20090412116 | Editorial: Can We Ever Rescue Education? | Editorial

By The Editorial Team, on 12-04-2009 10:48

Favoured : None

The colonization of India led to intrusion of western institution in the society, which furthered the creation of an intellectual ambience wherein the policy makers considered westernization of the Indian society as a legitimate goal. The intellectual-structural arrangement under the colonial education system was to facilitate the project to colonize Indian minds. A demarcation of academic vs. un-academic discourse was constructed; ‘non-modern’ was un-academic and ‘modern’ was academic thereby initiating a process of rejection of the knowledge systems which were pre-colonial hence ‘pre-modern’. The leaders of the national movement were never reluctant in their opposition to the imposition of colonial education system. They also debated and discussed the alternative framework of education that would have replaced the colonial imposition on gaining independence. Unfortunately, the end of colonial rule did not end the system but Marxism along with a kind of ‘secularist discourse’ further supplemented it. The debate continues even today between those attempting to rescue the education from the clutches of Macaulay-Marxist paradigm and a handful of pseudo intellectuals seeking to perpetuate it. The goal now is to secure the establishment of Indo-centric system of education.

Most recently we have been witness to many more retrogressive measures taken at the behest of Communist parties supporting the government at the centre. While the controversy over NCERT textbooks continues, core civilizational values, gods, goddesses and great leaders are insulted and despised, and trends of minorityism are reappearing in the education sector. Education now stands shamefully politicized. Sex education is being introduced with obscene and vulgar contents, foreign universities and private enterprises under GATT’s (GATT defines education as a marketable commodity) have been allowed in an unrestrained manner, leaving education at the mercy of market forces. The vision of a system of education that would have created a real independent India liberating the minds from the shackles of the colonialism remains shattered. Sometime it is argued that Macaulay-Marxist paradigm has no alternative and Indian education could not have been systematized without the colonial intervention. The proponents of such argument dismiss the idea of an Indo-centric education and regale in aping the west. They even dub the Indian civilizational knowledge system as obscurantist and retrogressive. Such a mindset is a product of Macaulayian vision of creating blockheaded Indians who can neither look back to their ancient roots for inspiration nor have a blueprint for a strong and vibrant future. Education forms one of the core components of the programme of national reconstruction. The question keeps haunting – Can we ever rescue our education? Unless emphasis is given on Indo-centric education which may be related to civilizational whole, the vision of realizing a universal, non-commercialized, easily accessible and nationalist education system would remain a distant dream.