Professor P Venkataramaiah
Chairman, SRC-NCTE and Former Vice-Chancellor, Kuvempu University
The world is a conglomeration of a large variety of human beings with wide ranging differences in language, culture, beliefs and ethnicities. The most urgent need of the present day society in the world is to have the spirit of co-existence. This is definitely based on tolerance and mutual respect among individuals irrespective of their ethnic, cultural, and religious or language background. From the point of view of diversity, India is a mini world in itself. The atmosphere that can generate a sense of tolerance or spirit of co-existence in the Indian society can be a model to the entire human society in the world. How do we achieve it? What are the pre-requisites for the same?
In any society the spirit of co-existence has to be imbibed in the younger generation right from the beginning, obviously through a meaningful system of education. The education we are thinking of is obviously value-based education. What is the type of value that one should have in our system of education? Value based education should be able to build proper character for the individual. The elements that constitute a good character in an individual are: Courage, Fearlessness, Humanism, Dedication to duty and Universality. If an education system can inculcate these elements of character in any individual anywhere in the world then the world be definitely free from all the ills like intolerance, hatred, fundamentalism, terrorism etc. These elements definitely will make an individual become a good human being; otherwise one can never be a good Christian, a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Hindu or a good Buddhist.
The problems in India are of multi-dimensional in nature, because of poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, superstition etc. Taking all these into consideration NPE86 declared a specific goal for the system of education to be adopted in the country. It declared that Education should eliminate Obscurantism, Religious fanatism, Violence, Superstition, Fatalism and foster Universal and Eternal values oriented towards Unity and Integration of people. Hence our education system should help to remove not only the social ills that plague the Indian society but also should help in making an individual a good human being. Probably keeping this in view Dr D S Kothari in his report on Education during 1964-66 declares "The Destiny of India is now being shaped in her class rooms". Taking all these into consideration we can say that it is the type of Education offered to our youngsters that ultimately decides the success or failure of National efforts for reconstruction and development. Mere advancement in science and Technology will not bring peace and harmony to the society. It is to be achieved by an appropriate Value based Education System.
Education should not be thought of packing ill assorted and unwanted information into the heads of the students. It should not become a dead weight crushing all originality in them and turning them into mere automata as Mahatma Gandhi has put it.
The right type of value based Education should be offered in the right type of environment to our students. Once the objective is defined very clearly one can think of the right type of curriculum for a value-based education. But imparting such an education should be through the creation of the right type of environmental factors.
What is the environment required to deliver the value based education? What type of Physical and Intellectual environment we need to impart value based education? Most of our schools, especially in the rural sector, do not posses congenial physical environment. Our
Government, local bodies like Village Panchayath and NGO's will have to put in lot of effort to create a good physical environment in our schools. Such a clean Physical environment will inculcate a sense of personal discipline among the students. This is most important especially in Indian context. Our old concept that a school, which is the place of learning, should be a Temple should be preserved with all efforts. The physical environment that exists in a school maintained by Ramakrishna Mission is a good example. The physical environment assists in the personality development of our students.
There may be an argument that schools are started in certain places without proper buildings. In spite of this if our teachers have professional commitment it is possible to create such an environment by taking the help of local people and also the students themselves. One day in each week can be exclusively earmarked for the activity of cleaning and growing a few flower plants. This will bring in the minds of the students a sense of belongingness to the institution and also idealism to serve the cause of the society at large. The development of such an attitude in the Younger minds will be everlasting in their life. It induces in the younger minds the concept that they have a duty to collectively perform for the good of the institution they are studying. This will in turn create a broad base for the establishment of a duty based society where right given to individual is the right to perform duty, true to the saying in Bhagavadgita "Karmanyevadhikarasthe".
Our teachers also have tremendous responsibility to create an intellectual environment in the schools for our students. What type of intellectual environment should be created? To a great extent it goes with the imagination of our teachers. The students at Middle school and High schools are sufficiently grown up to respond to the events that take place in the society at large. Half a day or one day in each week can be exclusively earmarked for group discussion and student activities. The students may be made to come up with a write up or speak on contemporary issues on subjects like Sociology Politics, Science, Religion, Philosophy, WTO, International relations Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, Role of UNO etc, etc. Occasionally eminent scholars can also be invited to interact with the students. This activity will stimulate a freethinking among our youngsters and make them more responsive to become good future citizens of the Country and the World. Through these discussions younger minds can be made to live upto the objectives of NPE 86.It will mould the character of the individuals to be good human beings. Thus creation of the right type of Physical and Intellectual environment is a necessity to impart value-based education. What is essential is the deep professional commitment on the part of our teachers in our school system.
The Government of India and State Governments have been giving great importance to the development of primary and secondary education in the country. The inputs that will be provided by the Governments to the primary and secondary education sector in order to achieve Universal Elementary Education should be utilized by our teachers, Village Panchayath members and all well meaning NGO's to see that value based education is provided to our youngsters in the right type of Physical and Intellectual Environment. Let us hope that the country will be able to achieve the desired results in this direction.
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