I D Soni
Knowledge is increasing : is happiness increasing, too? Schools, Colleges and universities are multiplying : are happy homes multiplying? We have graduates, post-graduates and doctorates more than ever before. Knowledge has spread. Has the nation grown in freshness, vitality, strength and self-sufficiency? Have our youths become more appreciative of the deeper values which alone give a meaning and significance to life? The answer is big “No”. They are feeling bored, cut off from great ideals, singing in their hearts no song of sacrifice?
Current education is dissatisfied with itself: and the dissatisfaction grows from more to more. As witnesses to this dissatisfaction we have student unrest in India and other countries of the world. Universities are being burnt, Vice-Chancellors are being gheraoed, teachers are being threatened and mishandled. Who is responsible for this all? Our system of education is responsible for all these happenings. It is theoretical, hackneyed, and dull and requires a serious revamping exercise.
“Judge a tree by its fruits”, said the great teacher of Palestine. Judged by its fruits, current education has failed miserably. This education must go. The present educational system of India was inherited from the British and is predominantly theoretical. The British evolved a system of learning aimed at producing “Brown Sahibs and Clerks. The education that is provided to the students, at all levels, is merely academic or abstract. It aims at stuffing the students with information acquired from dead books or a set of sterile moralities and superficial values. A new type of education is needed – an education which should be related to life, real life. The need of the hour is to have spiritually or morally sound persons who can take positive lessons from negative situation. One urgent need of India and the nations is a new type of education – “an education which would integrate the character of the pupils and prepare them to become servants of India and Humanity”.
How can we achieve a real change in our Education ?
To bring about a real change in the educational system, what we need teachers of true type. The ultimate factor in Education is the teacher: his character, his dignity, his calibre, his knowledge, his experience alone determine the success of any well-meant reform or change. Teachers who will teach, through precept and example, that life is larger than livelihood and that the end of knowledge is not gains in silver and gold, jobs and careers, but sympathy, service and sacrifice. 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. The teachers must not imagine that they can prepare themselves for their office merely by study, by becoming men of culture. They must before all else cultivate in themselves certain aptitude of a moral order. I am of firm belief that no reform or change is possible unless the teachers are motivated/inspired.
Things to be emphasised
We must impress upon the teachers to put forth their best efforts to train students in such a way that they become ideal citizens and ideal human beings. Other things which I love to call them are the fingers of education. The very first finger of education is character-building. Knowledge without character is a deadly sin. Is it not true that the one urgent, the one piteous need of India today, is men and women of character? It is true, India needs foreign exchange and the goods which foreign exchange can buy. India needs technical know-how and a new social and economic planning. But more than all these things put together, India needs men and women of character, of honesty, of diligence and of self-less service. India needs men and women whom the lust of office will not betray, whom the gains of office will not lead astray, who will not scramble for power, but who will use all their power, in a spirit of humility, in the service of India’s teeming millions.
Second, our emphasis should be on what we call seva – the quality of service. We believe that the character is best built through altruistic living, living for others. Therefore, the children are trained to forget themselves and spend their energies in providing comforts to those that are in need of comfort, in bringing joy into the lives of those that are joyless.
Thirdly, the emphasis should be on Indian ideals. Modern scientific knowledge to be passed on to the students but they must be asked not to forget their rich heritage, the rich culture, the rich values which belong to them as children of the ancient rishis. It is only with the blend of modern scientific knowledge and India’s ancient wisdom that a new civilisation can be built.
In the fourth place the emphasis should be on International understanding. Students 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.
In the fifth place, the emphasis should be on cultivation of soul. Man, is essentially a soul. Our great blunder is that we have identified ourselves with the body that we wear, or at best with the body-mind complex. But man is essentially soul. It has to be cultivated in the best interest of the nation.
Moral and Spiritual Values in Education :-
Moral and spiritual education should be an essential activity of every school/college. As for my experience goes, this activity is not a load for the child or grown up but a great help to him to build up his character.
Modern education has completely alienated the child from moral and spiritual education. The result is disastrous. The child when born is endowed with God-given gifts – compassion, love, sympathy, generosity, purity, and helpfulness. As the child grows, he forfeits God-given gifts. This is due to the fact that child gets no opportunity or atmosphere to develop his God-given gifts.
I am of the opinion that educational institutions must set apart fixed and sufficient time for moral and spiritual education. Right persons fully equipped to pass on the light to the impressionable hearts is a necessity.
In every school there should be great stress on national and social service. This must be, indeed, an integral and essential part of education. Children should be provided opportunities to mix and mingle with the under-privileged – the blind, the disabled, the poor, the down-trodden. Let the children extend their helping hand to them. There should be regular programmes in this direction. This will go a long way to help the young ones to understand the pain and pang of others. Every educational institution should be a vital centre of service. There should be practical work in social service. Students should be motivated to visit to the poor patients in hospitals and give them fruits, they should visit to the homes of the blind and the disabled and serve them, they should go to the homes of old and infirm and cheer them and they may show willingness for their pilgrimages to the unfortunate ones in Remand Homes and Orphanages and share with them their love and bounties. This will help them to build up their character and to become morally and spiritually sound.
Victor Hugo rightly said, “start one good school and close one hundred prisons”. By “Good School” he meant a school which strives to build up its students morally, ethically, and spiritually. “Education” is a thing of the spirit. Let U.T.’s Educational Institutions benefit by implementing these suggestions and thereby give opportunity to millions of the youths, boys and girls, of U.T. to advance morally and spiritually and to make J&K state a land of peace and harmony.
(The author is President Home for the Aged & Infirm, Ambphalla, Jammu.)
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