Education is one of the most powerful agencies in moulding the character and personality of the individual and determining the future of individuals and nations.
The Narrow Meaning of Education: The most general and common meaning of education is schooling. In common parlance, people regard this concept of education to be synonyms with intellectual knowledge or formal instructions. From the narrow stand point education means more literacy, the knowledge of 3R’s (reading, writing and arithmetic). In this narrow sense a man is said to be educated if he has a vast storehouse of information or has passed some examinations from educational institutions. From this standpoint therefore, the importance of the knowledge of 3R’s is the only function which education has to discharge. But this is a very narrow meaning of this concept because education includes not only the special influence of formal educational institutions but also many other indirect influences of some other agencies lying outside the school like the library, the press, the cinema, the family etc.
The Wider meaning of education: in the wider and less definite sense educational implies the influence of the whole environment upon the individual. It is infact a process of development. In the words of Raymont- “Educational means that process of development in which consists of the passage of human beings from infancy to maturity the process whereby he gradually adopts himself in various ways to this physical, social and spiritual environment “.
In this comprehensive sense education is a process of growth and all experience is education. It is a continuous process of modification. In the words John Dewey, the famous educationist of America, “Life itself is development and developing itself is life. Education is also a life-long process of development. ‘
In fact “whatever broadens our mental outlook, sharpens our insight, refines other reactions and stimulates our thought and feeling educates us”. Education in this sense does not cease with the cessation of school life. It has no end beyond more growth and changes. In the words of Durville – “Education in its wide sense includes all influences which set upon the individual during the passage from the cradle to the grave”-Mahatma Gandhi also made a remark that education covers the entire field of life. There is nothing in life however small which is not the concern of education. Dewey also remarked “Education is all one with growing, it has no end beyond itself’’.
