Basic Education

Next to the Ashram premises the Nai talim (basic education or new education) institution is situated. Shri Rabindranath Tagore had termed the present-day education as 'cramming like parrots'. Even today the same type of education is prevalent. Gandhiji felt that  for education to be universal in a country like India, it must be self reliant. Literacy is not education, it is only one of the means of education. Each school can become self-reliant with the help of  productive crafts such as gardening, agriculture, horticulture, dairy, spinning, weaving and other village crafts. Education and work should not be separated. If we work with our hands and feet, our intellect gets sharpened. The system of basic education is the best way to develop the students physically, mentally and morally. He had started experiments in basic education when he was in South Africa. He took that up in India also. The ashram activities and basic education (Nai Talim) are interviewed like threads in a cloth. Various experiments in basic education was carried out in this place and through this place in many parts of the country. Teachers and students from all over the country used to come here for learning.