The Importance of Non-formal Education Across Age-Related Stages of Human life

Jaydevsinh B. Rayjada

Assistant Professor, Krantiguru Shyamji Krishna Verma Kutch University Bhuj (Kutch)

*Corresponding Author E-mail:

ABSTRACT:

Informal education has a special importance in human life. Informal education is a continuous process during the age-based stages of human life such as childhood, adolescence, adulthood, youth and adulthood. In the original Indian education system, education was given through the informal method. In the Gurukul tradition of education, education given through the informal method has been a major part of education. The socialization that a child learns from natural events starting from birth is informal education. For example, when a child falls from the steps, he gets to learn how to get off the steps, ‘When food is hot, it burns when touched, it should be eaten when it is cold’. Walking, running, eating, natural actions etc. are learned by the child based on experience, which is informal education. There are two main stages of education: formal and informal. of these two stages, school education is formal, but during school education, a child also learns formally. Here, if we try to examine the explanations and definitions of some experts to understand formal education, they are as follows.

KEYWORDS: Experts, Education, Important, Informal, Standard, Knowledge, Instructors.

1. INTRODUCTION:

1.1 Ranjan Pradhan.

“Informal education is the learning that happens automatically in the process of living. It continues as the child grows up. Informal education is the opposite of formal education. Individually, a child learns from influences outside the school or college. He learns from his home and community, where he spends most of his time. Informal education includes activities outside formal instruction. It is not planned at all. Good informal education plays an important role. It prepares the child for formal education.”

1.2 Riley D. Jones.

“What is informal learning?

It is also important to outline what formal learning is. Formal learning is a standardized classroom-based education provided by certified instructors. Informal learning in this case is mostly what it is not. Informal learning can be broadly divided into two categories. There are informal and non-formal.

Informal learning would be a naturally occurring learning style. Informal learning is also commonly referred to as a “learning by doing” learning style. For example, you saw someone burn their hand while using the stove while cooking, now you know that you should be careful when using the stove or that the stove really gets hot. While you didn’t have someone tell you that the stove was hot and could burn you, you made a guess as a result of seeing the burning and looking at the hot stove. Non-formal learning would be a “outside the classroom, but still with instructors” style of learning. This could be with after-school programs, sports programs, museum/library education programs. While instructors may still be respected in their field, they are not within the institutional set/framework of the standard formal education model.”

1.3 Krishnanath Pandey.

“ What is the main source of informal education?

There are four main sources of informal education.

(1) Family

(2) Friends/peers

(3) Society at large

(4) Social media ”

2. Contribution of Non-formal Education in Nation Building:

A person keeps learning throughout his life, that is, during all the stages of life such as childhood, adolescence, adulthood, youth, adulthood and old age, there is a continuous learning process in a person's life, which can also be called socialization. The informal method during socialization, which we have seen above, is the main and most lively method of learning in life. A person acquires knowledge of events by observing or learning about the direct or indirect events happening around him in the society and receives informal education from those events. In the traditional Indian education system, knowledge was gained from the events that happened face to face or the events experienced by intellectuals, and the students were formed by the gurus by teaching them through the experience of knowledge. For example, when the Pandavas were taught archery by Dronacharya, Eklavya became an expert in archery just by watching, Abhimanyu The 7 layers of Chakravyuha were learned by Shri Krishna in his mother's womb through the words spoken by him. This can be considered a part of informal education.

Informal education can be considered a more useful way of education, "not just learned but also learned" means that one cannot learn only what is read but can learn it through experience, can learn through effort, in present times many intellectuals are contributing to nation building through informal education, like in India, farming is done through traditional methods, the farmer teaches the traditional science of farming to his heir son and passes it on as a legacy, through which powerful agricultural production helps the citizens of the nation to achieve a healthy life and human powers, which can be considered a contribution to the development of the nation, similarly, more than 160 traditional medical methods for health treatment and physiology are available in India. These methods are spread and maintained through informal education system, like yoga, Ayurveda, botanical science and through it health treatments, natural diet, acupuncture, Choghadiya Nakshatra in India. And the hereditary knowledge of various methods that strengthen human health such as zodiac science, doshi vaidya, kitchen remedies, cow-based remedies, soil remedies, water drinking methods and remedies made by making the water composition suitable, health enhancement through consumption of the best produce through natural farming, remedies through constellations and holy river water, yajna and religious worship methods is available with the intellectual class of Indian society, which has become useful and indispensable for the continuous management of the Bhartiya society by acquiring it from generation to generation through informal education.

Human life has become stronger in the above way, due to which India is developing as a nation, in the present time, allopathic science has failed to combat Corona and other epidemics, while the countries of the world have been continuously trying to take the help of Indian traditional science in the field of medicine based on cow urine and plants, which has established and proven the superiority of Indian traditional science, during the Corona epidemic in the past 2019-20, the World Health Organization had predicted the death of crores of people in India due to Corona, which Indian medical science had proved wrong and shown crores of people to be completely healthy, while the Western system of treatments had failed during the Corona epidemic, the Indian system of medicine had successfully rescued the patients from the epidemic and provided them with a new life.

Thus, traditional Indian science acquired through the informal education system has been a major contributor to the upliftment of India and the global human society. The science that has strengthened the various foundations of the Indian social structure and which has been acquired by the current generation through the informal system is becoming useful to society in many fields.

3. REFERENCES:

1. Education Part 3 - https://educationvala.com – Education Vala –22 Octomber 2022.

2. Role of Parents in Formal Education – https://www.aksharnaad.com Aksharnaad.com - 17 Jun 2021.

3. Need for Change in Today's Education System i.e. Informal Education Gujarat Introduction (Facebook) – 28 November 2021.

4. Formal and Informal Education in Schools -https://jantakijankarinews.com – Janta ki Jankari News - 12 Jan 2022.

5. Shri Pramukh Swami Maharaj's Education Philosophy - By: Gaurang R. Patel –Research Guru (Online Journal of Multidisciplinary Subjects

Volume : 12, Issue – 3, December 2018 - www.researchguru.net

6. Teacher – Training : ES-103 – Publication : BAOU – Section 1 – First Edition 2020, Second Edition 2021, ISBN : 978-93-5598-078-6

Received on 15.11.2025 Revised on 24.12.2025

Accepted on 18.01.2026 Published on 17.03.2026

Available online from March 20, 2026

Int. J. Ad. Social Sciences. 2026; 14(1):1-3.

DOI: 10.52711/2454-2679.2026.00001

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