takes place under the guidance of educators, however learners can also educate themselves. Education can take place in formal or informal settings and any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational. 

Formal education is commonly divided formally into such stages as preschool or kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and then college, university, or apprenticeship.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LITERACY AND EDUCATION

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A LITERATE PERSON AND EDUCATED PERSON, FOR THIS I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE AN EXAMPLE.

It was a misty morning. I hurried through hordes of people, jumping over platforms, kicking one or two that came in between and I barely made my way towards the train. Although I had a reserved seat, however, the general rules do not apply in a Mumbai local as do laws of nature. It is the survival of the fittest, always has been. As it happened, I found two people sitting across each other, reportedly, engulfed in a heated discussion. One of them was wearing a ‘skull candy’ headphones, so I presumed him to be a student. The other was an old man constantly spitting ‘som-ras’ on the railway track. The student boasted of erstwhile schooling and argued that he could read and write and was thus educated. While the other explained that the mere ability to read and write didn’t mean education. As the train reached its destination, both fathomed at the incompetence of each-other. What they still didn’t understand was the real difference between literacy and education.

Literacy is defined as acquiring the ability to read, write and understand. It is entirely concerned with the art of reading and writing. It provides information that can be used as a means to attain knowledge. Where information is the theoretical know-how of a subject, and knowledge is the awareness about the use of that information. It is a primary form of information transmission for this time and era.

“Literacy provides a person with the ability to acquire information to develop the know-how called education.”

Whereas education is defined as the systematic process of facilitating learning, receiving, experiencing and/or of acquiring knowledge, skills, values and beliefs to impart instructions and provide an overall development. While an educated person can be literate, every literate person cannot be called educated. Education is a broader concept which takes into consideration the all-round development of a human personality. Whereas literacy is a narrower concept that tends to maintain the status quo. Education aims to make a person rational i.e. to think comprehensively and reason scientifically. It includes developing skills and learning  them in the right direction.

A common belief maintains that educated people are bereft of superstitions, biasedness, irrational sociological religious beliefs and customs.

Also, education brings a revolution in the way of thinking. It encourages a person to think out of the box (creatively). It inspires a person to be curious, innovative and develop a rational behaviour. The relative behaviour is dependent upon people, where the form of education varies. A person’s education is dependent upon her/his field of work and may not necessarily liberate her/him from mental slavery. 

The following pointers identify the primary differences between literacy and education:

1. A person may be literate and also educated;
2. A person may be literate but not educated;
3. A person may be illiterate but still be educated;
4. And a person may be illiterate and uneducated.

Another misconception nurtured by our society is that a person holding an educational degree or a diploma is educated. However, the same does not stand to be true. If that was the case then the founding fathers of our constitution would not have been addressed as learned. Remember, a literate person may need an education degree to prove his education, but a learned person does not require a degree to substantiate his experience. For example “the educational institutions in India are brimming with literates but are failing to produce educated beings”. A student cannot be considered educated with a mere ability to read and write. The student has to be changed as a whole, which includes teaching him to be sociologically and legally be responsible for society.

As per the 2011 census, the country of India has a literacy rate of 74%, wherein 82% of men are literate and merely 65% of women can read and write. However, despite the said statistics, the country has seen a formidable rise in wrongdoing against the opposite gender. Therewith supporting the hypothesis that literacy does not denote education in whole. Also coining a social slang such as educated illiterate.

Reading book after book the whole world died,
and none ever became learned !
                                                                    — Kabir Granthavali

The greatest issue with our society is that it denotes literacy on par with education. It strives to make a country full of literates but not educated. It is an undeniable fact that illiteracy is a root cause of many problems but illiteracy in itself does not denote a lack of education. A literate can read, write and understand but may not turn out to be a responsible person. Education may not necessarily construe people to be visionary but can make them rational and responsible citizens.

It is high time that we understand the difference between literacy and education because the mere ability to read and write is not enough. 

HERE WE HAVE SOME EXAMPLES SHOWING  DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LITERACY AND EDUCATION:-

• Let us take an example of a person who knows very well to read and write. Say, his entire schooling has been done in an English medium school. He is very fluent in English. Thus, we can say that he is literate. But can we say that he is well educated? I doubt. I can say he is educated only if his knowledge and information gained is reflected in his actions. If a person uses foul language and abusive words, then he can’t be considered an educated person. Action of an educated person is imbued with a sense of calm and serenity.
• Let us take an example of a chef. Many people know how to cook but not all of them are called chefs. Similarly, in case of driving, many people knows the functionality and working of all parts of the vehicle, say brake, clutch, accelerator, steering and many more, but that does not make them a perfect driver. To become a driver, one must have good practice.
• Literacy cannot make a person wise but education can. An educated man can only bring around changes in society and contribute to the development of society, which leads to the development of the nation. In India, almost all the literate persons knows the saying “Honesty is the best policy”. But the question arises whether all of them practice it in their life and daily activities. I think each one of us knows the answer to this question. The answer is ‘no’. Very few people practice it in reality, though everyone knows it. We deliberately try to eschew the fact and this is something which differentiates between an educated mind and a literate mind.
• We can think of an educated India if we have a literate India. Literacy is a step towards education and if one fails in this basic step then it becomes difficult to be educated. A person who is literate in a language is considered illiterate when he goes to a foreign land having another language but his behaviour will reflect his educated mind everywhere.