Reformation of education and rebulding the society through education
Dr.M.Govindarajan,
jananamthapas@gmail.com
Plato
believed that children would never learn unless they wanted to learn. In ‘The
Republic’, he said, "...compulsory learning never sticks in the
mind." An important educational debate in the time of the Roman Empire
arose after Christianity had achieved broad acceptance. In the modern world,
economic growth and the spread of democracy have raised the value of education and
increased the importance of ensuring that all children and adults have access
to high quality and effective education. Modern education reforms are
increasingly driven by a growing understanding of what works in education and
how to go about successfully improving teaching and learning in schools.
Western
classical taught from the 18th to the 19th century has weaknesses that inspired
reformers. Classical education is most concerned with answering the who, what,
where, when and why? questions that concern a majority of students. Unless
carefully taught, group instruction naturally neglects the theoretical
"why" and "which" questions that strongly concern a
minority of students. Classical education in this period also depreciated local
languages and cultures in favor of ancient languages (Greek and Latin) and
their cultures. This produced odd social effects in which an intellectual class
might be more loyal to ancient cultures and institutions than to their native
vernacular languages and their actual governing authorities.
The
basic program was to develop "grammar" schools. These taught only
grammar and bookkeeping. This program permits people to start businesses to
make money, and gives them the skills to continue their education inexpensively
from books. "Grammar" was the first third of the then-prevalent
system of Classical education.
India
has a rich tradition of learning and education right from the antiquity. These
were handed over generations to generations either through oral or written
medium. The highly esteemed Vedas have come down. They existed for nearly 2000
years before they were known in India. It was the knowledge of acoustics that
enabled ancient Indians to orally transmit the Vedas from generation to
generation. Institutional form of imparting learning came into existence in the
early centuries of the Christian era. The approach to learning was to study
logic and epistemology. The study of logic was followed by Hindus, Buddhists
and Jains, one of the most important topics of Indian thoughts was pramana or
means of reliable knowledge. The Nyaya schools upheld four pramanas -
perceptions of are liable by analogy or comparison, word (Sabda), and
pronunciation of a reliable authority such as the Vedas. The Vedanta school
added one more to it i.e. intuition. It is probably while studying the process
of inference that the schools of true logic arose. Ancient Indian postulated
syllogism though not as accurate as that of Aristotle. Yet, they recognize some
of the major fallacies of logic like reduction and absurdum, circular argument,
infinite regression, dilemma, and ignorance. In the field epistemology, Jains
contributed the most. There were not only two possibilities of existence and
non-existence but seven more. Although the modern logicians might laugh at this
pedantic system of ontological and epistemological reality they concede that
the world is more complex and subtle than we think it to be. Regarding
institutional form of education the first was the guru-sishya system. According
to sacred texts, the training of the Brahmin pupil took place at the home of a
Brahmin. The thinking principle, Manana Shakti was reckoned higher than the
subject of thinking. So the primary subject of education was the mind itself.
According to the ancient Indian theory of education, the training of the mind
and the process of thinking, are essential for the acquisition of knowledge.
The chase counts more than the game. So the pupil had mainly to educate himself
and achieves his own mental growth. Education was reduced to the three simple
processes of Sravana, Manana and Niddhyaasana. Sravana was listening to the
truths as they fell from the lips of the teacher. Knowledge was technically
called Sruti or what was heard by the ear and not what was seen in writing. The
second process of knowledge called Manana implies that the pupil has to think
out for himself the meaning of the lessons imparted to him orally by his
teacher so that they may be assimilate fully. The third step known as
Nidhyasana means complete comprehension by the pupil of the truth that is
taught so that he may live the truth and not merely explain it by word.
Knowledge must result in realization. The admission was made by the formal
ceremony Upanayana or initiation by which the pupil left the home of his natural
parents for that of the preceptor. In this new home he had a second birth and
was called Dvijya or twice-born. Besides these regular schools of instructions,
there were special institutions for the promotion of advance study and
research. Obviously, in those days women were admitted to the highest
knowledge and did not suffer from any education disabilities. There was
equality between the sexes in the filed of knowledge. The Rig Veda mentions
women Rais called Brahmanavadinis. To begin with, in ancient India; the
main subject was the Veda. The teacher would instruct handful of students
seated on ground. For many hours daily they would repeat verses after verses of
the Vedas till they attain mastery of at least one of them. To ensure
correctness of memory, the hymns were taught in more than one way. Soon the
curriculum was expanded. The limbs of the Veda or the six Vedangas were taught
- the performance of sacrifice, correct pronunciation, knowledge of prosody,
etymology, grammer, and jyotisha or the science of calendar.
India had several
great minds at work, which contributed in every aspect of life. The concept of
zero, decimal and Pythagoras Theorem were all developed here.
As India progressed from ancient to medieval its education system deteriorated. Various factors were responsible for the degradation of this most efficient and most ancient education system of the world.
As India progressed from ancient to medieval its education system deteriorated. Various factors were responsible for the degradation of this most efficient and most ancient education system of the world.
The present educational system of India is an implantation of British rulers. Wood's Dispatch of 1854 laid the foundation of present system of education in India. Before the advent of British in India, education system was private one. With the introduction of Wood's Dispatch known as Magna Carta of Indian education, the whole scenario changed. The main purpose of it was to prepare Indian Clerks for running local administration. Under it the means of school educations were the vernacular languages while the higher education was granted in English only. British government started giving funds to indigenous schools in need of help and thus slowly some of the schools became government-aided.
Contemplating on the new system which was introduced by the British Government in india, Mahatma Gandhi expressed his anguish in following words, "I say without fear of my figures being challenged successfully, that today India is more illiterate than it was fifty or a hundred years ago, and so is Burma, because the British administrators, when they came to India, instead of taking hold of things as they were, began to root them out. They scratched the soil and began to look at the root, and left the root like that, and the beautiful tree perished.
The system should not only bring a means for survival but also the system
should concentrate on man making who love and care themselves and the society
around.
Reformation
Acharya Rajneesh in the book entitled “Towards the unknown” in his scholarly
discourse in the year 1969, has rightly quoted, ‘ The movement from unknown to
known is evolution. The step of evolution is the real education. Unkown has two
directions:
(i)
Subjective
(ii)
Objective
Objective
means science and subjective means religion. Education of science alone is
incomplete and the same also applies to religion .Unity of both makes totality.
Education is the bridge for meeting both.
A country has many resources and education is one such resource. A country
needs to develop science and technology with highest intellect. Here, I
stress upon one aspect which is particularly missing now a days in education. Education/knowledge
without love is dangerous. Loving doctors, caring officials, engineers
with vision, responsible teachers, lawyers who stands for dharma, honest
auditors and all professional with love in general is missing nowadays. How
this trend developed?.And Why? What is missing ? How can we rebuild our
society? Our youths are being sold in present day market for a good price. All competitive examinations focus only on testing the memory power, intelligence and presence of mind, they never have any tool for testing their heart, they never test their inherent nature;only the brain is being tested and not the heart. The honesty, sincerity are not at all measured, then how can we built a corruption free environment. Truth speaking is foremost quality of a right person. One expresses himself in three ways: (i) by words (ii) By words (iii) by heart(mind). If these three lie on the same line then the person is said to be truthful. If a person lies he is ready to open doors for all evils.
Human beings are
intoxicated with a high degree of ambition. Thi s is first blunder that is made
in school. Every individual would like to be something what he is not and what
he cannot. This is being developed in to a child’s mind by looking at the
society out of passion or it is being induced by the parents or teacher or
society. In this competition of ‘to be’ he forgets the fact about what he is?. To
do something more than what he is not is an impossible task because what is not
in the in the seed, how can be a tree. But every individual is in
search of what he is not. This very cause gives birth to a sick society which
essentially brings violence and anarchy. Destruction being definite if religion
does not snatch away the ambition from the minds of people. The science
has immense powers in the hands of ambitious people. The development of
known to unknown is religious evolution and the development of unknown to known
is science evolution. Unanimity of both science and religion can only bring new
dimension of growth to the society.
Religion does not mean organized religion. To be religious is different from
being a Hindu, Christian or a Muslim etc. To be traditional is to be non
religious, on the contrary it is great barrier in being religious. Injustice,
violence and blood shed have been done more in the name of Hindu, Muslim and
Christian than any other thing. More than 15000 wars have been fought in three
thousand years. Religion is not in objectivity. So any form of objective
formality is a non religious act. To understand the truth means radical
transformation of life. Is there any provision in the law to declare a
citizen as non-religious and does not belong to any religion ? Because
this is also secularism.
The education which does not discover the inner truth or God is incomplete or
dangerous. This incompletion is the root cause of failure of today’s education.
Inner education of man is the true education/ religion. Wisdom is only that
comes from self understanding. Science is blind without religiousness and
religion is lame without science.
A simple statistical approach may reveal several facts. In a state say,
Tamilnadu there are around 8 lac students appeared for the SSLC examination.
Out of them around 70% passes out every year. (Formally around 25 years back
this was only 30-40 %, 50 years back it could been only 20-30 % because of high
standard of valuation). The education department is trying to prove by
increasing the number. Is that can we take it for granted that standard
of education has improved?. Dilution of standard of evaluation has only yielded
substantial improvement in the number. After passing out from school, the
students find it difficult even to write in their own language. The numbers
simply helps to fill the Diploma institutions because of the diluted category
of selection criteria. After passing out from SSLC around 6 lac students appear
for HSc examination. Again around 70% passes out (~ 3-4 lacs) or it is only 50
% of the total 8 lacs. Out of 4 lacs say around 50 % successfully complete
their education 1 lac complete their professional degrees. So from the
total it is only around 20% of the total of 8 lacs. How about the remaining 80
%, ` 6 lac? Are they starving? No? And only out of these 20 % ,they claim they
are unemployed.
Whether
the country should provide schemes for 20% or 80%.? Moreover if these 20%
professionals are of high standard with
religiousness in their
mind they can shoulder the responsibility of the remaining 80% youths. Otherwise
if they are selfish and without love to the society they would corrupt and ruin
the whole country. How are we going to incorporate love and caring nature into
our educational system?. Formerly may around 40-50 years back the robbers make
money were mostly illiterates or not much educated and they too rob money for
their bread living, where as only well educated youths are involved huge money
swindling plots. Why? Any commodity that is manufactured with substandard
quality is highly corruptive. And so also a substandard human resource also
ruins the country.
The
All India MD/MS Doctors association (AIMDDA) noted with deep agony the fall in
medical and dental education standards which has crept into our British legacy
education system due to forcible transition of brick fresh institutions into
deemed universities and many such universities are looting the public with
government (politician) approval.
Kaushik
Basu Professor of economics, Cornell University spent two months in India and
came across repeated warnings from prominent personalities associated with
Indian academe. With over 300 universities and 15,600 colleges spewing
out 2.5 million graduates each year, in terms of the volume of production India
trails behind only the US and recently China. Each year India produces 350,000
engineers, twice the number produced by the US.
Another distinction is to be clearly understood is
about literacy and education. Literacy is required to lead the life in this
modern society. Education is a one of the means for survival. Remember it is
not the only way for survival. Kerala is reporting 100% literacy. The passed
percentage in other states are slowly increasing and sure soon they are
going to be 100%. You can declare 100 % pass; Can you declare 100 %
employment? If a student is declared that he is unfit for education he
make his survival by his own way. If the society rejects him at his 20’s
or 30’s that educational status is unfit; they lack communication skill etc.;
after attaining a Degree or Diploma? What circus we are doing. He
simply finishes his life for want of survival. A boy or a girl should be made
aware of his or her true educational status at his 15 or 18 years not in his 25th
year. A country not only needs doctors and engineers but also needs
poets, artists and musicians. No poet is corruptive and no musicians are
corruptive and no artist are corruptive.
Declaration of results:
Failed students need not be declared as fail; because
the system is not able to identify or bring out the skill of the students. Let
there be a teacher for arts, crafts and skill development, music and sports to
bring out the talents of children. Every child has some potentials. What we
require is that we need a system to identify the talents. Passing out school children
can be classified in three ways:
(i) Eligible
for higher education (arts /science/ technical)
(ii) ,,
,, (arts / science)
(iii) ,,
,, (arts)
(iv) Skill oriented
education
Orientation
of these programs have to be introduced in the system/curriculum in the
school itself. All these four system should have higher education system. New
system is to be formulated for the last category. The students
should have freedom to choose their choice of study. The field of
music, dance, craft work, arts (free hand drawing and painting) need sufficient
recruitment of teachers. Physical education is being given least importance in
many private schools. Yoga and morals should have importance at school level.
This would help them for physical and mental well being.
A passionate look around the world should not be the choice of education.
Ambitious mind should be developed out of the skills and ability. Parents
should have sufficient awareness about their ward career. Parents Teachers
Association should be made compulsory and should have enough role and
responsibility.
Higher education and administration:
Every university should have system for all the four
category of studies. If so they can adopt 50 to 100 schools or
proportionally with respect to the number of schools.
Every
University should have sufficient PRO system to link the schools. The PRO
system should link the various industries of all kinds. The PRO system should
be proving and record manipulating. And every district require a
educational secretary who is linked with the PRO system. At this juncture I
should also comment the administrative part of our system. The public
administrators need not have educational qualification where as the subordinate
services need such qualifications. Why? What justification we have for our
system.
The public money is being swindled in so many ways and now rightly
through education. Dilution of standard has gone to the core and corruption in
education and corruptive education is explicit.
A poor standard of education will ruin the country at last after all we are
annihilating the human resource. What standard we have when compared with the
international standard. Actually we need not compare. Even from ancient times
we have very high quality of education and our ancestors knowledge was very
deep. And we should accept the fact that we don’t respect them. We dis
honour our own religious findings. We keep all the formalities and
we ignore the treasures behind.
Integeration
of science and religion: Science is in words and religion is in stillness,
because the circumference is expression and centre is and invisible. They
are like seed and tree. Science is a tree and religion is its seed. Science can
be known and religion cannot be known. Science is knowledge and religion is
living. There the science can be taught and religion cannot be the subject to
be taught. Science is to teach the known and the religion, the unknown cannot
be taught. And what could be the subject of religion.
Religious
seed is in every human being. Create an environment for the evolution of that
seed to sprout. The environment should have three fundamentals. First element
is courage and fearlessness. The courage is to deny the false. Second one is
self understanding. Third one is stillness. Wisdom is only that which
comes out self understanding. Knowledge acquired from others is not
wisdom but only an illusion of wisdom. Unanimity of science and religion can
give birth entirely to a new dimension. This unity is long awaited. Should
every man be the media which can bring such a unity and integrity? Man has to
be the media and everybody has to be the media. Such a cause only can bring the
glorious period of earth. The period which in fact has not passed but it
is the womb of future and still to come.
With
responsibility,
Dr.M.Govindarajan,
jananamthapas@gmail.com
