words per minute
26
Manish_Bisht
00:00
Speed
Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi's remark is stuffed with much meaning when he said that the British education system meant to create a 'servant class' that would serve their cause. Statements similar in meaning have been made by several thinkers as well while discussing the demerits of the education system that India borrowed from the British. With the work in progress on India's New Education Policy (NEP), this thought is bound to find increasing expression time and again when education is discussed. For, when India prepares to face the challenges of future, thought-process must get concentrated on not just the form but also the content of education. That this was being done was realised once again as the Prime Minister addressed a summit on the implementation of the New Education Policy. He dwelled in detail on the approach the country must adopt to changing education's form and content. The observation that the British meant to create a 'servant class' for themselves can be tested practically when the larger society pushes its children to a life of somehow securing employment for themselves. The entire educational process, too, appears to be focused on the same goal. That has affected the social discourse so much so that entrepreneurship appears to have started getting lesser importance at all levels of the society. The Prime Minister’s effort appears to be headed for promotion of entrepreneurial spirit among young generations. That is the reason why Mr. Narendra Modi often talks of the start-up ecosystem and how India is producing unicorns—startups that achieve a turn-over of Rs. 7,500 crore -at a rate faster than that of many other countries. He invites young people to think independently so that they come up with new ideas that would help India prosper more meaningfully. His grievance - which is also the grievance of the whole nation - is that the British-oriented education system did not allow independent thinking and an entrepreneurial spirit. He now wants the NEP to create generations of young Indians with complete independence of thought and freedom of action of their own choice. Some fifty years ago, India was swept by a wave of job-oriented education. No matter the thrust on that idea at that time, unemployment did not get reduced even a bit, and the kids coming out of schools and colleges continued to remain unemployable-which is the story even today. This is because the education handed down to students almost at all levels was never oriented to learning. All the studies the kids did seemed to prepare them for garnering a job somehow. But even that goal remained elusive simply because the content of education was diffident and almost apologetic. Such a system cannot help the youngsters acquire a truly good personality that would ensure a successful life in any field. Several generations of Indian youth were wasted due an education policy that continued with the British-orientation in the content of education. The NEP seeks to change all that. It is in this context that we must bring up the issue of classicism in education. Employment orientation is all right as one of the goals of education. that would mean creating independent minds that have the capabilities to make right choices beyond dogma of any kind.