Education is not an end but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for..
Education is not an end but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them. Our purpose is to prepare them for life. Education widens our outlook and makes us wise. After getting education, we become all together a changed person having nobler ideas and wider sympathies. There are many kinds of education. General or liberal education means learning for learning’s sake. It trains people in philosoply, history, literature and humanities etc. social education teachers us how to lead a good life in a society. It produces good and civilized citizens.
Religious or spiritual education moulds our characters and makes us virtuous and pious. But vocational or technical education is not learnt for learning’s sake only, but it enables us to practices our learning to earn a living. Technical education may be defined as the practical application of scientific studies to the teaching of some trade, profession or handicraft. Modern age is the age of machine. Machine has entered into the soul of our social life and no aspect of society is complete without it. Even the smallest thing of our daily use is manufactured after several mechanical processes.
Hence the need of technicians and skilled workers. A labourer who works on a machine should be fully trained and should possess a thorough knowledge of that machine. So the importance of technical education is increasing day by day. Technical education has numerous benefits: It solves the problem of unemployment by supplying the industries with a large number of trained workers. A country can also increase its material resources through technical education. It imparts dexterity, skill, quickness, attention to detail, habit of neatness and order.
People begin to have faith in the diginity of labour. Another important practical advantage of technical education is that when we have our own technicians and technical experts, a lot of foreign exchange would be saved or earned. We can also earn foreign exchange by sending our technicians to other countries. Thus, technical education makes a country rich, prosperous and resourceful. Today all the advanced and developed countries of the world like Japan, England, Russia, America, France and Germany etc. attach much importance to technical education.
These countries are highly industrialized and their prosperity and progress is the result of their technology. In our country there is plenty of raw material, but people lack material, by changing it into finished articles. The solution to this sad state of affairs is that we must switch our economy from agriculture to industry. Technical and vocational centre should be opened even in small cities to produce skilled workers and technicians. Our government is giving full attention to the technical education. New technical institutes and engineering colleges are being established.