College Youth: Challenge and Response

Youth have become the nucleus in altering the established social order. Modern education imparts scientific and rational outlook in them, so that they can play an effective role in promoting change. Enormous programmes have been launched to mobilize the latent potentials of the youth, and the observance of the International Year of the Youth in 1985 speaks of the growing importance of the youth in modern society. In the developing societies like India, the role of the youth is of greater importance. They are more enlightened than the society around them and have assumed an important place in the country’s development and modernization. And education is also geared to promote in them new technical and social skills, new values, attitudes and behaviour to meet the challenges. In this book, College Youth: Challenge and Response, Dr. H.D. Lakshminarayana has tried to present the nature of response of the college youth to the various challenges they encounter in their daily life. In doing so he also tries to show how far present education is functional to bring about change in the value orientation and behaviour pattern among college youth. For this purpose, the author focuses on the twin issues which are agitating the minds of the youth, viz. educational and political, besides their belief system and motivation. Analysis of the role of modern education has revealed that the attitude of the college youth largely conforms to the traditional notion about education in India. The author points out that the youth have made compromises in the area of education in the sense that they have no option but to be satisfied with the present education in spite of their reservations. This is mainly because they are not free to decide themselves about what they should learn, and because of lack of a better alternative. They however, hope to derive the best if they participate in college administration. Political radicalism of the youth of the developing countries does not seem to be found among the college youth. They are not interested to plunge into active politics during student career. Nor are they more eager to get the right to exercise their franchise at an early age. The belief system of the youth reveals a sort of socialization gap. They are confused about the values around them. An higher education is far from instilling the qualities to meet the challenges among the youth, and appears to be a ‘cosmetic affair’.