The root word, education, has been derived from Latin words: educare, which means to nourish or to bring up, and educare, which means to lead forth or to draw out. The word education consists of “E” and “duco,” where “E” implies a movement from inward to outward and “duco” indicates developing or progressing. In Sanskrit, there are two words that stand for education: “Shiksha” (derived from "Shah,” meaning to “control or to discipline”) and “Vidya” (derived from "Vidh,” meaning to know). In the ancient period of education, discipline and knowledge were the most significant determinants of human personality. So, education shapes an individual in various ways with knowledge, understandings, skills, interests, and critical thinking for themselves and society as a whole.

Indian scriptures and stalwarts (spiritual and intellectual) define education in many ways. But their intentions are the same. According to Rig Veda, ‘education is something that makes man self-reliant and selfless. The Upanishad guides ‘education for liberation’. The Bhagavad Gita says that education is ‘nothing more purifying on earth than wisdom’. Adiguru Sankaracharya opined, ‘Education is the realization of self.’ Kautilya defined ‘education means training for the country and love of the nation’. Further, according to Panini, ‘human education means the training that one gets from nature.’ Modern spiritual leaders and thinkers walked down the same road to explain the need for and importance of education in man's life. Swami Vivekananda viewed ‘education as the manifestation of divine perfection, already existing in man.’ Tagore realized ‘the widest road leading to the solution of all problems in education.’ Sri Aurobindo says, ‘Education will offer the tools whereby one can live for the divine, for the country, for oneself, and for others, and this must be the idea of every school that calls itself national’. Gandhiji opined, ‘By education, I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in the child and man's body, mind, and spirit.’

From the above views, it is clear that education is a significant nutrition for making a healthy being as well as a healthy nation. It determines complex living, harmonious development, mental and emotional development, moral and physical development, character building, self-realization, modification of behavior, and individual adjustment. This lifelong systematic process is always an absolute factor in a better society. 

Needless to say, education is a dynamic process, and it is a three-dimensional process for the teacher, the child, and society. Each and every dimension has a definite role to play and altogether shapes a constructive and disciplined society. We know there are three types of education: formal, non-formal, and informal. Formal education has been institutionalized for degree-related education in the job market, and it determines an educated individual, an educated society, and an educated nation. So, education always determines the progress and development of a nation in the world. But other two types of education, i.e., non-formal and informal, have immense importance for the overall development of an individual, which starts at the very early stage of a child and where parents and family play a great role in socialization.

But the main purpose of education has been shifted, and the health of education suffers in many ways, which is enough to yield a fractured society. Education now makes an individual selfish, immoral, and unethical because the target of education runs between grade and job or career as an instrument of wealth-making. Character buildings as well as national development are nothing. Educated (degree holders) people are mostly corrupt, and they deliberately instigate corruption.

A child’s process of socialization, where education takes the upper hand, is defective in this consumerist society where material satisfaction is all about. So, the target is very specific: to do anything that matches the materialistic lifestyle and choice. At the very beginning of a child’s life, parents invest in earning a grade towards achieving a target for a bright career. A child is now born to meet the desired target of parents in the family, fulfill the desired target in the workplace, and so forth. The importance of morality and selflessness is not a matter. Secondly, teachers are now instructors. They are not torchbearers because they make this noble profession of man-making only a career, and their dedication to man-making is no more praiseworthy. In West Bengal, the quality of teachers is now limited to their competitive eligibility. The behavior of teachers is not getting respect, and their activeness on social media has affected their cultural behavior adversely. 

Thereafter, the policy and system of education in India have become political issues, and it has not been judged whether they are fruitful for the younger generation. The implications of the semester system are a fault and unproductive to a learner. It only prepares pupils for examinations. In a semester of six months, pupils hardly get more than three months for their studies. So, they have to prepare themselves to only earn a grade without proper knowledge of their chosen subject. It is a goal to make service professional. With this type of education, no society can expect morally and ethically enriched human beings to make a strong nation.

So, every corner of our nation should re-evaluate and rethink our future.