Gurukuls were meant to provide Vidya, which is a Sanskrit word meaning Correct Knowledge, hence the Process Of Education must correspond to acquiring the correct knowledge.
However, the hustle and bustle of present-day life have completely diversified from the main objective of the education process.
The purpose behind education and evolution
Without any obfuscating theories of ancient scriptures and quotes of great personalities, the simple purpose behind any human action is to seek comfort and this comfort is driven by the situation.
Therefore the action can be either long-term oriented or short-term, hence in this regard, it is very simple that the caveman adapted to survive in his primordial environment by learning certain skills like hunting, fishing, swimming, cropping, animal raring and finally getting civilized.
Let me initially point out here, no person was idle and unemployed here.
The emergence of civilizations and Gurukuls
Walking in the path of evolution, with the proliferation of humans on this planet the civilizations flourished according to the geographical location and regional factors, but they all had one thing in common which is to have a self-sustaining society.
Homo-sapiens being intellectual creatures developed more advanced skills to ease out their lives in society, and this prompted them to get specialized in their respective occupations.
A farmer was a person who knew to sow and harvest crops.
A shepherd was a person who tendered flocks and harvested milk, meat, and fur.
A weaver was a person who weaved clothes.
A blacksmith was a person who tailored metallic tools needed for other occupations.
And the strongest among them (soldier) took up the liability of security of that region.
Look here, it was completely a self-sustaining society everyone took up their role in fulfilling the basic needs of the society, and the successive generations inherited the ancestral occupation and passed it on.
Evolution of “Research and Development”
The ancestral skills acquired by the younger generations started diversifying further, it was fed by two main factors:-
- Situational challenges faced, and
- Concoction with similar skills from other regions.
Thus, it is important to note that there was no significant shortage of any sort, and the society stood resilient to recover quickly against any natural calamity (unless extreme).
The emergence of the “Gurukul system”
The advancement made in the civilization came with equal responsibility to protect it from external and internal disturbances which try to upset the stability. Hence the need for moral guidance emerged evoking the need for Gurukuls.
This was preferably undertaken by the old and experienced individuals in the society.
Although this process was not technically called the Gurukul system all around the world, the agenda remained the same “to give moral guidance to the younger generations”.
In this Gurukul system, the younger generations were thought how to take their respective roles in society, how to manage their family, and several other essential skills required to harness one’s complete potential.
Even at this phase of society, no person was idle and neither was unemployed main credits to the Gurukuls.
The dawn of commercial education and unemployment crisis
While the Gurukuls of ancient times had a golden mark on the history of mankind, it’s only a matter of time, the desire for comfort infused commercialization in the minds of the people. This was accompanied by technological advancement in society.
The desire for a lavish lifestyle pushed the parents to provide technical education to their children apart from their ancestral occupation. Thus the Gurukuls vanished gradually.
The great blunder
By departing away from an assured skill which can earn employment people were driven towards grandeur lifestyle and made their profession as a sign of social stature.
This made them burden their children further to perform well in academics without any regard for the talent which the child is interested.
Further, the over intrusive commercialization of education least depicts any relation between the job demand and courses offered.
From the above data it is clearly evident that, the number of graduates are ever increasing across all streams, but there are a few core sectors (preferable TI sector) that offers employment.
At the same time the number of educational institutions across the world are relentlessly increasing.
This is the reason why the graduates from Non-IT background take up short term technical course to get a job!
Live evidence from ILO report
The report titled Global Employment trends for youth 2020Â endorses this argument stating that:-
The decline in labor force participation rates and employment-to-population ratios among young people can be partly attributed to the longer time spent in education.
Currently, there are over half a billion young people engaged exclusively in education.
The gross enrolment ratio in secondary education worldwide rose from 59% in 1999 to 76% in 2018; the corresponding ratio for tertiary education increased from 18% to 38% over the same period (UIS, 2019).
The report highlights decline in employment : population ratio across the world; and increase in unemployment.
 Thus the only solution is to stop overwhelming commercialization of education and develop market based educational program (just like the ancient Gurukul system).
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