AIMS OF EDUCATION

Need of Aims of Education

Education is a determined activity. Through education we intend to bring certain desirable changes in the students. The education is a conscious effort, and as such, it has specific goals and objectives. In the light of these objectives, the program is determined and the educational outcomes of students are measured. Education without aims is like as a boat without its rudder because aims give us a direction to activity. With the absence of an aim in education makes it a blind alleyway. Every stage of human progress had some aim of life. The aims of the life determine aims of the education. The aims of the education have changed from age to age and therefore it is dynamic because the aims of the life are dynamic.

Nature of the Aims of the Education

With the aim to know the aims of the education, we must know the nature of the aims. The aims of the education are not fixed, eternal and the universal. These are changeable and relative. The nature of the aims of education can properly be understood in the light of two distinct philosophies of life-idealism and pragmatism. Idealism stands for ultimate, absolute, eternal and the universal values. It promotes high standards of life, which are mostly spiritual in nature. Idealism implores “knowledge for knowledge’s sake.”In idealist society, the education is for the general and for the moral development of a person. According to the idealism, the aims of the education are spiritual and idealistic in nature and they are absolute, predetermined, unchangeable and the universal. The aim of idealist education is to realize these pre-existing, absolute and the universal values. It is “The Education for complete living.”

Pragmatic deals with life as it is and not as it should be. It is also known as the realistic approach to the life. Realism in the social, the political and the economic circumstances or force of life is considered. The current conditions of the life establish the objectives of the pragmatic education. Pragmatism does not believe in absolute and eternal values: philosophy of life is always reflected in the goals of education.

Plato measured that the guardians of the state should have high theoretical ideals.

Locke emphasized that “the disciplined and well-ordered mind.”

Hegel stress on idealistic the aim of the education, that is glorification of the state and the fulfilment of the will of the absolute.

Marx was a materialist. Therefore he emphasized material the aim of the education, that is, the practical economic needs of a man. In a materialist society, the educational aims are based on the materialistic outlook of the people. In such a society moral or the spiritual values have nothing to do with the education. The idealist society tries to glorify those values and emphasize moral upliftment of personality.

The socio-political ideology also determines the aims of the education. A fascist government, A democratic government, A communist government each one formulates its own split ends and means of the education. The democratic ideals of the life are flexible and change with the changing conditions of the life. Thus, in a democracy, the goal at the highest development of innate potentialities of the individual. In fascism the personality exists for the state and the education aims at glorification and the welfare of the state. Man is seen as the creature of the State Social and economic issues are also critical of the goals and objectives of education. Education must prepare to the future generation for the economic and the social system of the country. To determine its educational goals, each country must consider its economic conditions. Therefore we find variability is the nature of the educational aims. The Secondary Education Commission (1952) place it: “As the political , social and economic conditions change and new problems arise , it becomes necessary to thoroughly review and re- articulate the goals of education for the final stage should keep in view.”

LOGICAL MEANING OF EDUCATION

In the following lines, we are annoying to create the meaning of education more clearly by explaining its constituent issues in better details:

• Not restricted to knowledge imparted in Schools:

Education cannot be limited to the processes of giving knowledge to children in the schools only. Its program goes on from birth to till death. In other words, every one learns something or the other throughout life by different experiences and activities. All of these counted in Education.

• Education as the Development of Child’s Innate Power:

Education is developing the native endowments of a child rather than something forced into the mind from outside of the children.

• Education as a Dynamic Process:

 Education is not static but a self-motivated process, which develops the child’s activity and mind according to changing situation and times.

• Education as a Tri-polar Process:

1). John Dewey regards:

                                     Education is a process of development.

According to John Dewey education has two features:

1)    Psychological and (2) Sociological.

He declares that the development of a child does not take place just in vacuum. It takes place through the society in which the teacher and the child both live together in school life. Thus, it depends more on society, which will determine the aims, contents and methods of teaching. Thus, the process of education contains three poles, namely, (1) The teacher, (2) The child, (3) The society. These three features actively cooperate in the efficient and successful working of the educational process.

THE CYCLIC PROCESS OF EDUCATION

Education should be a continual repetition of these cycles. Each lesson in its minor way should form an eddy cycle concerning in its own subordinate process. Longer periods should issue in exact attainments, which then form the starting-grounds for fresh cycles. We should drive out the idea of a mythical, far-off finale of education. The pupils must be continually enjoying some fruition and starting anew, if the teacher is inspiring in exact proportion to his success in satisfying the rhythmic cravings of his pupils.

An infant's first romance is its awakening to the apprehension of objects and to the appreciation of their connections. Its growth in mentality takes the exterior form of occupying itself in the co-ordination of its perceptions with its bodily activities. Its first stage of precision is mastering spoken language as a tool for classifying its contemplation of objects and for strengthening its apprehension of emotional relations with other beings. Its first stage of generalisation is the use of language for a classified and enlarged enjoyment of objects.

This first cycle of intellectual progress from the achievement of perception to the acquirement of language, and from the acquirement of language to classified thought and keener perception, will bear more careful study. It is the only cycle of progress which we can observe in its purely natural state. The later cycles are necessarily tinged by the procedure of the current mode of education.

There is a characteristic of it which is often sadly lacking in subsequent education; I mean that it gets complete success. Finally of it the child can speak, its ideas are confidential, and its perceptions are sharpened. The cycle achieves its object. This is much more than can be said for most systems of education as applied to most students. But why should this be so? Definitely, a new-born baby looks a most unpromising subject for an intellectual progress when we remember that the difficulty of the task before it. I suppose it is because of nature, in the form of surrounding circumstances, sets it a task for which the normal development of its brain is exactly fitted. I do not think there is a particular mystery by the fact of a child learning to speak and think as a result all the better; but it has to think about.

Into further education, we have not sought for cyclic process in a finite time their course and their own limited sphere get a complete success. This is the end of an exceptional nature in the natural cycle for infants. Later, we start a child on a topic, say Latin at the age of ten, and the hope of a uniform system of formal training to achieve success at the age of twenty. The natural result is failure, both in the interest and acquisition. When I speak of failure, I compare our results with the brilliant success of the first natural cycle. I do not think it's because our tasks are inherently too hard when I remember that a child's cycle is the most difficult of all. This is because our tasks are defined in a natural way, without rhythm and without intermediaries’ success and without concentration stimulus.

The whole being of the infant is engrossed in the practice of its cycle. It has nothing else to divert its mental development. In this respect there is a striking difference between this natural cycle and the subsequent history of the student's progress. It is perfectly obvious that life is a very different and that the mind and brain naturally develop so as to adapt themselves to the many-hued world in which their lot is cast. Still, after making allowance for this consideration, we will be prudent to preserve some measure of concentration for each of the subsequent cycles. In particular, we should avoid a competition of diverse subjects in the same stage of their cycles. The fault of the older education was unrhythmic concentration on a single undifferentiated subject.  Our modem system, with its emphasis on a preliminary general education, and with his easy tolerance of the analysis of knowledge in different subjects is a collection unrhythmic equally troublesome waste. I am importunate that we shall endeavour to weave in the learner's mind a harmony of patterns, by coordinating the a variety of elements of instruction into subordinate cycles each of intrinsic worth for the immediate apprehension of the student. We must garner our crops each in its due season.

A Little Accurate Definition of Education

There are several different definitions and meanings of education as in MEANING, AIMS AND PROCESS OF EDUCATION, guide us to the conclusion that education should have a complete definition. therefore, education may be defined as a psychological, conscious or unconscious, purposive, sociological, scientific and philosophical process, which brings about the development of the individual to the fullest extent and as well the maximum development of society in such a way that both enjoy maximum happiness and prosperity.

To cut a long story short,

Education is the development of individuality according to his needs and demands of society, of which he is an essential part.

In the First article MEANING, AIMS AND PROCESS OF EDUCATION, observations of different educators highlight the following special features of education:

• Education is both, independent as well as bi-polar in nature.

• It is a unbroken process.

• It is knowledge with experience.

• It is progress of particular aspects of human personality or a harmonious integrated growth.

• It is conducive for the good of the human being or the welfare of the society.

• It is a broad-minded discipline or a vocational course.

• It is stabilizer of social order, an instrument of change, conservator of culture and social reconstruction.