Editorial (Indian Currents) :: Let Us Not Cage Education

Dr Suresh Mathew

In the recent past, there were two major instances when cry for a new educational system got shriller. First, the rising cases of juvenile crimes starting with the gruesome Nirbhaya incident. The revelation that juveniles, many of them students, are graduating to dreadful offences has added urgency to the need for change in education system. Second, the increasing unrest in institutions of higher education, like the incidents in the University of Hyderabad and the Jawaharlal Nehru University. While the former calls for imparting moral education, the latter focuses on students’ right to free speech and its limitations. Both issues warrant urgent attention of the government and the experts.     

The crux of the issue is to inculcate a value system in the new generation. But the problem lies in undermining the plurality of the culture and defining moral values in relation to a particular religion or book/s. For example, some State governments have prescribed texts of a particular religion as a ‘must read’ for students. They have also made it compulsory for students to practise certain rituals identified with a religion. When moral education is identified with a particular religion or culture, it is detrimental to India’s multi-cultural and multi-religious framework. Rather than religion-based value education, the focus should be on universal values like justice, tolerance, compassion and service which are not based on any particular religion, culture or belief system.

Reports suggest that the drafting committee of the New Education Policy, under the chairmanship of former Cabinet Secretary T.S.R. Subramanian, is working on it with elaborate discussions. Despite this public posture, some of the major stakeholders opine that there is lack of transparency in the whole process. Moreover, there is apprehension that the Sangh Parivar ideology will have a major influence in the final policy document. Some of the recent decisions of the Union Human Resources Development Ministry reinforce the fears of the educational experts in this regard. 

The crisis in higher education is of a different level. Here it is a war of ideologies and the events unfolded in Hyderabad and Delhi are a fall-out of it. It is a fight between those who stand for dissent and discussion on the one side and those who want to put a leash on freedom of speech on the other side. It is a fight between pseudo-nationalism and those who oppose it. It is a fight between those who seek freedom from oppressive ideologies and those who perpetuate them. In fact, the government has to work at two levels – First, to bring about a new policy that caters to a value-based education at school level; second, to address the clash of ideologies at the level of higher education. The HRD Ministry should allow the experts in the field to arrive at a policy in consultation with all stake-holders. There should not be undue interference by interested parties to dilute the efforts done by an expert group. Parochial and religious ideologies should be sidestepped to give experts a freehand. Or else, education will be like a caged parrot: only the view and the ideology of the powers-that-be will survive.

– See more at: http://indiancurrents.org/editorial-let-us-not-cage-education-90.php#sthash.YMNvYUBN.dpuf

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