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Introduction
Education is a tool to empower
the individual and it has brought about phenomenal changes in every aspect of people’s
life. India
has its own indigenous education system and in India education was not foreign
in origin. When we are under British rule, they formed institutions, universities,
and implemented English education. Institutions play a great role in
development. New development cannot take place without the establishment of new
institutions. Today, establishment of new colleges and universities has been
based on political rather than academic considerations[1].
1) Etymology:
- The word education has derived from the Latin word ‘educare’ which means
‘bring up’, ‘to bring forth’. In other words education means to lead out of
ignorance. Education is important one in our life and it is a continuous
process; it provides the individuals to develop their mental, physical, social
and emotional qualities[2].
It is one of the vital needs of every individual and society which should
spread as a movement[3].
Education begins immediately after the child is born and continues till his
breath in some way[4].
2) Purpose
of education: - The chief purpose of education is preparing the present for
the future. The aims and objectives of
education itself in any society are influenced by various factors like the
history of the society, social patterns, economic and political systems. It is
true in India, due to changes in its socio-political fabric; the educational
scenario has undergone modifications in curriculum[5].
3) Ancient education system
F.W.Thomas remarks, Education
is no exotic[6] in
India. There is no country where the love of learning had so early an origin,
lasting, powerful and influence. But the educational system was not a universal
one, narrow, partisan and discriminatory[7].
(a)
Gurukula system:- During vedic period Gurugula system of
education was followed[8],
there existed a clear bond of academic relationship between the provider of
knowledge (the Guru) and the seeker of Knowledge (the Shishya) even though
institutionalization of any formal kind was yet to be established at that time[9].
Education was given to all, no caste and sex difference exist. Girls were
educated at home and they taught music and dancing[10],
allowed to learn Vedas and Upanayana, and later gradually lost their right to
learn[11], education was prohibited to physically
and mentally challenged. Every student serves his teacher by doing duties and
they obeyed the guru fully. Students memorized the lessons presented orally by
the teacher, the second lesson was taught only when the first had been
memorized. Meditation, pronunciation of words and discussion took place in
gurukula[12]. The
duty of the teacher was to take care and give medical treatment[13].
The curriculum was the guru’s ways of life, actual instruction and practice
were yoked together. The learner –motivation for skill acquirement was
propellant in the Guru-shishya system[14].
(b)
Religious system:-During the middle ages, education in India
was essentially religious in its orientation.
Indian caste system restricted formal education to the men from dominant
castes. The Hindu system of education considered three stages in the learning
process. (i) Sravana, one hears the
vedic texts read and explained by a teacher. (ii)Manana, is reflection of what is heard. (iii) Nididhyasana, continuous meditation leading to an intuitive
realization. Later this system developed into two types of education-
elementary and higher learning. The Tol
was the school of higher learning, Sanskrit was their medium of instruction and
it was religious in character[15],
bratas for women education[16]
and pathasasla for elementary
education. Buddhists continued with the same two types of education, but it is
open to all. Muslims had elementary schools (the
maqtabas), commonly attached to the mosque, which taught students to read
especially the Koran and to write. The centers of higher learning (the madrassahs) prepared a selective
group of men for professions, like priesthood, judiciary and medicine[17].
Farsi[18]
schools – impart training in Farsi language and literature[19].
It was mostly the higher and middle class who are few profited from the
education[20]. They
were generally one teacher, hardly controlled by state and no centralize system
exist. The teachers played a pivotal role, followed certain established
traditions and norms of education which differed from place to place. Modes of
financing these institutions were different. The tols and madrasahs were
fully supported by land endowments, while pathshalas
depend solely on fees and occasional gifts from villagers. The pathshala became wide spread, covering
all class of local people[21].
(c) Institutionalized
education system:- During the transformation from the gurukula to
religious society, a gradual institutionalization of the system of education
has emerged as evidenced by Nalanda, Takshila[22],
Ujjain, Vallabhi in Kathiwad, Nadia in Begal, Kanchi in Tamil Nadu, and
Nagarjunakonda in AP attracted scholars from all over India and abroad. Arts,
humanities, sciences and Technology flourished at these universities. The
contributions of eminent scholars like Aryabatta, Varamihira, Bhasa, Carvaka,
Nagarjuna, Kautilya and others in the fields of Mathematics, Astronomy,
Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and state craft are universally recognized and
respected[23].
4) Education
in modern India
Indian universities and modern
higher education owe their origin to the British Raj[24].
After the arrival of the British in India, sweeping changes in the sphere of
education have taken place[25].
They left the legacy of English medium institutions to our nation. Fee-levying
English medium schools sprang up everywhere. The education system in our
country virtually deteriorated and collapsed, owing to the uncontrolled growth
of these schools[26]. The
Guru-shishya system got slowly diluted. Emphasis and importance was bestowed
upon certification rather than acquiring skills, there by paving way for a kind
of commercialism to creep into the system of education[27].
We are continuing the same structure of higher education that we inherited from
British[28].
These schools are under the constant “Tyranny of text books”. The system is text book oriented. Pupils are
taught to memorize and vomit at the time of examination, and these schools can
be called as “Parrot schools”[29].
We have the most rigid education system in the world that is the separation of
academic and vocational subjects which is responsible for poor progress in
vocationalism[30].
(a)
Categories of education: - The education system is divided into many
divisions namely, Pre-primary (3-5years), Primary education (5-10years),
secondary (10-15), higher secondary (15-17), and higher education (degree
courses, P.G courses, M.Phil, Ph.D etc.). Universities are the centres for
higher education, which includes engineering, medical, agricultural etc[31].
(b) Problems
of modern education: - Education has become a marketable
commodity. The entry of private enterprise in education will continue to
increase and it cannot be prevented. Now the government has started regulating
fees and admission procedures in institutions. It results in wastage of time,
and the complicated procedures stipulated by the governments make a delay in
completing the admission formalities. Students have purchased their seats and
they have no respect to teachers or management which leads to indiscipline in
campus. The university system gets politicized when the executive and the
judiciary become subservient to a party[32].
Those who have acquired “free” government seats are facing ever higher demands
of donations which tend to drive their families into debts and the successful
candidates move into corrupt practices in their later professions in order to
settle those debts.
The examination system favors
memorizing rather than critical inquiry, practical development and application
skills. As a result school leavers are satisfied to move into white collar jobs
however dull the work may be where as the dropouts, considered as failures move
into manual labor jobs. The top- performers are recruited even before they
leave the colleges, by companies which expose them to new sorts of brain
washing which isolate them from the social background from which they
originate. They are not only receiving training for particular skills, but are
temporary transplanted into the luxury “life world” of five star hotels in
order to turn them into loyal servants/consumers/ defenders of the new order of
the rich without asking any more questions[33].
(c) Reformation
in modern education system: - In a democratic country the educational
system should be free, free from government control. But monitored, evaluated
and supported by the public. A system whose individual institutions are
accredited by the teaching community which is flexible and student oriented.
The teachers will teach what the student wishes to learn, apart from what
stipulated as a minimum requirement by state. The students will be guided in
choosing the subjects of study by their parents and teachers. A student
oriented educational programme would naturally be a credit based system. Financial
support and management would be evolved by the public in which state would
provide funds depending upon the requirements[34].
(i) Admission:
- The
teacher would decide who is to be admitted to his class and when to close the
admission to his course. The teaching will be based upon the capacity of the students;
it will be imparted through a method that is best suited to the students in the
class. The evaluation by the teacher will be continuous, and student will have
the option to declare when he is ready to take the final test. In which student
may take as many credits as he likes and may study at his own pace and complete
his course[35].
(ii) Curriculum: - The
curriculum must necessarily include apart from the learning of the state
language, the elements of Mathematics, ethics, the duties and rights of
citizens, and other essential details for pursuing a useful life. Apart from
curriculum the teachers in consultation with the parents can prepare
curriculum. The syllabus has to be the responsibility of the district
educational committees which should be constituted with the members of the
public of the village, union or the districts as the case may be and
representative members of the teaching community of the relevant region[36].
Teaching of our own literature and teaching through the state language.
(iii)
Law: - The constitution of India acknowledges education as right in its
Directive principles. It also contains several provisions with regard to the
poor and the minorities. In practice this right has been denied to many most so
to women and members of scheduled castes and tribes. The struggle for better
education is bring the directive principle of the constitution into practice by
making formal education accessible for all. Freedom to learn and freedom to
teach should prevail in order to sustain democracy.
(d) Alternative education: - Instead
of spending all energies on getting a limited number of marginalized people
admitted into the present exclusive system. An educational system should be develop
based on human potential of children, not to make them fit for competition, but
to equip them with values and skills of co-operation and mutual care as the
basis for survival. Education is diverse to
cultural and natural environment rather than to text books. Apart from such alternative
education there is a wave of training in all sorts of fields[37].
Conclusion
Education in India is old which
was altered by the societal, cultural, and religious values resulted in a form
of institution. Arrival of British again brought change in education and new
system of education based on text books emerged. That mode still exists which
has lot of flaws in which educationalists and reformers are gazing for an
alternative system. The contemporary education system is based on competition.
Education should be based on diversity of gifts one possesses and make students
mutually enriching by developing cooperation instead of competition. The
education process would further as regard on the development of life skills
which will provide a means of livelihood. Part of this would be an
environmental awareness of the need to maintain the physical surroundings and
to live in a sustainable way.
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Ideals and reality, Madras: CLS, 1995
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(ed), Moses.P. Education in free India, New Delhi: NCCI/ISPCK, 1998.
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[2]
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[5] Nirmala Jeyaraj…114.
[6] Originating in foreign counttry
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[8] K.Shiny…12.
[9]Nirmala Jeyaraj…114.
[10] K.Shiny…12.
[11] Moses.P.Manohar…24
[12] K.Shiny…13
[13] K.Shiny…12.
[14] Nirmala Jeyaraj…114.
[15] Moses.P.Manohar…25
[16] Nigel Crook (ed), The transmission of knowledge in South Asia(New
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[17] Moses.P.Manohar…25
[18] Court language during Mugal rule
[19] Nigel…98.
[20] Moses.P.Manohar…25
[21] Nigel…98.
[22] Nirmala Jeyaraj…114.
[23] M.Abel, Ideals and reality,
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[26] Moses.P.Manohar…17
[27] Nirmala Jeyaraj…114.
[28] Nirmala Jeyaraj…8.
[29]Moses.P.Manohar…17
[30] Nirmala Jeyaraj…11.
[31] K.Shiny…114.
[32] Nirmala Jeyaraj…12.
[33] Gabriele Dietrich and Bas
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[34] Nirmala Jeyaraj…78.
[35] Nirmala Jeyaraj…80
[36] Nirmala Jeyaraj…89.
[37] Gabriele…250-253.
