LITERATURE- LIGHT AND DELIGHT. 57. COMPENSATORY/COMPLEMENTARY EDUCATION.

LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT

57. COMPENSATORY /COMPLEMENTARY  EDUCATION

Our education system is exam-oriented, and job-linked. Ironically, however, no one relies on the results of the examination conducted by the colleges and universities; these are just taken as the starting points in a system of elimination, and each institution of 'further leaning' or research or recruitment devises and administers its own system of selection and elimination. Nor does the system render most graduates  employable.

Some important changes have taken place in the system, to dilute its effectiveness in the last 40 years or so.

•  structured instruction has replaced 'education' by effort.
• rote learning has replaced understanding.
• heavy syllabus has added to quality, and undermined quality.
• semester system emphasises short-term memory, and quick forgetfulness.
• proper evaluation is given up, and almost every one is made to qualify.
• originality is discouraged; questioning the teacher is considered disrespectful and attracts punishment.
• additional or supplementary reading is not encouraged; one is not allowed to write anything which differs from what is given in the text-book. Surprisingly, this prevails even in the post-graduate levels.
• language skills are not developed.
• that students can be skilled in different areas or subjects, and that all are valuable for life is never given any consideration or scope for expression and development.
• humanities, languages and arts are discouraged;philosophy and literature are hardly taught in most universities.
• the entire system of school, college and university education is controlled, directed and determined by the govt- not only in essentials like the curriculum and the syllabus, but in such matters as the number of working days, the holidays, etc.
• the whole system is designed as a handmaid of the economic interests, directly and indirectly. These interests are ultimately controlled by the military ambitions of the leading world powers, of whom the World Bank, IMF and WTO are the instruments. 

Some curious results follow. 

• Every state officially gives preference to its own language as medium of instruction. Yet every section of society actually prefers English medium, resulting in a two tiered structure - one heavily subsidised local medium, which no one takes, the other highly expensive English medium which every one likes. Recently the Supreme Court had to intervene to say that the govt cannot dictate the medium of instruction.
• In spite of the official emphasis on the local language, local language skills are also dwindling, not only among the student population, but in society as a whole. Almost no Indian language is good enough as a vehicle of modern thought, in any academic subject. Consequently, local language newspapers and periodicals do not act as disseminators of serious academic thought. They only carry the elements of entertainment (read: cinema) and politics at an elementary level.
• Almost every state language clamours for the 'classical' status. But the state of those languages which have got it is pitiable.Most educated Indians do not know much of their own classical literature. Certainly the Tamil that is spoken and written today is as far different from the classical Tamil in form, content and context, as the modern English is from its Elizabethan or medieval avatar. But English has grown organically, while all Indian languages have stagnated, and become irrelevant and unfit for academic purposes.

I have always felt that this is a disguised spiritual crisis for all ancient civilisations. India is today the only living ancient civilisation- it is not a mere country. But its springs of life are fast drying. The modern civilisation is world-wide, characterised by one kind of thinking- materialism; one kind of economics- exploitative, of both environment and of fellow-man, based on unrestrained consumption; one kind of political arrangement- the rise of the mob psychology, and elimination of all ideas of excellence; one language- that of expediency; one over-all characteristic- inordinacy or unprincipled, uncontrolled growth, with the total absence of any self- limiting or self-restraining principle or mechanism. It can have only one result: global disaster, as a finite environment cannot support unlimited growth for long.

In the language of religion, this is the mark of the Kali Age. Modern science, and the current system of education worldwide are carriers and promoters of the crisis. India has the intellectual resources to withstand and conquer the crisis, but it requires a different kind of education. For the present, it has to to be supplementary or complementary to the mainstream; in the long run, it has to supplant it. But I am under no illusion that this can be done. 

Every other country has fallen before the onslaught of the destructive modern civilisation- including China. India alone is still left of the 'ancient regime'. How long more, no one can say. Our elders used to say 'as long as the Ganga flows'. But we now know that even the days of Ganga are numbered!

We believe that we have been saved by Avatars in the past. We may be saved again, in spite of ourselves. Who can tell?

Note.

Independence of most nations is notional, as they are subject to international control in most matters. One is not even free to refuse to import today!

We can certainly 'make things in India'. But we will not be able to handle the resulting environmental disaster. Making things in India will undo India.

Many people widely believe in the following quotation, attributed to Arnold Toynbee, the eminent British historian:

It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self-destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in history, the only way of salvation of mankind is the Indian way.

I do not rely on this quotation, as I have not been able to check the source. Even if correct, it would be naive to believe it today. India is certainly more Western today than it was at Independence. The distinct Indianness as a way of life has largely disappeared.  There is no more any distinct 'Indian way'  to speak of.
In spite of all  his political blunders, Mahatma Gandhi diagnosed our civilisational ills correctly in his Hind Swaraj, and also prescribed the correct solution, which is overwhelmingly economic at base. But this was rejected totally by his anointed political heir, Jawaharlal Nehru, and it is no where near recovery now. Though it has found favour in thoughtful circles all over the world, it is still a fringe movement, a rebel idea that is rejected by the mainstream.

I have no doubt that it is not only India but the whole world that is in the grip of Kali now. I would rather give the following quote of Arnold Toynbee:

Of the twenty two civilizations that have appeared in history, nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is in now. (From: Brainy Quote) 

 It is now for us to say how distant we are from that state!