Introduction to Population and Population Education

a) Concept of Population

Population can be defined as the total number of people living in a certain area at the given point of time . In the ancient time, there was less population and people were not concerned about the problems created by increased population. But population is increasing in a skyrocketing way nowadays. Population of a place produces remarkable influence on the environment and the state of people's health.

b) Concept of Population Education

Professor Sloan Wayland of Columbia University coined the term "population education" with burning population issues in the world. There was an important workshop on population and family life education in 1970 A.D  in Bangkok organized by UNESCO. The workshop has given the meaning of population education as :

"Population education is an educational program which provides the study of population situations in the family, community , nation and the world with the purpose of developing rational attitudes and behavior towards that situation.

Population education gives knowledge about population phenomena like demographic processes, census, factors influencing population, reproductive processes of human being , human sexuality, consequences of rapid population growth , etc. We can define population education as an educational process which brings rational change in knowledge, attitude, and behavior of the students regarding population situations and other various aspects related by population. Population education possesses the main objectives of developing behavioral changes in people by providing them knowledge about different population characteristics and situation as well as ways and techniques to manage population situation in favor of human being and their environment . Population education assists people in taking decisions in to various matters related to :

• Proper age at marriage.
• Proper age at conception.
• Proper birth spacing.
• Planning and caring family.
• Disseminating the knowledge and information about population.
• Population management of home, community and nation.
• Utilization of natural resources in a rational way.

c) Need and Importance of Population Education

Population education aims to develop behavioral changes in people by providing a plenty of information related to population characteristics and situation. It also gives knowledge about the techniques to manage population situation in favor of human being and their environment. Population education is very important for us because of the following reasons:

i. Population education gives knowledge about population situations

Population situation is the primary factor to be known for making steps to manage population. Population situation includes population composition, distribution, density, size , growth, and other various demographic measures.

ii. Population education brings positive changes in population behaviors

Positive population behavior includes rational attitude and practices towards population situations. Family planning through birth control and spacing , awareness, limiting family size, population management, reproductive behavior, etc, are main areas of contribution of population education in bringing positive changes in people.

iii. Population education helps people to make their family happy

In order to make family happy, the family size must be small or limited. Large families cannot fulfill basic needs of the family. On the other hand, population education helps to give solution to produce child for infertile people.

iv. Population education helps in utilizing natural resources in proper way

This branch of education helps in managing population distribution according to the availability of natural resources. On the one hand, it teaches to utilize resources in a proper way to make human life fulfilled with basic needs. On the other hand, it gives knowledge and techniques regarding proper conservation of natural resources with active involvement of people along with control of human encroachment to the natural resources.

v. Population education contributes to sustainable development

Environmental conservation is one of the major concerns of population education. Sustainable development supports environmental conservation in the developmental process. Population education makes people aware of the interrelationships between population and sustainable development. Thus, it contributes for the sustainable development. 

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