The presence of an education system from the early vestiges of

time, chronicled in the oldest of Indian literature is proof, that Indian

society has been the torchbearer of advocating formal education
much before the rest of the world awakened to the need for the
same.
Our modern day gurukuls or in other words, schools, are the primary
basis of rearing a literate generation. They have, are and will be the
building blocks of any dynamic society and to say that they are of
no relevance is taking a stagnating step towards the development of
a nation.
Good morning ladies and gentlemen. The motion for todays debate
is that, In this age of IT, school has no relevance and I <Name>,
will speak against the motion.
With the advent of the twenty first century, Information Technology
has brought the world closer and at the same time has driven it
apart as well. While it is available to those with sufficient economic
resources, it remains extremely out of reach of those who do not
share the joys of living in the urban fast paced life. With greater
information at our disposal and minimal regulations to control the
same, this deluge of information more often than not proves to be
detrimental to societys growth. At this juncture, it becomes even
more important to ensure that schools remain as the temples of
learning and I shall illustrate the need for the same through the
course of my speech.
Firstly, the concept of schooling exists to allow as many members of
the world community, irrespective of social status, caste, creed and
economic background to have access to gaining knowledge. Seeing
how the internet and most of the IT associated learning resources
are out of reach of almost every single child in the rural or
developing regions of the world, elimination of schools will plunge
the nations towards an era where the urban and interconnected
parts of the world have access to literary advancement whereas the
rural population remains ignorant and illiterate due to lack of
internet connectivity, or in other words, for no fault of their own.
Next, while adults have the necessary ability to make the judgment
call in terms of accepting what content on the internet is accurate or
what is not, when it comes to children, it is their school education
that helps them develop these skills to choose between right and
wrong. With websites like Wikipedia, where students are easily
exposed to content that has proven to be inaccurate many a times,
elimination of schools and sole dependency on IT resources will rear
a population that will be extremely misinformed.

Moreover, one very important aspect of schooling is the idea of

syllabus. Teachers, or qualified instructors, determine what content
is appropriate for a student of which class based on their level of
understanding. If we were to do away with schooling, irrespective of
age, students would be exposed to a plethora of content, which may
not always be relevant or right for them. Furthermore to believe that
parental control will ensure that children are being kept away from
information not pertinent to them is not logical. We are moving
towards an era where families are nuclear, parents are working and
the child is often left at the mercy of a nanny. It becomes all the
more important at this stage for the child to attend school so that at
least the teacher is one capable individual who can monitor the
progress and if need be also serve as a confidant and pillar of
strength to the student.
Lastly and most importantly, schooling allows students to be in the
care of a real human being, the teacher. She is the moral compass
of the child, the guardian and the educator. While it may be easy to
take facts of the internet, some that the teacher also may not be
aware of, we are still nowhere close to replicating the individual
attention that each teacher devotes to every single student to
contribute to his or her all round development. Schooling allows for
children with different personalities to be groomed under a common
roof due to the versatile nature of the teacher. The Internet can
provide the content but not the emotion needed to imbibe the
content in the childs impressionable mind forever.
Thus to conclude, I believe that the relevance of schools, especially
in light of IT, is not diminished, but rather, it is enhanced like never
before. A school is not just a building, it an experience that governs
how a child perceives life from his formative years. The words
Tamso Ma Jyotirgamay summarise the role of a school better than
anything else can. Schools after all, Lead us from darkness to light.