Discuss the Meaning, Need and Significance of Aim of Education.

Meaning of Aims in Education:

Any activity that is aimless will not produce as much desirable effects as a purposeful activity will. A purposeful activity refers tone which has a beginning, an end and an intervening process. An aim can be defined as an activity that  consists of progressive completion of a process. In other words, it is an orderly and ordered activity. An orderly activity is one which is systematic, may be sequential or multi-sequential. Ordered activity refers to which has a well defined, direction at each and every step. So, we can say that an aim is a systematic activity that has a well defined direction at all stages. An aim is futuristic.

It is important that every educational activity is systematic and a sense of direction is felt, experienced and discovered at all stages. Aims of education are not extrinsic but they are more the principles of education and not endpoints.

Need for Educational Aims:

Aims give meaning to our activities. It is only a mentally sick or an abnormal person who falls into a meaningless activity. But philosophically speaking what seems very meaningful to a scientist may be absolutely meaningless from a spiritualist’s view point and vice versa. But to the best our thinking abilities, we should engage ourselves into meaningful activity.

All those who attend school give a length of their lives to the process of schooling. We entered schools as toddlers and continued for 14 years. We and those who come in our contact must feel and realize that we added an advantage to our life by investing such a big part of our life in schooling.

All educational activities that are part of school curriculum and informal learning that takes place must be planned in an efficient manner so as to produce the optimum results from this process of schooling. We need to create an awareness amongst pupils, teachers, administrators regarding the investment that parents and students are making not only in terms of money, but more importantly in terms of time and effort in the process of schooling.

So, they must get a visible and identifiable return from the same. It will lead to economizing of resources human, monetary, time and effort. It must inculcate in learners a right attitude, aptitude, values, personality, over all development and not only bookish knowledge. Hence, it is extremely important to decide in advance the aims of education.

Significance of Aims in Education:

Significance of aims in education can be understood by going through the text that follows: We can see ourselves as bodies in them like mirrors. But deep inside each one of us know that we are not bodies. There is a FORCE/ ENERGY/ SPIRIT which is not observable, perceptible and concrete. It can only be felt by going deep within and internalizing with this metaphysical reality.

The ultimate aim of life is to understand the SELF and becoming one with it constitutes the ultimate aim of life. It may happen spontaneously as happened with Buddha or Mahavira, but we should also create awareness in learners to realize this SELF through the process of education.

Then there are other thinkers who do not believe in existence of anything except this subtle world. Even they recognize the significance of aims. It is so because they also feel that all communities, societies, individuals have some goals in life. These goals reflect their collective thinking.

Therefore, an education system must aim at inculcating good citizenship, social values, moral values, scientific temper, critical thinking, and power of expression, imagination, and love for fellow beings and so on.