UPSC Prelims 2012·CSAT·Reading Comprehension·Passage Comprehension

Read the following passages and answer the items that follow passage. Your answer to these items should be based on the passage only. Education, without a doubt, has an important functional, instrumental and utilitarian dimension. This is revealed when one asks question such as what is the purpose of education? The answers, too often, are to acquire qualifications for employment/upward mobility, wider/higher in terms of income opportunities, and to meet the needs for trained human power diverse fields for national development. But in its deepest sense education is not instrumentalist. That is to say, it is not to be justified outside of itself because it leads to the acquisition of formal skills or of certain desired psychological social attributes. It must he respected in itself. Education is thus not a commodity to be acquired or possessed and then used, but a process of inestimable importance to individuals and society, although it can and does have enormous use value. Education then, is a process at expansion and conversion, not in the sense of converting or turning students into doctors or engineers, but the widening and turning out of the mind- the creation, sustenance and development of self- critical awareness independence of thought. It is an inner process of moral- intellectual development. Which of the following best completes the given line: 'Education is a process which ____

Dalvoy logo
Reviewed by Dalvoy
UPSC Civil Services preparation
Last updated 23 May 2026, 3:31 pm IST
  1. Aconverts students into trained professionals
  2. Bgenerates opportunities for higher income
  3. Cdevelops self-critical awareness and independence of thought in individualsCorrect
  4. Dhelps in acquiring qualifications for upward mobility.

Explanation

The passage distinguishes between the utilitarian/instrumental dimensions of education and its "deepest sense." While options A, B, and D represent the instrumental purposes often associated with education (acquiring qualifications, higher income, becoming trained professionals), the passage explicitly states that in its deepest sense, education is "not in the sense of converting or turning students into doctors or engineers, but the widening and turning out of the mind- the creation, sustenance and development of self- critical awareness independence of thought." Option A is incorrect because the passage explicitly refutes this instrumental view: "not in the sense of converting or turning students into doctors or engineers." Option B and D are incorrect because they represent the "functional, instrumental and utilitarian dimension" or "answers, too often," which the passage contrasts with education's "deepest sense." Option C directly quotes and summarizes the passage's definition of education in its "deepest sense" as "the creation, sustenance and development of self- critical awareness independence of thought." Therefore, C best completes the line based on the passage's primary definition of education.
Reading Comprehension: Read the following passages and answer the items that follow passage. Your answer to these items should be based on the

Related questions

More UPSC Prelims practice from the same subject and topic.