Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

EDUCATION

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) was set up in 1961 to assist and advise the Ministry of Education in implementing policies and programmes in the field of education. Among the programmes which NCERT has taken up is revision and evaluation of the secondary level syllabus and text books from the standpoint of national integration. It also organises, every five years, national surveys of teacher education at secondary and elementary levels. Adult education has been accorded a very high priority in the Eighth Plan (1992-97). It is expected that by the end of the Plan period 345 districts or 75% of the districts in the country would be covered by the total literacy campaigns and it is hoped that with the combined efforts of other programmes of adult education and universalisation of elementary education, the overall literacy rate would reach 70%, a level considered crucial for achieving total literacy in the subsequent 2-3 years. The Regional Colleges of Education under NCERT at Ajmer, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal and Mysore organise pre-service and in- The edifice of the indigenous system of education radiating excellence in philosophy, religion and spiritualism, as well as in non- religious mundane subjects like medicine, archery, economics, mathe- matics and astronomy had been shaken by the advent of the Islamic rule. It was further given almost a death-blow by the English- dominated Western system of education built on the basis of Macaulay’s Minute on Education of 1835. Yet the flames of the basic spiritual values of India have been kept alive throughout the course of history. A number of luminaries have attempted to Indianise the Western system keeping the spiritual aspect at the core. The earliest was Swami Dayananda, bom in 1824 in Gujarat. A number of schools established according to his scheme of education are now thriving as Dayananda Anglo-Vedic (DAV) Schools through the length and breadth of India. Those at Lahore established in 1886 and at Kangri near Hardwar established in 1902 are the earliest. In his scheme, he laid stress on the parents’ role, religious and moral training, chastity and celibacy, personal hygiene, study of Vedas, Shastras and Upanishads and fatherly relation of the teacher towards the taught. He preferred the mother tongue as a more effec- tive medium of learning than a foreign language. His scheme of studies also included arithmetic, algebra, geometry, geology and as- tronomy. He also advocated practical training in sciences. He was against co-education of youths and his preference was for residential schools away from the cities. Next in line comes Swami Vivekananda (his original name is Narendra Nath Datta) born in a Kshatriya family in Calcutta in 1863. He was an earnest student of philosophy and poetry. Remarks of his Principal Mr. Hastie are noteworthy : “Narendranath is really a gen- ius. I have travelled far and wide but I have never yet come across a lad of his talents and possibilities, even in German Universities amongst Philosophical students. He is bound to make his mark in life.” SWAMI VIVEKANANDA SWAMIDAYANANDA

service courses as well as summer school-cum-correspondence courses. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has schools affiliated to it from all parts of the country. These schools provide a uniform kind of education cutting across state borders and linguistic areas, thus promoting national integration. Central Schools or Kendriya Vidyalayas provide uniform education for children of transferable Central Government and Defence personnel. There are 744 Central schools providing education to 550,000 students.

SELECTED REFERENCES

D.M. Bose (Chief Editor), A Concise History of Science in India, New

Delhi 1971.

Challenge of Education, New Delhi 1985.

Natioal Policy on Education, New Delhi 1986.

Annual Report 1992-93, Ministry of Human Resource Development,

New Delhi 1993.

Moonis Raza (Ed) Higher Education in India, 1991.

INDIANISATION

OF EDUCATION It was on Hastie’s advice that Narendra met Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, which incident began a new chapter in the history of Hinduism. He urged the Indian youth to banish the feeling of inferior- ity. He said : “Make your nerves strong. What we want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel. We have wept long enough. No more weeping, but stand on your feet and be men. It is man-making religion that we want. It is man-making education all-round that we want”. His stirring call, “Up, India, and conquer the world with your spirituality” is the essence of his dream. According to him, “Educa- tion is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.” He believed that each one must teach himself. The duty of the teacher is “to afford opportunities and to remove obstacles.” He said, ”A plant grows. Do you make the plant grow? Your duty is to put a hedge around it and see that no animal eats up the plant and there your duty ends. The plant grows by itself.” Concentration was the best method by which to attain knowledge. As regards the teacher he says : “The only teacher is he who can immediately come down to the level of the student, and transfer his soul to the student’s soul and see through the student’s eyes and hear through his ears and understand through his mind.” • He recommended training in agriculture and industry to solve the practical problem of hunger in the country. Exhorting the edu- cated to help the poor and the hungry he thundered, “So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor, who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.” He desired that education in the country should be wholly national in spirit. It is this inspiration that motivated the starting of Ramakrishna Mission Schools which are well-known for their moral fervour. ANNIE BESANT Born in 1847, Annie Besant, an Irish lady, was the pupil of Madame Btevatsky, one of the founders of the Theosophical Move- ment. Before she joined the movement, she had been a great lover of Hinduism and, being a believer in reincarnation, she claimed she was