An Educational Tours-English Essay, Paragraph, Speech for Class 9, 10, 11 and 12 Students.

An Educational Tours

Travelling as a means of education is as old as civilisation. We often read of foreign travelers coming to the ancient Indian seats of learning. Gentlemen scholars in the Middle Ages in Europe organised Grand Tours to Greece and Italy to quench their thirst for knowledge. Most of the religions of the world owe their great progress to travelling missionaries.

Organised educational tours, however, are of recent origin, People in the past hesitated to go on travel and tours because there was no law and order and the means of conveyance were few and not quite comfortable. With the spread of science, travel-mindedness has increased. No education in advanced countries is regarded as complete unless the devotee has been to many lands and met many people. In India, the Government has started the ‘Know Your Country’ scheme under which thousands of students and teachers go round the country every year on a kind of pilgrimage of education.

Travelling is education in practice. Books give us only second-hand knowledge. Travelling supplements our bookish knowledge because we come into direct contact with men and matters that we want to know. Our knowledge of distant States, got from hundreds of history and geography books, cannot equal that which a month’s travelling would give us. An actual visit to Ajanta Caves or Mount Abu or Niagra Falls is worth ten thousand accounts of them.

Travel is a great school of discipline. Besides giving us knowledge, it broadens our outlook, enriches our minds and awakens in us the spirit of inquiry. Like the frog in the well story, at home a person has a narrow vision of the world. The traveler is able to meet men of different natures, habits and customs. He gains experience and wisdom. He becomes liberal in thoughts because he takes a broad view of things. He can judge his own standards of life better by studying the ways of others. Educational tours in this respect promote international and inter-state sympathy and goodwill. In a country like India travelling will promote a sense of unity. But in order to reap all these benefits the traveler must have an open mind, keen observant eyes and a kind heart. A mere globetrotting is of little value.

It is the duty of those, who conduct educational tours, to impart a certain amount of training to the participants of the tours so that educational trips afford the maximum of advantage. We may go to old places of pilgrimage but we should not miss the new temples of learning like Bhakra Dam, Bhilai, Trombay, Chittaranjan and Rana Pratap Sagar because the biggest temple is the place where man works for the good of mankind.

It is a healthy sign of times that a great importance is being given to educational tours by the people and the Government. More and more persons are going round the country and the world. In the interest of unity and goodwill it is essential that all restrictions on such tours should be cut down to the minimum. A peaceful world is certainly a world of free travel.

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