POPULATION GROWTH: IMPACT ON EDUCATION

JELYN C. SUNGA

Increasing population is a serious concern wherein education is the basis demand of a man. Deprived of education one cannot develop one’s mind and therefore a free and actual utilization of one’s capacity and skills cannot be made. An educated person can lead a better life than an ignorant person. An illiterate person does not know even his rights. He cannot look after himself properly and cannot run his own affairs efficiently. He can be easily exploited.

Education is essential for all round development of the country. Nevertheless, whatever determinations are made by the government to educate people shall prove short if people do not help in checking the population growth.

The government has made a large network for communicating education to all planning and providing free and compulsory education of satisfactory quality to all. Literacy implies a person capable enough to read and write and understand a certain language. Thus educating such an immense population with quality education is certainly a very big task.

Then we have also to see that mere literacy cannot be enough for the overall development. Therefore there is a great need of higher, technical and skilful education. Considering the vastness of the task vis-à-vis, the on-going pace of population growth one can imagine how alarming it would be in near future.

Unless vigorous efforts are made by the government as well as the people to check the ever-growing population, the educational standards in the country will fall further and more people will remain illiterate. People from the poor and uneducated classes are mostly the ones who do not plan family. They treat women as a child bearing machine and have children one after the other. It is essential to educate people. The government must take steps to make education necessary for all.

It is essential for the government to alert people about the significance of family planning. This should be done repeatedly by means of radio, television, internet and other forms of communication.

People must understand the importance of controlling the population. It would not only give them a clean and green environment and a better standard of living but will also help in the overall development of our country. The government must also take this matter seriously and put proper rules and policies in place to ensure population control. Both the public and the government require working together to control this problem.

Teachers, parents, other educators, politicians and other concerned citizens can practice how to make good decisions in everyday life. Decisions about family size, and resource will affect the future generations. Through community meetings, specific issues about the population growth can be discussed and possible action plans can be d can look for trends in the population explosion. They can hold community get-togethers at school to discuss how this issue presents a challenge to the big picture of human population on the planet “Earth”.

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The author is SST I at Remedios High School