This document discusses the meaning, nature, and scope of education. It defines education as the process of developing an individual's innate abilities and adjusting them to their social environment through both formal and informal learning. The document outlines different perspectives on education from ancient Indian thinkers like the Rig Veda and Upanishads as well as Western philosophers like Plato, Rousseau, and Dewey. It identifies key characteristics of education, including it being a lifelong process, dynamic, focused on individual development, developing one's innate powers, enabling social adjustment, involving interaction between teacher and student, and enriching experiences to help attain life goals.

1. EDUCATION MEANING, NATURE AND
SCOPE.
BY
MONOJIT GOPE
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
KABI JOYDEB MAHAVIDYALAYA

2. INTRODUCTION
Education is the most important and powerful instrument invented by mankind to shape and mould himself in a desirable manner.
Any modification brought about in the behaviour of an individual, as a result of his interaction with the environment, constitutes
learning. The history of the world proves that education has been the root cause for any change which takes place in the social,
cultural, spiritual, political and economic aspects of human life. It is education. which not only transforms the human animal into a
rational human also prepares and develops him to survive and adjust with surroundings so as to lead his personal as well as social
life successfully. Therefore, we may say that education is anything which the individual acquires through formal or non-formal
organizations in the form of certificates or training by which his personality is prepared and developed to undertake any sort of
task and adjust himself with the varying environments in order to fulfil his basic necessities and objectives of life. It is discerned
from this statement that education has become one of the basic necessities of human life, like food, clothing and shelter. Today,
life is education and education is life. Hence, no distinction can be made between life and education under any circumstances.

3. MEANING OF EDUCATION
Education is a dynamic as well as comprehensive concept, which has a wide connotation. Since education is
related with human life, it is very difficult to ascribe a single meaning to it. The concept of education is like
diamond. which appears to be of different colours when seen from different angles. It is like the concept of the
proverbial elephant and the blind man. Various people-a philosopher, psychologist, sociologist, biologist, priest,
professor, teacher, shopkeeper, merchant, politician, an artisan, educator, economist and others seem to have
their own concept and meaning of education according to their own outlook in life and past experiences.
However, the meaning of the word "education" can be understood from its roots in four Latin words, that is.
Educare, Educere, Educatum and Educo.

4. CONTINUE
Educare: The term 'education' has been derived from the Latin word Educare which means "to nourish", "to bring up", "to raise". So, the
meaning of the word "education is to bring up children physically and mentally.
Educere: This is another Latin word from which the word "education derived. The word Educere implies to draw out". "to lead out". "to
bring forth". Hence, education' means bringing forth or leading out the ti power of the child, that is, drawing out what is inside the child.
Educatum: Latin word Educatum denotes "to train". "to teach". Thus, education implies the act of training or teaching the child.
Educo: The origin of the word 'education is considered to be the combination from E and Duco. Duco means "I lead" and E stands for "out
of". So. education means to draw out or lead out the internal power of man. This is similar to the meaning of the word Educere.
Thus education is the drawing out of the inner capacities of the individual to develop his personality to the full extent by training or
teaching,

5. INDIAN VIEWS ON EDUCATION
Rig Veda: "Education is something which makes a man self reliant and selfless".
Upanishads: "Education is that whose end product is salvation“
Bhagavad Gita: "Nothing is more purifying on earth than knowledge"
Kautilya: "Education means training for the country and love for the nation".
Kannada: "Education means development of self-contentment".
Sankaracharya: "Education is the realization of the self and attainment of Moksha (liberation)".

6. WESTERN VIEWS ON EDUCATION
Plato: "Education is the capacity to feel pleasure and pain at the right moment. It develops in the body and in the soul of the
pupil all the beauty and all the perfection which he is capable of",
Rousseau: "Education of man commences at his birth before he can speak, before he can understand, he is already instructed.
Experience is the fore runner of precept. It is the development from within".
Kant: “Education is the development in the individual of all the perfection of which he is capable”.
Pestalozzi: “Education is natural, harmonious and progressive development of man's innate powers”.
John Dewey: “Education is the development of all those capacities in the individual which will enable him to control his
environment and fulfil his possibilities”.

7. CHARACTERISTICS OF EDUCATION
From the Indian as well as Western concepts of education, we come to descry the following nature of education: Life-long process:
Education is the sequence of learning through the medium of experience which is acquired through formal, non-formal and informal
institutions, and continues up to death.
Dynamic process: Education is related to human life which will never be static, but always dynamic. Therefore, the nature of education
changes according to the changing needs of time, place and society. In the words of John Dewey, "Education is the process of living through
a continuous reconstruction of experiences”.
Individual development: Education is the process of individual development. The all-round development of an individual has seven
dimensions, that is, physical, mental, aesthetic, moral, spiritual, social and economic development. It is education which coordinates these
seven dimensions of the individual and makes him get rid of animal instincts and be a civilized man. J.S. Mill says, "Whatever helps to
shape the human being, to make the human being, what he is or to hinder him from being what he is not-is a part of his education”.

8. CONTINUE
Develops child's innate power: Education is not a thing to be inserted into the mind of the child from outside, but it helps to develop his
innate capacities through outside experiences of the environment. If the child has the faculty of speech, he can become a good speaker with
the help of education. Thus, education provides every person with the opportunity of developing his innate power according to his capacities.
Gandhi remarks, “By education I mean an all round drawing out of the best in child and man-body, mind and spirit”.
Social adjustment: Education is an important tool which helps the individual in making adjustment with the social environment, that is, with
the parents, relatives, friends, teachers and other members of the society. Human personality cannot be balanced unless he is able to adjust
himself with every field. Through the process of education the child is taught to adjust himself according to the environment.
Bi-polar process: John Adams calls education a bi-polar process. In this process, there is a constant interaction between the teacher and the
taught and the impact of personalities like two poles interacting with each other. Ross writes, “Like a magnet, education has two poles, it is a
bi-polar process”.

9. CONTINUE
Direct and indirect processes: Education is said to be a direct process when the teacher and the taught are in
direct contact. It is an indirect process when pupils receive education (non-formal and informal) from a distance.
Enrichment of experiences: It is regarded as an important characteristic of education. Generally, every
individual has his own range of experiences which can be directed towards the goal of life through the process
of education. Thus, education enriches human experiences which maybe right or wrong.
Goal attainment: The main feature of the concept of education is helping the individual to fulfil his goals in
life. It maybe put forth thus: Education is

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