For the past couple of years, certain intriguing situations have emerged in the firmament of educational institutions in India. State governments are closing down schools as there are no takers, several engineering colleges have already shut their shop and many others are opting for closure.
Huge shortage of school teachers is a national concern and the government has taken the right decision not to open any new college till the existing ‘shops’ are either reformed or thrown out of the system. Contrast this to the high hopes generated by the much-hyped demographic dividend, that was waiting for the educated and skilled manpower from the youngest nation on the planet Earth! Education primarily focuses on the generations ahead and, hence, is supposed to integrate and harmonise their talents, and aspirations and opportunities. On record, Indian achievements in education are very impressive in terms of institutional growth at every stage, including the rise in literacy rates—from around 18 per cent in 1947/50 to around 75 per cent as per 2011 census—against a population rise of more than three times.
Then why should there be such a loss of credibility of educational institutions? Why so much of unemployment and frustration? Serious resource crunch in public-funded institutions on the one hand, and complete focus on ‘dividends’ at the cost of quality in a number of private institutions, on the other hand, have left educated youths in dire straits. If 80 per cent of engineering graduates are not up to the mark, the system must own full responsibility. Closing down institutions is no solution.
Education has one unique universal characteristic: the more you solve problems, the more they emerge. Any form of stagnation in education is not permissible, and maintaining dynamism requires sustained initiative, innovation and implementation of ideas. The importance of these four elements fructified in the philosophy of education and its institutionalisation in Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan. India needs ‘suitable teachers’ in large numbers. Gurudev articulated the total personality of a true teacher: “The teacher whose child within him has become like deadwood is not qualified to take the responsibility of children.” Such a teacher would never be able to internalise that the inquisitiveness of the child is the life force that would take him places.
Realising how close children are to nature, how they desire to run around, climb trees, create, investigate and not seek rest, he suggests about the ‘content and process’ of real education (1919): “In this endless universe, the inner human being is active with its prehistoric spirit; similarly, it also works in the child’s personality and generates energy. It is these natural instincts that spark off the life force within the child and so before getting bullied by the age-old ideas, they try to free themselves out of the shackles of artificiality”. When children rebel, the force behind it is rarely understood and appreciated.
He not only suggested that children should be allowed to feel the ‘vibrations of life in its mind, outside the dead walls of town school’, but also put it into practice and enlightened innumerable experts in his times.
The task of personality and skill development must continue from school to university. Tasking the universities to ‘bring together the wealth of its common mind’, Gurudev said: “The second point is that true realm of education can only be where there is a good and generous feeling for education. The major task of the university is to create the climate of education.
To impart it is only a minor part of its work”. Indian intellectuals and scholars, who are truly worried and concerned about the education scenario, must come together and suggest how the energy and talent of young India could be nurtured appropriately.
J S Rajput
Former director of the NCERT
rajput_js@yahoo.co.in