I D Soni
Education is the drawing out of child’s latent potentialities by providing the students with suitable opportunities for their exercise and, through exercise, their development and perfection. Every human being, from the first moment of life, is a person, i.e. an individual possessing human nature (body plus soul) in its own distinctive and unique way. The child, therefore, is not a tabula rasa, a clean slate on which parents and teachers may write whatever they please; it has its own faculties-physical, intellectual and moral – as yet unable to produce acts for want of unfolding and exercise, but with clear characteristics and tendencies, good or bad, determined by heredity, constitution and surroundings. The work of education, therefore, consists in providing the child with suitable opportunities for the exercise and development of its latent powers. The cause of education or the educator, is the child himself, for education is an immanent action, while instruction, a transient action, is given by the teacher. The only true education is self-education, for no outsider can act for the pupil. True education is that which makes the man charactered, self-reliant and self-less. Education aims at in the manifestation of divine perfection already exists in man.
I personally believe in that true education is not by words and ink. Education is an atmosphere. An attempt is required to be made to create an atmosphere of an education which is not merely mental but aims at drawing the higher emotions of the pupils, their inner sense of simplicity and service, of purity and prayer. I believe profoundly in the wisdom of Sufies, Rishis and Saints, and in the values of India’s own culture and Indian ideals. True education is not a withered parchment but the living water of the spirit. Is education a book-learning? No. Is it diverse knowledge? Not even that. The training by which the current and expression of will are brought under control and become fruitful is called education. Now consider, is that education as a result of which the will, being continuously choked by force through generations, is well-nigh killed out; is that education under whose sway even the old ideas, let alone the new ones, are disappearing one by one, is that education which is slowly making man a machine. No. Education is the manifestation of the divine perfection already in man. Education is a life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas. Education is by which strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded and by which one can stand on one’s own feet. Education is, that quickens, that vivifies, that kindles the urge of spirituality, character building and love for ethics inherent in the minds of young men.
Education, therefore, means enabling the mind to find out that ultimate truth which emancipates us from the bondage of dust and gives us the wealth, not of things but of inner light, not of power but of love, making the truth its own and giving expression to it which makes one’s life in harmony with all existence. Education is initiation into the life of spirit, a training of human souls in the pursuit of the truth and the practice of virtues. It is a second birth, diwitiya Janama.
NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY
The approval of the National Education Policy 2020 is a radical step. It will go a longway to make our education relevant to the needs of the times. Laying a stress on scientific temper and mathematical abilities will help develop objectives and analytical faculties. Taking three years old children under ‘Early Childhood Care and Education’ is one of the laudable aspects of the NEP. The other is the seeds of liberal and flexible education. Kudos to the government for making the system a blend of Shiksha and Vidya – the ideal of our ancient system of education.
National Education Policy is in keeping with India’s golable accent. It has come when it is most needed as India is progressing very fast and its curriculum shall reflect the new and emerging realities of the world. It is a unique endeavour to educate, to encourage, to enlighten and to make aware the new generation in orderly and efficient way. The amendments made in NEP from the previous education policy strive for research, innovation and quality. The main objective of NEP is to create an atmosphere in our educational Institutions which may help young pupils to equip themselves for life, to develop their character, to bring out their individualities, to enable them to develop their soul power. It further emphasizes that students in schools and colleges must be taught to love and respect their national heritage, their culture and their ancient Indian ideals. They should also be made aware of contemporary life and knowledge – for the modern world, too, has a lot to teach them. They must be equipped with the capacity whereby they may become worthy contributors to the economic and social well-being of the Nation. They must be prepared to have courage and basic human values which alone can make them complete human beings.
N.E.P., No doubt, heralds a new and better change but there are doubts about its implementation. There are many issues but three appear to be more important. A paragraph has been consigned to the creation of “Indian-Education Service (IES)”. This service hopefully will be more effective in implementing the NEP, which needs a more human and pedagogical approach. IES is required to be created on administrative and teaching sides to make them interchangeable. Secondly, the recommended foundational stage of five years seems to be a patched work. If pre-school education is attached with every Kendriya Vidyalaya, why not with every government school. Organisational hurdles can be addressed adequately. Thirdly, the availability of dedicated, diligent, sinless, self-less and charactered one to implement it. Here comes the need to have dedicated teachers who know the spirit of the scriptures, are perfectly pure, have an urge to go from perfection to perfection then alone comes the value of their words.
IMPLEMENTATION OF N.E.P
In regard to the teacher, we must see that he knows the spirit of the scriptures. The whole world reads Bibles, Vedas and Korans, but they are only words, syntax, etymology, philology, the dry bones of religion. The teacher who deals too much in words and allows the mind to be carried away by the force of words loses the spirit. It is knowledge of the spirit of the scriptures alone that constitutes the true religious teachers.
The function of the teacher is indeed an affair of transference of something, and not one of mere stimulation of the existing intellectual or other faculties in the taught. Something real and appreciable as an influence comes from the teacher and goes to the taught. Therefore, the teacher must be pure. The only true teacher is he who can convert himself, as it were, into a thousand persons at a moment’s notice. The only true teacher is he who can immediately come down to the level of the student, and transfers his soul to the student’s soul and sees through the student’s eyes and hears through his ears and understands through his mind. Such a teacher can really teach and none else.
We must agree that the ultimate factor in Education is the teacher: his character, his dedication, his sincerity, his calibre, his devotion and his vast knowledge of the subject alone shall determine the success of well-meant reforms high-lighted in ‘New Education Policy’.
The teacher, being the noblest servant of the nation, is expected to perform his/her duty in a most sincere, bonafied, true and candid manner to see that he/she puts in his/her best to make the N.E.P. a grand success in the years to come.
Humility is no doubt, the badge of teacher’s tribe but there is no need for him/her to feel that he/she is human door-mat to be trodden upon by others. The teacher is humble only in the sense that he/she does not crave for vulgar publicity. He/She believes in the confidence without humility is arrogance. Humility is the foundation of all virtues. It is a sign of greatness. Humility does mean self-demeaning behaviour that would amount belittling oneself: Success and humility go hand in hand.
There is a touch of immortality in the work of the teacher. He/She recreates in the students an image of his/her own highly-evolved spirit. Some of the greatest men that made their mark in the Wider National life in our own Motherland, have been the gift of the teaching profession – Guru Nanak, Kabir, Guru Arjun Dev, Mahadeva Govinda Ranade, Humayun Kabir, Dr. Zakir Hussain, Gopal Krishan Gokhale, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Ishwar Chander Vidyasagar, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Lok Manya Bal Ganga Dhar Tilak, Swami Ramathirtha, Swami Vivekananda, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Rt. Hon’ble Srinavasa Sastri, and Sir S. Radhakrishnan are but a few shining examples. Every teacher is expected to go through the life history of these and other great souls. This must emulate them in order to understand the right function of the teacher.
It is not right to feel aggrieved that the material compensation the teachers get is not commensurate with the importance of their work. It is for other people to understand the position and to take effective steps to improve it. They should not demean themselves on that score and become objects of pity and commiseration. Money is necessary for life, but money is not the only criterion of ‘Virile Social Status’. One can be rich without money and majestic without artificial power. There is an element of sacrifice in the pursuit of the teaching profession. Every dedicated teacher must be prepared for it.
Every young man/woman has good inherent in the soul; it needs to be drawn out by the teachers and only those teachers can perform this sacred function whose own character is un-sullied, who are always ready to learn and grow from perfection to perfection.
A teacher must not imagine that he can prepare himself for his office merely by study, by becoming a man of culture. He must before all else cultivate in himself certain aptitudes of a moral order.
A teacher must be dignified in his/her bearing and outlook and set sober models to his/her pupils. Hs is expected to train children for a good life here and hereafter, and not merely teach subjects that have no correlation to eternal values. It is not the empty eloquence of far-off shadows that is wanted of him/her but the living voice of the heart resonant with the eternal wisdom of the spirit.
A nation is what its schools/colleges make it. A school/college is what its teachers make it. By the determined, devoted and united efforts of the teachers, every school/college must become transfigured into Vidya Mandir and not a dark prison-house which shivers with the depressing shrieks of unhappy imps.
(The author is President Home for the Aged & Infirm, Ambphalla, Jammu.)
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