YOU “LL NEED A HEART –THE LARGER THE BETTER

Rarely has the world around us felt so broken in body and in spirit as we hurtle from one crisis to another. If it isn’t the frighteningly frequent serial bomb blast, it’s the global financial collapse .Hundreds of innocent lives have been snuffed out on the streets of Indian cities, and thousands have been left jobless, penniless or both.
Its at times such as these that we tend to return to the basics. Just as we put our hard earned money in investments that we absolutely trust, we also rediscover the simple truths that stand us in good stead in the long run.
In the long run there’s very little that surpasses the benefits of a good education, for the individual as well as for society and the nation. Your job can be taken away , your education cannot be. Education is the real wealth of a country. An educated country takes bigger strides to progress. All other things being equal, that’s about the best insurance anyone can buy against an uncertain future. Its also the biggest leveler in society allowing children from underprivileged backgrounds to rise above their fate at birth and become world beaters.
There has been a fair amount of noise around the idea of a new and confident India , not all of it misplaced. But somewhere along the way the line between hype and reality may have got somewhat blurred. Today we face a crisis that is greater than the one faced by our markets. And because it doesn’t flash on an electronic scoreboard on a moment basis like the sensex does we don’t really see it. Despite Indias fast expanding economy, millions of Indians continue to languish in a vicious cycle of poverty. A big reason is the lack of decent education which in turn has deprived large sections of Indian society of basic human rights.
From college students who took coffee time off to teach slum children English to the businessman who distributed dictionary to a classroom, to a senior citizen who brought in a hot tiffin for the entire class.
Its not the grade that put you among the best and brightest. If you have the grades, you “ll need a heart –larger the better. Your remuneration wont be another cog in the corporate wheel, it’s a heart which makes you a hero in the eyes of a million children.
Education is modern Indias greatest leveler and its redemption. Its is the tide that lifts every boat. It is the route out of the caste ghetto, the path out of the slum, the road to the high table. In that defining moment there is a reinforcement of faith in the future that is possible to break the cycle of inequality by honourable means. Ironically our greatest source of strength is treating to become our biggest weakness. Our education system is choking. Strategically we are in danger of losing our global competitive advantage. Entrepreneurs have found that education is a great new business and there’s nothing wrong with that so long as there is a genuine intent to provide quality education. But private education comes at a price, and the question is , can it reach children in slums and villages ? if it can, can they afford it? The answer quite simply is no. As aspiration rises and disparities widen, and as the need for equity assumes even greater urgency there is only one solution to redeem the classroom. The highest socio-economic class they have money more importantly they have had an education . what could be more satisfying than being able to share your knowledge and experience with children who may be wise beyond their years, but have never been taught how to write their name , or told why there is day and night or why an apple falls to the ground instead of soaring to the sky.
Its is with a deep sense of mission that we can reach out to these unprivileged kids. Let us open up our hearts to open their minds. Where the day a child learns to read and write will be his independence day. And when a child from this class passes, the nation will graduate. From being the worlds largest illiterate population to the worlds largest literate workforce. Lets join hands and raise a banner and lets strife forward with a stalwart heart and a hope in a real and tangible form to build a nation that will have a quality education.