Education is the biggest weapon to change the world.” This adage by Nelson Mandela defines the true meaning of education in today’s world. Generally, education is defined as the process of learning or gaining knowledge formally or informally. It leads the transformation of civilisation and is all about creativity, imagination, and prediction.

It is the force that drives and motivates one to innovate something new, construct something extra-ordinary, and brings forth new facts that haven’t been imagined before. And development is the dynamic process of bringing positive change and transformation. Development nurtures enthusiasm that keeps everyone motivated to do better things.

Education and development are inter-related terms. They are like soul and body, one without another is incomplete. Education is the agent that shapes the mind of the person and perception is what leads the person towards development.

So, more educated an individual is, better is the chance of achieving development. If the person is educated, s/he can develop many ideas that could lead the community and country towards the path of development. An educated mind can take all the challenges and convert the ideas into reality. Development doesn’t only mean the construction of big buildings. It is the state where people can run their day to day activities in peace without any disturbance.

Education helps us to achieve sustainable development. Sustainable development is the pathway to the future we want for all. If offers a framework to generate economic growth, achieve social justice, exercise environmental stewardship and strengthen governance. An educated mind doesn’t try to fix the past, and instead fixes the course for the future. Education and development are like heat and temperature, first being the cause and latter being an effect.

Basically, an omnipotent education is an inevitable incentive for development. If all people are educated, there will be great public participation in developmental activities. If people believe that a certain project is for them, they will work with great effort which saves labour, time, and money and the most important thing, the project will be long lasting.

An educated political leader can understand the need of the nation and can carefully invest in the economy of the country through various productive activities. Such leaders can motivate the citizen to participate in various developmental activities and to protect and take care of those projects. An educated person becomes an entrepreneur and not only creates job for himself but creates employment for thousands others. An educated individual can establish several industries as the backbone of the country’s economic development.

Products manufactured through such industries can be exported and foreign currency can be obtained. An educated mind is behind various developmental projects, infrastructural development, and modern agriculture, among others. It also helps to utilise natural resources properly that are within the country.

Since, every clear sky has dark cloud, so does the education in its development. According to the survey conducted by UNESCO more than 836 million adults in the developing world are illiterate. This is because education is expensive and is not universal, that is not available to all. A report concludes that the price for books has increased by 810 percent in the last decade only. The poor are unable to attend the educational institute and are deprived of the education. A fundamental right such as education has been commercialized.

So, world community should provide enough attention especially to the countries of the third world to develop the basic infrastructure of education and to enroll maximum students in the temple of knowledge. Only celebrating education day on September 8 is not good enough.

The curriculum should be designed not to decorate the pages of a newspaper but to implement them effectively and ensure education for all children. ‘Nepotism’ is also one of the major issues which discourages an educated person to participate in development. Nepotism (or partiality) makes opportunities easily available to unskilled people, leaving the educated ones bereft.

In nutshell, education is the key that unlocks the golden path of development. We can develop ourselves socially, economically, and politically with the help of the education. So, to keep the wheels of the progress going on, everyone should be provided with the golden chance of acquiring education and everyone should be motivated to acquire education as it converts the desert of illiteracy into an oasis of knowledge and freedom.

Bhandari is a +2 student at Times International College