Knowledge or Certificate
-Yojana Shrestha
Have you ever wondered what the meaning of education is? Is it passing the exams, getting certificates or gaining knowledge? We go to college through out the year but the real effort begins when the exams come close. The whole year we are busy bunking classes, going on strikes and hanging out with friends. As soon as we know the routine has been published we then go into hibernation and start studying. During this period our concentration level is at the best and those topics we don’t understand we mug them up ready to regurgitate on the answer sheet in the exam. The examiner is impressed and gives us good marks. Once the results are out we look at the marks and feel happy knowing we are one step closer to our certificate. Is that the real meaning of education? When we think about it deeply we know that the knowledge we have mugged up lasts only for a month or so then we forget it. Why does that happen? It’s because we have not learnt anything. We have simply just passed the exams without gaining any knowledge. Is this what is called education? Then finally when we have to face the real world we realize how little knowledge we have. It’s not the marks that determine a person’s knowledge it’s his ability to use his knowledge in the real world practically that makes him educated. A student scoring very good marks not necessarily is the one who is going to go ahead in life. Have you ever faced this situation where you come to know, the student of your class, who used to come first, is working as an ordinary staff in some company whereas a student who used to just pass becomes a successful doctor or engineer or a businessman. How does this happen? The rank holder might have mugged up the topics so well that he scored good marks in the exams but the average student might have studied sincerely found which profession he is best suited for and with hard work reached where he is today. So the average student is the one who is really educated whereas the rank holder is the owner of some certificates. It’s not a bad thing to become an average student but there should be sincerity in you. You should compete with yourself rather than others. Try to improve in each performance. Don’t go after marks go after knowledge. It’s ok to fail in your subjects and repeat them instead of cheating and passing. The main reason why we cheat is because we don’t want to fail. But is it worth the risk? Cheating in your exams is actually cheating yourself. And in life you don’t reach far by cheating. Sooner or later you will realize your shortcomings. If only we could concentrate on gaining knowledge maybe we could also produce some brilliant people who could make the nation proud.
