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Education for the Masses: Lessons from Gandhian Praxis |
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By Suresh Mishra
The crisis in our
education system continues to be a major concern even after six
decades of independence. The Gandhian model of Basic Education,
which in its modified form is most suited to India, was given a
trial in independent India and the Archaic British system, which has
been thoroughly overhauled in its homeland, has been retained in
India in its original form.
Current State of Education in India
India today is one
of the most illiterate countries of the world. We have around 300
million illiterates. And of those who are literate, not even half
of them are educated in the real sense. Half of the literates are
not employable in any industry even though the education imparted is
only for employment. It is not meant to make life worth living by
imparting training in 3-H: Head – learning to know; hand – learning
to earn livelihood, and Heart – learning to be. The need is to have
an education system that makes people better human beings; that
enables them to meet their basic needs of food, clothing, shelter,
education, health, security and self-esteem, infusing the society
with a sense of vasudhaivakutumbakam (the whole world is a family
and the earth is a common habitat).
A look at our
contemporary education system shows that it is not geared to meet
the above objectives. The essential aspects of education as given
by our great thinkers like Mahatma Gandhi are no longer in focus.
A deeper analysis
shows that our education system neither produces men and women with
creative talent and skill, nor with strong moral character. It has
even failed to spread literacy among the people.
Re-energizing our Education System
Education remained
a neglected subject in Colonial India; it was limited to the upper
class of the society which was aimed at producing clerks for the
functioning of the British administration.
Poor quality and
limited access to education has been there ever since the colonial
times. It had its repercussions beyond the economic sphere.
Culturally and socially, and of course, technologically, India
became an undeveloped nation.
While other laid
emphasis on higher education, Mahatma Gandhi, ever since he returned
to India from South Africa in 1914, laid great emphasis on primary
education having relevance to the life and living of the masses of
people, particularly in rural areas. Incidentally, he distinguished
between literacy and education. An illiterate person can be highly
educated, while a literate person can be uneducated or
ill-educated. Gandhi was equally interested in secondary and higher
education but considered primary education as the foundation for not
only higher education but also, and most importantly, to become a
human being with character and creativity.
There is no doubt
that a fresh look at our education system is urgently needed. India
must get back to the Gandhian system of education with appropriate
changes and modifications to suit the conditions prevailing today.
Gandhi’s scheme of education called Nai Talim or Basic
Education, lays emphasis on the harmonious development of the
individual by further developing the best in him. Many have argued
that Nai Talim was time specific and hence is not so relevant
today. Being a dynamic personality, Gandhiji would have modified
his education system as time passed.
Taking clue from
Gandhi, a feeble attempt was made to introduce value education in
the university curricula. It petered off as time passed and today
no one talks about it. The message of Gandhi that there is enough
on this earth to meet everyone’s needs but not every one’s greed,
has not reached the common man through our educational system.
There is so much violence all over the world, but Gandhi’s message
of nonviolence does not find a place in our education system.
We have some of
the best educational institutions like IITs and IIMs and many other
institutions, which have done well even if they are run on business
lines. But our mass education system has completely collapsed.
Primary and secondary education run largely by State governments are
neither primary/secondary nor education. Corrupt practices by the
management of schools, even allowing copying for a fee, points to
the extent to which our education system has been devalued. Degree
colleges and universities fare no better. Vice-Chancellors of
several universities are found to be corrupt and in many cases are
appointed because they belong to a particular caste or community or
are selected by the ruling political party, rather than acumen for
administration. Of the 200 best universities in the world, India
with one-sixth of the global population has only three, whilst China
has more that eight included in the list. Although the ranking is
quite subjective, it points to the poor state of higher education.
It is only through
education that human development and socio-economic change can take
place. Economists like Amartya Sen have laid great emphasis on
education as a critical factor in improving the quality of life of
the people, in eradicating poverty and in accelerating economic
growth.
The ancient Indian
system of education had an integrated approach to training of head
(mind), hand (skills), and heart (human values and ethics). Gandhi
came out with a new model of education and called it Nai Talim (new
education), known as Basic Education. To Gandhi, the objective of
education was the harmonious development of the individual, drawing
out the best in him. To him, the body is the means of earning a
living; mind is the means of reasoning; while the soul is a place
for building character. The learner needs to understand the
importance of education for earning a living, for acquiring
knowledge, and for building a loving personality.
Principles and Contents of Nai Talim
“I have no faith
in the so-called system of education, which produces men by learning
without the backbone of character”, said Gandhi. “True education is
that which helps us to know our true self, our soul, our soul, God
and truth. Every branch of knowledge should have as its goal,
knowledge of the self, and exploration of the Truth.”
The following are
the conclusions Gandhi arrived at regarding education in 1932:
The idea of Basic
Education, as Gandhi propounded, has an inner version of moulding
the child from every aspect of his life. The best way to
educate the child is to allow it to exercise its creative genius and
critical power of imagination. To allow it to find out its own
world of creation is to inspire it to be self-reliant; and to allow
it to be critical in approach is to thrust it towards
self-innovation and self-discovery. Gandhi believed that man has a
divine content in him. He comes raw in this world, like
animals do. However, man is gifted with a body that can create
things, a mind that can store experiences and recall them for
appropriate uses and a soul that is ever pure. A combination
of these three takes man above the animal. Education thus
helps in elevating man from subconscious animal to super-conscious
ideal human being. The premises underlying Gandhian model of
education should not be changed but the policies and programmes can
be definitely changed to conform to the needs of the present day.
The premises underlying Gandhian model of primary education are:
Secondary Education
In the Gandhian
scheme of things, secondary education all the way from 9th to 12th
class would form an appropriate blend of knowledge of various
subjects, skill in at least one trade and art and peace making
(conflict resolution) and all must choose at least one
extracurricular activity: sports, games, music, dance, etc.
At the higher
secondary level (11th to 12th class), students should be allowed to
branch off to various streams such as Science, Commerce and Arts,
but mathematics, basic sciences, language (two at least) and
computer application must be obligatory for all. Training in
commercial agriculture should be imparted to all students.
Further, all students should be given theoretical as well as
practical instruction in Indian cultural heritage and human
development focusing on the role of each individual in building a
peaceful and harmonious society.
The objective of
secondary education should be that if students want to study further
they should be able to move on but if they want to terminate their
education they should be able to make a living in their chosen
field.
University Education
University
education is currently under great stress largely because it has
failed to change with time. Research output of our universities is
is terribly poor; teaching almost routine; and training component
missing.
Academic
programmes of our universities must be run on semester or trimester
basis. Research must be the main thrust of post-graduate programmes.
At the graduation level, theoretical foundation of the subjects
should be taught, and there should be intensive practical work
related to their field, and language training in two languages:
English and mother tongue so that students are fluent in both.
They should also be given a course in the philosophy of life with
focus on Mahatma Gandhi, Vivekananda, and basic tenets of various
religions.
How To Do What We Must Do?
Government control
over education; divorce of education from basic human values
ingrained in Indian culture, civilization and constitution and no
exposure to the basic tenets of various religions of India; stress
on information at the cost of knowledge, training and character
building; and the separation of knowledge and skill; has made our
education system sick. To make our education system healthy again,
in my view, the government must not have direct control over
education, it should only assist it and demand standards comparable
to those prevailing in developing countries. Each State should have
an autonomous Education Commission comprising of top educationists,
scientists, technologists, industrialists, businessmen and
administrators. The task of the commission should be to
promote private investment in infrastructure, to recruit and train
teachers, and to ensure that all children of school-going age are in
school. The government should assist it financially to the
tune of 5 percent of the annual State Budget. The Commission
should be a statutory autonomous body.
The Commission
should ensure that there would be a Model Primary School to serve
five Gram Panchayats, a Model Higher Secondary School for a
group of twenty Gram Panchayats and a Model Degree College for a
group of hundred. The size of the threshold area would change
keeping in view the topography, climate, population distribution and
birthrate.
Primary education
should be made compulsory for all children from 4 - 13 years of age.
Parents who are too poor to send their children to school would get
financial aid from the Commission and a NGO would be entrusted with
the responsibility after five primary schools and ensure that such
children attend school regularly. All NGOs looking after the schools
would meet once in six months to exchange experiences and develop
common strategies to ensure that the schools run smoothly. The
Commission could also encourage business and industrial houses to
adopt such schools.
For Higher
Education too there should be an autonomous Commission with almost
similar roles and functions. It should help both Central and
State universities launch new academic programmes, secure funds from
government or private sources and set educational standards.
Concluding Remarks
Writing in Indian
Opinion in 1907, Gandhi remarked: "Education is just a means.
If it is not accompanied by truthfulness, firmness, patience and
other virtues, it remains sterile and sometimes does harm instead of
good. The objective of education is not to be able to earn
money, but to improve oneself and to serve the country. If
this object is not realized, it must be taken that the money spent
on education has been wasted."
As a nation we are
facing a crisis, moral values have degraded; consumerism and
corruption have become a part of our life; honesty is a thing of the
past and character and self-respect are no more seen as virtues.
Violence is everywhere; people are desperately searching for peace
and harmony. More educated a person is, more dangerous he has
become. This is not to suggest that we have not made progress
in many sectors. But our 'we' constitutes only 15-20 percent of
Indians. At least 300 million amongst us do not have access to
the most basic needs. If we can make progress, we would set
new standards for the world to follow. We need to develop new
strategies and policies to reform out education, while keeping
Gandhi's philosophy at the back of our minds and reforming our
education system on Gandhian lines.
References
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