Are education, happiness linked?

While India as a country still battles illiteracy on one hand, there is tremendous emphasis laid on good education by those who can afford it. Be it a fat paycheck or plum and prestigious posts in corporate or government sectors, education, especially from premier institutes, undoubtedly comes with several tangible benefits. But do these benefits bring about true happiness and contentment? Although that may seem like a philosophical question, findings from a recent study have forced parents, students and other stakeholders of the education system to think it through.

The British Journal of Psychiatry, after a careful study of the socioeconomic factors related to contentment and good education, has published that the latter alone may not be enough to find that elusive happiness after all. This seems to apply to a country like India as well. The last few years have seen a significant number of suicides from premier institutes of India. Psychiatrists and psychologists have also observed an increase in the number of affluent individuals suffering from various mental ailments.

Radhika Acharya, a renowned psychologist who holds an M.Phil in Psychology, avers that the tremendous stress laid on education is infact showing adverse affects on people. “I have come across several patients with degrees from premier institutions in our country. The stress and tensions in their lives have even rendered some of them completely dysfunctional’, she says. Acharya laments that our idea of good education is skewed.

“What we term as good education does not teach students how to handle failure, rejection and hardships. These skills play a very important role in keeping us happy”, she adds. Deepak Pawar, assistant professor with St. Josephs Degree and PG College, Hyderabad, who also holds a deep interest in sociology, agrees with Acharya. He points out why what is perceived as good education fails to bring about happiness.

“Good education is of no use if there is no sense of contentment or pleasure in the job we do. Money and designation can bring about a temporary high but will wane in the face of stress and hardships. A sense of self-satisfaction is very important. Our education system does nothing to help a student understand this”, he says. Pawar adds that several engineering graduates have now joined his class to acquire a degree in Mass Communications. “They are all well educated but are not happy with the jobs their education earns”, he says.

Parents however believe that life skills can be gotten in college and during the process of a job. “Good education is very important. Failure and hardships are parts of life and they can eventually be handled. But if a child does not spend his precious years to acquire a good education, he can never get back the time”, stresses Gautham Anipindi, software professional and father of a teenager, who believes that education will stand in good stead and that its importance in one’s life should not be underplayed.

While good education can be gotten with hardwork and money, the formula for happiness unfortunately seems elusive. Experts believe that the correlation drawn between good education and happiness maybe rash. They believe that one needs many more skills to be happy and that it is tough to find all of them in a classroom.

By:Mythili Sankara