Kya aap Saakshar hai par sikshit nahin?
sanchita ghosh
Leveraging human behaviour to build cultures that care. I Strategic Communications I Inclusion & Diversity I Behaviour Change I Research, Policy & Advocacy I Care Sector Proponent I ?? Views expressed are my own.
A couple of months ago, I met a school teacher from a low-resource setting and was intrigued with the way he described the school’s neighbourhood - Sab saakshar hai par koi shikshit nahin (everybody is literate but nobody is educated).
Literacy is fundamental to education that allows us to acquire knowledge and skills. And when we demonstrate application of knowledge and skills, our education is considered complete. It is no wonder that one of the basic indicators of any nation’s economic development is the degree of education and knowledge of its society. Do you agree with that? I don’t and please allow me to explain.
Researchers worldwide agree that more educated people typically engage in healthier behaviors. Within my work sphere, there are studies to demonstrate a strong and consistently measured relationship between educational attainment and positive behaviours. Education should make us assertive, rational and powerful enough to self regulate ourselves. However, psychologists have demonstrated that we are deeply irrational and rarely make decisions based on facts. Nobody wants to make a bad decision or a poor choice but we end up making them - smoking, drunken driving, sedentary lifestyle, poor nutrition, impulsive buying, name calling, spitting, littering, urinating/defecating in the open, domestic abuse and so on.
I have experienced a dichotomous view of the world in my personal life too. My grandmother never went to school but she epitomised fairness, respect and equality in our family, inculcated discipline and healthy living. On the other hand,I got married into a highly educated family. A day after my wedding, I had a“fair and lovely’ tube discreetly tucked into my hand (virtuous or vicious - whitening creams do not lighten skin colour, Voila!) to lighten my skin tone to match my husband’s. Yea?rs later, I was tricked into a child bearing ritual without any knowledge or consent to pray for my supposedly doomed fertility (Ouch!).
Education is meant to help us cast ourselves into a better mould. But the truth is that there is a deep chasm between what education should achieve and what it actually does. Education is not and cannot be a reliable proxy for how we behave or how we develop as a society. It is constantly battling our irrationality and cognitive biases when it comes to making choices and decisions. Then, where does it leave us?
A simple pithy phrase from a school teacher made me traverse my life experiences. Now I ask the same of you. “Kya aap saakshar hain par sikshit nahin?”
Please do think about it and share your comments, even a few words will be encouraging. Thank you.
Another great one Sanchita! My mother bore the brunt of this, a lot. And she would forgive them all, because, in her words, they were "highly uneducated". Unknowingly, but perhaps because of hearing it so often, it was ensconced in my head. Now, when I come across them, I do the same "poor fellow, he's highly uneducated, don't mind him"