INTRODUCTION
The faith reposed in education as an Instrument of shaping the destinct and Well being of the individual, society and the nation has always been very deep. India which has a, rich tradition of learning has also accorded a high degree of importance to education as the destiny factor of national destiny. The educational institutions and Professional bodies, numbering 118, which have deliberated upon the changes desired in the present educational system in the context of the new education policy have, in their suggestions and recommendations, reinforced this faith on education, as the single most important instrument for the intellectual, spiritual and moral development individual, resulting in a desirable social transformation and economic development and thereby leading to the progress of the country.
4
India's hopes and aspiration of her future find vivid reflection in the manner in which education is desired to be revamped and revitalised. As these hopes and aspiration mainfest in the form of goals and objectives of education, the, latter deserved decided precedence over other changes which education is required to undergo. The perspective, therefore, is clear; without being invested with the multifarious goals and objectives, the outcomes of the other changes, whether in its content and curriculum, planning and management or any other- aspect, would not lead to any really fruitful result. hence, in fine with the importance accorded to the various suggestions, the recommendations made or goals and objectives of education should be abstracted so that these could become the be rock upon which the educational edifice is going to recreated or renovated.
variety in their approaches, multiplicity in their suggestions and unity in the essentials of their views, suggestions and recommendations could be said to be the hallmarks of the points raised on goals and objectives of education. The suggestions vary, their relative importance attached to one set of goals i) religious, moral and spiritual, ii) social, cultural and national and iii) material, economic and political-differ, but there is no disagreement on the point that education is seen to be an ominpotent instrument to achieve the desired objectives and goals. In this section, an attempt is mace to present not really all the goals/set of goals and objectives but mainly those on which there is greater unity and convergence with those raised by others than merely variety. Rather than quote them at length; the focus here would be to categories them under somewhat viable groups.
By far the largest number of institutions and bodies urge that they new national policy on education should designed in such a way that education should be forged as the main instrument to inculcate and foster patriotism, national unity and intergration, human values, social awareness/consciousness, degnity of labour, pride in our heritage, democratic values and civic spirit.
In terms of prominence, the second place. could be accorded to the enabling and developing role of education. Learned views on the role of Education range from its duty to develop scientific outlook towards
5
life to all round development of personality adopt to social life, development of total personality of the child including his/her physical, social, intellectual, moral and spiritual dimensions. education also desired to enable the individuals to fulfil both their material desires and spiritual aspirations.
There are also numerous other functions/outcomes expected of education. Some institutions urged that education should aim at providing not mere information but wisdom and knowledge. There are others who feel that education should become an instrument/help to uplift the economic standard of rural population and, should help reduce the gap between the world of work and the world. of learning. The plea that education should lead to maximise individuals' potentials for the growth and transformation of' the society is as strong as the opinion that "education should be need based and life and job oriented". While one view favours that "the perception of the goals of education should be guided by the perception of the society envisioned for the 21st century", there is another view which holds that education should be related to the realities of life and. be person oriented".
A perusal of the goals and objective, in the whole gamut of the recommendations of the different institutions and organisations leaves one struck with the impression that multifarious though the views on goals and objectives are, they are not advanced in the spirit of exclusivism. The second feature, as stated earlier, is that the immediate economic and other utilities of education are no less or more important then the, social ethical. Moral and cultural values of education. The degree of conviction that underlie and the sense of urgency enjoined upon their grafting and investment in the education system envisaged would largely determine its potential for success.
6