Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

EDUCATION

in a few places and university level Basic education scheme was also developed but introduced only in three places, Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Gandhi Gram (Tamilnadu) and Jamia Milia (Delhi). Gandhi defined education as drawing out of the best in child and man - body, mind and spirit. He had conceived it as a grand design for a social change. He said, 'My plan to impart education through a productive craft is conceived as the spearhead of a silent social revolution fraught with far-reaching consequences.' The special fea- tures of basic education are: (1) Literacy is not the end of education, nor even the beginning. It is only one of the means whereby man and woman can be educated. Literacy in itself, is no education. Gandhi says, 'I would, therefore, begin the child's education by teaching it a useful handicraft and enabling it to produce from the moment it begins its training. Thus every school can be self-supporting, the condition being that the State takes over the manufactures of these schools. (2) Self-sufficiency, is therefore, the acid test of its success. (3) Primary education should be equal to the matriculation less Eng- lish. (4) A vocation or vocations are the medium for the all-round de- velopment of a boy or girl and therefore, 'all syllabus should be woven round' vocational training. This means that all knowledge and skills and even attitudes related to them should spring from the central handicrafts. The method of doing this is called 'correlated technique'. Separate study of academic subjects was discouraged. This was possible because in doing craft-work, Gandhiji insisted on not doing the work mechanically, but on the spirit of inquiry to ask and examine the why's and wherefores of all processes which gave rise to all related knowledge. (5) Mother-tongue shall be the medium of education. Gandhi's views on "College education" He said, "I would revolutionise college education and relate it to national necessities. There would be degrees for Mechanical and other engineers. They would be attached to different industries, which should pay for the training of the graduates they need. Com- merce will have its own colleges. Medical colleges should be at- tached to certified hospitals." Agricultural colleges should be self- supporting. Now arts colleges which turn out a large number of un- employable persons should not be subsidized by government. Other occupations should be on the apprenticeship models with factories and workshops training students on the job. However, the Gujarat Vidyapeeth and the Gandhi Gram which were developed on Gandhian ideas, are not exactly maintained as envisaged by Gandhiji, especially in matters of finanical support. The tragedy of post-independence Indian education was giving a decent burial to Basic education and sticking to examination cen- tered Western academic model. Even the Kothari Commission (1964- 66) watered it down to 'craft' or 'work experience' as an appendage to academic subjects. Since 'work experience' is not an examination subject, that too is not in vogue. This marks almost the end of Basic education. RABINDRANATH TAGORE Rabindranath was bom on 7th May, 1861 at the Jorsanko Mansion of the Tagores at Calcutta as the fourteenth and the last child of 'Maharshi' Devendranath Tagore. As a school - going child, Rabindranath disliked the restricted and mechanical schooling methods. His formal schooling was discontinued; but his education was continued with private tutors to teach him. This was enriched by voracious

a Hindu in her former birth. During her presidentship of the Theo- sophical Society from 1907 till her death in 1933, she propounded the revival of the essence of the Gurukula system of education and harmonised it with the needs of the scientific spirit of the modem age, thus developing the concept of the whole man. She asked, “What do we find in modem India? An education directed to one part of the boy’s nature only, developing the intelligence, training the intellect, but leaving entirely on one side the spiritual nature and the moral or the emotional nature, disregarded. Such an education can never build up a true man of the world. What sort of a nation can you have where the education given to its young is but one quarter of what it should be?” She urged that once again learning must be inspired by the ancient ideals which must be embodied in new forms. “Here is an Indian ideal” she said, “that it would be well to revive in supreme intellectual and spiritual achievement.” While the Kangri ‘ Gurukula ’ of Swami Dayananda’s concept remained in isolation and the other D.A.V. schools and colleges got merged in the Western system as it happened in the case of schools started by the Ramakrishna Mission and those of Annie Besant’s scheme, there are three other outstanding personalities whose efforts at Indianising education stand out vibrantly today. They are Gandhi, Tagore, Aurobindo and now may be added Sri Sathya Sai Baba. MAHATMA GANDHI Among the great souls that have brought a new era through their unparalled unique impact on human society, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, first called 'Mahatma Gandhi' by Rabindranath Tagore, and truly hailed as 'the Father of the Nation' in India will be remembered in history along with Christ and the Buddha. He saw life as a whole and worked for upliftment of people in all spheres of life. His influence has been the motive force for the liberation of many subju- gated people of the world and his instruments Non-violence, Non-Co- operation and adherence to Truth will stand as beacon lights for all time in history. In this article his contribution to one aspect which we may call the core aspect of education is briefly discussed. As a challenge to the twin problems - the problem of funding and the problem of removing an irrelevant Western education system foisted on India - Gandhiji with his deeply personal experience of teaching children in the Tolstoy Farm in Africa, and in the Sabarmati Ashram in India, propounded a National system of education for India. His scheme was discussed by experts at Wardha in 1937 and accepted in its essentials. The details of the scheme were worked out by a committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Zakir Hussain, who later became the President of India. The scheme, which goes by different nomenclatures - the ‘Wardha Scheme', 'Nai Talim', 'Buniayadi Shiksha' - is officially de- scribed as the scheme of ‘Basic Education’. The schools and Teacher Training colleges based on this scheme were called 'Basic Schools' and 'Basic Training Colleges' respectively. The granting of provincial autonomy in 1937 brought Congress Governments in nine out of 11 provinces and the Basic Education scheme was accepted in toto. Vast numbers of primary schools (stds. I to VII/VIII) were established or the existing ones converted into Basic schools). Unfortunately, the Second World War in 1939 brought a sudden change and the Con- gress governments fell. However, Basic schools and Training col- leges continued. Post-basic schools (High schools) were established