Educational System of India: Rethinking

Educational System of India

An old  Sanskrit Subhashit  says,

 अन्नदानं परं दानं विद्यादानं अत: परम् | अन्नेन क्षणिका तॄप्ति: यावज्जीवं च विद्यया, 

which means Giving food to  hungry is a good deed.  educating  people (Teaching - 'vidya Danam') is  more appropriate and important type of 'Dana' because by food one's hunger would be calmed down only for the time being. But the knowledge attained is helpful for whole of our life. Therefore it is said that ' Vidya - Dan' is the most important among various other types of Dana.

India, is a country with strong, rich heritage, which also focuses on Education System. Gurukul parampara has been an important part of our ancient Educational systems. We are talking about skill based India now, however if we just look back at the ancient Eras, we can see that in ancient era, post primary education, (which is necessary for day to day life), students were allowed to select subjects of there own interest some scholar were heading India This had given us scholars loke  Charak, Sushrut, Chankya, Aryabhatta, Banbhatta, Kalidas, Bhas and  its unending. Even if we believe on existence of Mahabharata or Ramayana, Prince was eligible as King only after  completing his Education. Unforunately, in some middle era,we were behind the world, inspite of having so much of knowledge with us. 

The main reason may be,  lack of documentation and Knowledge transferred which mostly through an oral mode. We also concentrated  only on  some sub branches of main subjects, eg we concentrate more on astrology than astronomy. Trigonometry was knows to us, but the same is limited to build Vedis for Yadnyas, we never built structures like pyramids which could  prove that we  are well versed with it. Probably,  the knowledge of all branches including Agriculture, Science, Engineering, Mathmatics, Literature was more into Sankrit Language,  which was known by handful of people and it was eroded with the time.

 we cant prove that we were a treasure of Knowledge, and far  ahead of the world .

  This was a flow of an old education system that the Knowledge imparted cannot be continued for next generations

But still, we have a great combination of Practical knowledge with a philosophical base. In our daily life also we can see, what a great rich inventions we had in ancient India. Region wise food habits is  combination of agriculture science and  Geography, indeed a great research work. However today we see lack in research areas

Yes, today also, we  have so many flows in our education system and we should seriously think on it. We have a huge population with different skills, talent with us, however our Education is still not able to transform the same to a polished professionals in different fields. Unfortunately, we are still following the  systems laid down by British rulers, we have not understood these systems were mainly to create the servicemen/clerks,needed for running their empire  here. Why should they an urge to create Scientist, Artist, Businessmen here? If we need to uplift the nation, then we should be able to cultivate the talents with different streams in different ways. A nation is not only looking for a great Scientist , but also wants a good sportsperson. We want our youngsters to win   Noble , Booker and  Oscar. Unfortunately we have not even able to provide a basic primary Education to all the citizens in India. High literacy rate can solve  50% of our problems straight away.   Basic Schooling should be made Equal and available on reasonable price or free for all. Privatization of these systems, had not helped us to reach to the grass root levels and we could not cater to village areas as wll.  Education institues became business houses, on coomercial terms. The reservations in the Education systems has been challenged by many now a days, but the fact is the benefit of the same has not been passed to them who nedded the most.  It really hurts to see that “Teaching Profession” is not treated at par with all other professions. In fact,  worldwide it is treated as the most respected,  highly Important profession. We should also connect academic research work to application in Industry. The students, teachers and Industry interaction should be increased. Also our education system should not only generate Managers, Engineers and doctors. A balanced society should be progressive in all fields, Science, Commerce and Arts. Subjects like History, Music, Literature, performing arts, languages, Geography and all sub branches of these should also be given an importance. The basic education till 10^th standard should be governed by government & Education faculty to be treated as Services, not as Business commodity. We should encourage, basic education in mother tongues, healthy competition amongst the students.   Education systems should be in sink with the roots of the social , cultural atmosphere, so that student will enjoy the educational journey.

 Our own ancient practices are good but we should modify them and make them suitable for this era.  We are talking about e learning, however we must note that we don’t have infrastructure in rural, untouched areas. Good  Education is not only a right for Citizens  living in urban areas, it should be equal for all. Some of the NGOs are doing good experiments in these areas, but they are not enough. A centralized schooling systems should be run in the country. Last but not the least, we should not restrict t people who wanted to work in these field with any kind of reservations. Restriction.  A  qualified , passionate person should be allowed to become teacher without passing any specific exams. An Engineer, who  cant teach  Mathematics, without B. Ed? This is un ending subject, and lots of changes are needed. But one thing is sure that only good Education can create good citizens and lead towards fulfilling our dream to be a developed country. A lot of talent here, is waiting for Right Education and Right to Education.

 - Sheetal Joshi