This is the life of a student in India, this is a proven path which everyone thinks is the best, if you want to settle in life, but the reality is somewhat a little different, according to the article in The Hindu, as on 31st March, 2016 the total education loan that stood was Rs 61, 831 crores in India and many of the loans are turning to be NPA, and this burden is quite evident of the fact that in April 2017, the government of Kerala had to take the decision to repay the Rs 900 crores outstanding education loan of the students of its state to the banks which were paid out of the taxes paid by the public.

Now the amount of the default loan shows the inability of the students to repay the loan as they are not able to find adequate employment. This throws light on the failure of the institutions to equip the students with necessary skills and quality that enables them to compete in the job market.

Now my question,

Is really taking a loan and going to a college a necessity?

To answer this question I would like to provide some examples. If we look arround we have a number of successful personalities who didn’t attend college or dropped out of college, and still managed to become successful in life. Some of them are here below

1. One of the greatest inventor of all times, who invented the light bulb and founder of General Electric company Thomas Alva Edison, has more than 1000 patents under his name. He attended school for a few months and was taught by his mother and learned by reading books.

2. William Shakespeare, the greatest writer and poet of all time in the English language, who has written 38 Plays, 154 sonnets, and 2 long narrative poems and is also considered as the national poet of England.

His plays are performed and have been translated into almost every major language of the world.

His works are being taught in schools and colleges so that the children can learn from the works of the greatest, but the irony here is the Shakespeare himself never received formal education beyond the age of 14 and all he learned was from his experiences from the theatre.

3. Richard Branson, a leading business magnate, investor and philanthropist, founder of Virgin Group, which controls more than 400 companies. He started his first business venture when he was 16, which was a magazine called ‘Student’, later he founded the Virgin Group. He was 9th in the wealthiest persons in England in 2006. He left school when he was 16.

In the same way are the likes of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and many more who dropped out of college and pursued what they were passionate about.

Now let’s talk about India my country,

Anyone who is reading this and is from India would know Ritesh Agarwal (If not then you must Google him now), he’s just 25 and there’s a lot he has achieved and inspired many.

He is the founder of Oyo Rooms, the flourishing Startup from India going international. He has more than 900 employees working under him and is now considered as the most successful college dropout and the only Indian to get Thiel Fellowship from India, he decided not to pursue his graduation after attending just 3 days of college.

Consider the God of cricket.

Sachin Tendulkar, who could attend the school only till class 10th due to his excessive engagements in cricket but cricket prevented him from schooling but not from education, he is considered to be decently educated in the mannerisms of the world and if it comes to cricket let alone school he is a university in himself.

Now providing all these examples I don’t want to give a message that the education system has no value and all the students should dropout.

It’s your choice, but my emphasis is on the thing that despite not having a formal education or a degree, one can get success and lead a better life.

All the persons I mentioned were passionate about their respective works and worked hard to achieve all their goals. They were successful only because they never stopped learning.

And in the world of technology, you can learn almost anything and a plethora of information is available for you with a single click of a button.

To sum it up, I would end this article with a quote from Henry Ford, who also didn’t receive a formal education, which says “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty and anyone who keeps learning stays young”.

So, Keep Learning and Stay Young.