On closer scrutiny and investigation, one would discover that
globalization is a relatively new term used to describe a process
of the bygone past. It owes its historical genesis that started with our human ancestors moving out of Africa to spread all over the globe. In the millennia that have followed, distance has been largely overcome and human-made barriers lowered or removed to facilitate the exchange of goods and ideas. Driven by the desire to improve one''s life and helped along by technology, both the interconnectedness and interdependence have grown very exponentially. This increasing integration of the world or ''
globalization'' has enriched life but also created new problems. Literacy is more than a word. For it is only by the virtue of literacy, that our civilization would be able to address more of advances in any given contemporary society. Perceptions differ while realities remain constant. One might undermine the thrust that literacy would have as a bearing while others may find it going at tangent. But, we are not responsible for what people think about literacy in today’s times of globalization; just as we are responsible for what we give to them to think about the entire episode. Not in the melee on the crowed street, not in the world we see, the ultimate triumph and the ultimate defeat. Our ultimate defeat can be seen in ourselves. And our ultimate triumph when the soul withers away the body and when the soul faints while the body preserves. Times are certainly changing and values are also changing. The advent of globalization has invited a plethora of challenges to be boldly faced. Since the first appearance of the term in 1962 ''globalization'' has gone from jargon to cliché. It can best be understood as a leitmotif of human history. It is a trend that has intensified and accelerated in recent decades and come into panoramic view with all its benefits and destructive power. Just as climate has shaped the environment over the millennia, the interaction among cultures and societies over tens of thousands of years has resulted in the increasing integration of what is becoming the global human community. Thousands of years before the root word for this concept - ''globe'' - came into use, our ancestors had already spread across the earth. The most powerful force for transmitting the ideas of democracy and human rights across borders is the revolution in information technology in the second half of the 20th century. The telephone, television and the Internet have been the prime tools. In the late 19th century, it took Queen Victoria sixteen and a half hours to send a message of greeting across a transatlantic cable to President James Buchanan. Today vast amounts of information in multiple formats - text, voice, video - are transmitted at the speed of light. Moreover, a three minute call from New York to London costs less than a dime, instead of the $300 it cost in 1930. This dramatic drop in the price of telecommunications has made the benefits of the information explosion available to much of humanity. Meanwhile, innovations like satellite television have connected people''s emotions across borders and oceans: the news of Princess Diana''s death flashing on cable TV''s immediately elicited wreathes of flowers from around the world. The free flow of information is also helping bridge the political divide: September 11 triggered a candlelight vigil among young Iranians. But it has also been hardening attitudes along ideological boundaries. The Arabic-language satellite station Al Jazeera''s live broadcast of Israeli-Palestine violence has widened the gulf between Arabs and Israelis. The falling cost of communications and transportation has boosted economic growth while literacy and better health care have improved quality of life. People the world over are living longer and healthier lives, while the number of people living in poverty has dropped in most regions (though it a and South Asia). What does all this mean for globalization? Will globalization be forced to retreat in the face of growing disillusionment and dangers such as terrorists'' who abuse open borders and easy economic transactions? There is, of course, a precedent for such a decline in globalization. Between the two World Wars, free trade and the free movement of people did slow to a crawl, thanks to the raising of tariff walls and a closed door to immigration. But those restrictions did not dampen the same four basic motivations - conquest, search for prosperity, proselytizing and curiosity - that have driven globalization. Globalization has a multi-dimensional impact on the system of
education. It has marked the need for reforms in the educational system with particular reference to the wider utilization of information technology, giving productivity dimension to education and emphasis on its research and development activities. Education is a healthy investment in building human capital that is a must to endorse technological innovation and economic growth. It is only through improving the educational status of a society that the multi-faceted development of its people can be ensured. In the post-industrialized world, the advanced countries used to derive the major proportion of their national income not from agriculture and industry but from the service sector. Since the service sector is based on imparting skills or training to the students and youth, the education sector is the most sought after. It must provide gainful employment so that the sector is developed in an impressive manner.