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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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Not at the cost of character
Urgent call for education for all |
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Not at the cost of character
THE past centuries witnessed tremendous progress in the fields of science and technology, making life better. While man probed the mysteries of the universe, he ignored the mystery of his own self. From necessities he moved to comforts and from comforts to luxuries, forgetting in the process the supreme source of comfort and bliss. The technological revolution has given the human world much of its economic prosperity. However, bereft of moral tenor, it has brought in its wake social inequality, horrendous wars, persecutions, atomic devastation, and of late, ecological crisis. The technological power unleashed by man can be contained only by the right kind of education, which combines science with spirituality, reason with faith, prajna with karuna, empirical knowledge with intuition and insight, keeping both progress and peace as its goals and is helpful in mitigating social evils.
Social change can be brought about by a qualitative change in man’s perceptions, attitudes, habits, priorities and goals. The transformation of the individual is a prerequisite to the transformation of society, which, in turn, is the sine qua non for the creation of a just and human social order. The prevalent system of education is not character-oriented, but information-oriented. It is consumerist and makes one selfish, self-centred, irreverent and cynical. It sharpens reason, but hardens the heart. It lays little or no emphasis on such basic values as truth, love, honesty, humility, compassion, forbearance and justice. It makes one conscious about one’s rights, not duties. It promotes materialistic outlook, and generates unhealthy competition. While the primary task of education is to draw out the best in a person, students, overburdened with lengthy and abstruse syllabi and fearful of the spectre of examination and an uncertain future, find little time to acquire moral virtues or explore their creative potential. The sculptors of Elephanta, Ellora or Mahabalipuram, wood carvers of Bharhut and Sanchi, painters of Ajanta, Bagh and Badami, and other craftsmen of ancient and medieval times did not have any formal education and yet they could create immortal works of art. Today, there are institutes of art, but few masterminds. The paradigms of education in the 21st century ought to be creative, not superficial knowledge, soul-consciousness, not body consciousness, and consmocentricity, not egocentricity. Each individual should be taught to see himself as part of the cosmic self. Since the same self embodies all, one can view the other as one’s own self in a different human frame. The concept of “universal selfhood”, being different from “universal brotherhood”, which posits two entities, is sure to neutralise a person’s negative feelings towards his fellow beings. The barricades that separate men would come down. Education should tame our beastly instincts, if a better society is to be created. Since one can be both angelic or devilish depending on one’s inner environment, value-based education can help restrain the senses, the mind, the intellect and imagination from going astray, provide a blueprint for disciplined living, inculcate scientific temper and a sense of social responsibility and transform juvenile delinquents into responsible citizens. Prayer, meditation, spiritual discourses and tales from the lives of great men, can go a long way in altering the mental environment of pupils and save them from drugs, drinking, depression and suicide. Since positive values are better transmitted than taught, these must be adequately imbibed by parents and teachers; so that they can be passed on without much effort. A teacher who skips his classes, leaves courses incomplete and is often late cannot be a role model of discipline, honesty and punctuality for his students. Likewise, a parent who earns by dubious means, leads an ignoble life, does criminal deeds or revels in clubs and parties, while his children groan at home, cannot speak of the higher values of life. Education, besides preparing boys and girls for their specific roles in society and at home, should also help them integrate the physical, mental, vital, aesthetic and moral aspects of their personality. It should teach them to harmonise with their own being, with the people around, and with nature. The renaissance of higher values through education would help us overcome the crisis of character, resolve tensions and conflicts and stem the mad race for power and pelf.
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Urgent call for education for all FOUR years after the Union Government adopted the “mission mode” to universalise elementary education through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyana, only 47 of the 100 children enrolled in Class I reached class VIII. This puts the drop out rate at 52.79 per cent, which, according to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, “is unacceptably high”. He had expressed his concern at the first meeting of the Governing Council of the National Mission for SSA. According to Mr Arjun Singh, Human Resource Development Minister, the dropout rate at the elementary level was more among girls. The annual report of the Education Department of the ministry, says there is zero per cent dropout in Kerala and Pondicherry both at the elementary level and at the primary level as on September 30, 2002. This shows the status of awareness among the people of these two states, as far as the education for children is concerned. The maximum dropout rate (nearly 80 per cent) is in Bihar. Assam and Meghalaya are close second. While Haryana and Himachal Pradesh seem to have achieved some success in arresting the dropout rate, Punjab and Chandigarh, it seems, have a long way to go. At the elementary level the drop out rate in Punjab was 32.75 per cent. Though Chandigarh showed a dropout rate of 30.44 per cent at the primary level, the report shows zero per cent dropout in Classes I to VIII. The scene in Delhi is not much better. Though the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyana was launched in 2000-01 by the National Democratic Alliance government with a provision for a governing council led by the PM, it was not constituted then. The onus of constituting this then fell on the present government, and the council was formed in December 2004. The PM attributed the high dropout rate to a lack of facilities, large-scale absenteeism among teachers and inadequate supervision by the local authorities. Deadlines, he said, had lost meaning. “We need education for all, today,” he asserted. There is now an education cess on all central taxes to finance this commitment, which would yield between Rs 4000 crore and Rs 5000 crore in a year. Mr P. Chidambaram, Finance Minister, had said in Parliament that if primary education and the nutritious cooked meal scheme could go hand in hand, then there would be a new dawn for the poor children. The whole amount collected as education cess would be earmarked for education, he had said. The SSA addresses the needs of 192 million children in 11 lakh habitations. Nearly 9 lakh primary schools and 34 lakh teachers would be covered under the SSA, with a special focus on the education needs of girls, the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the other children in difficult areas. The assistance under the programme of SSA is on 75:25 sharing arrangement during the Tenth Plan and 50:50 sharing thereafter between the Central Government and the state governments. During 2003-04, annual plans for 596 districts of 33 states/UTs were approved and 3,98,189 posts of teacher were sanctioned. Let’s hope it works.
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Campus Notes Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar
IT seems that the university is destined to make do with acting Vice-Chancellors appointed for short periods. How else can it be explained that the HAU campus has seen 17 Vice-Chancellors in 35 years of its existence? Old-timers recount that ever since 1970, when Haryana Agricultural University came into being, only two Vice-Chancellors have completed their four-year tenure. In sharp contrast, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, set up much earlier in 1962, has seen only nine Vice-Chancellors till date. Ms Asha Sharma, Haryana Financial Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary (Agriculture), has been holding the additional charge of HAU Vice-Chancellor for more than six months. University teachers maintain that political interference, apart from the practice of giving the charge of VC0 to some bureaucrat, is chiefly responsible for the trend. However, Dr R.S. Dalal, Director, Human Resource Management, HAU, sees a silver lining. He says that this time, the charge has been given to the Principal Secretary, Agriculture, which would facilitate more meaningful interaction between the university and the department concerned of the state government. Guru Jambheshwar University, Hisar The Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Guru Jambheshwar University organised annual state-level IT festival, Kshitij—The Horizon of IT and Imagination—on the university premises. A number of contests in the technical and non-technical categories were held during the festival, in which teams from various engineering, MCA and MBA institutes in the state participated. The host department won the first prize, while TIMT, Yamunanagar, bagged the second position and HCTM, Kaithal, finished third. The GJU Vice-Chancellor, Dr R. P. Bajpai, inaugurated the event, while the university Registrar, Mr Y. P. Goswami, was the chief guest at the valedictory function.
Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla Dr M.L. Parmar, a senior professor in the department of Chemistry, has been selected for the Vijay Rattan Award being given by the Indian International Friendship Society (IIFS), New Delhi, for his contribution in science and technology. Prof Parmar, studied melting snow in the Spiti Valley, which the tribesmen there could use for sowing barley. In this traditional but scientific process, farmers sprinkle ash over the fields for melting snow early. The study by Prof Parmar recognises the indigenous technical knowledge of the farmers, which is most suited for production of temperate fruits and vegetables of high quality.
Distance education The International Centre for Distance Education and Open Learning (ICDEOL) will shortly open its study centre at Noida. The centre, to be set up at a cost of Rs 4 crore, will facilitate personal contact programme, examinations and dispatching of reading material. The opening of the centre will make it convenient for students from Delhi and nearby areas to attend the classes conducted under the personal contact programme. The ICDEOL also proposes to introduce MBA and M.Phil in mathematics and education. The authorities are also considering introducing certificate and diploma courses in sciences through distance education, the study material for which will be prepared by the departments of biology, chemistry, bio-technology, physics and other science departments. However, it is the ICDEOL that will conduct the examinations. —
Contributed by Sunit Dhawan and Pratibha Chauhan
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