SECTION B:
THEMATIC ANALYSIS
 

I. Assessment Goals and Objective of Education

Just there can be no one single answer to the extent and limit of education, there can also be no single to the limit of goals of education. In a virbrant democracy and a pluratistic society like ours, there is no limit to the goals and objective that education should be investted with. All lofty aspirations of life could easily be desired to be channelised into actualities through education. Thus, neither there could be any limit on the number nor the variety of goals and objectives desired to underlie education. This impression becomes irresistible if one peruses through the columns of the press on education, in general, and the views relating to its goals and objectives, in particular.

There is an immense variety of goals and objectives of education from the press-a variety that stems from individuals perceptions both in relation, or without much relation to the nationally to stated goals and objectives. This. is essentially became, education is viewed as the handmaid of all idealism desired to become true. Since goals and objectives of education stem from these premises, it is natural that a look at the present education system, viewed from such angles, is bound to be, and indeed it has turned out to be, disappointing. Inevitably, therefore, the observers plea to re-invest education with the goals and objectives proceeds, on the. basis of a critical book at the existing education. The first aspect of this section surveys the assessment of the education, system, viewed from the point of view of inadequacies in relation to goals and objectives. The second aspect would relate to the, goals and objectives desired to underlie education.

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Perceptions of goals and objectives guide the assessment of education. Therefore, for a correct perception of the assessment, one must see it in relation to the goals and objectives of education vis-a-vis which such an assessment is made. To take the most recent example, the Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi has said, that education should seek "to build character, foster values, strengthen rationalism and to prepare the country for the fast changes taking place in the outside world". One could also take a more comprehensive view of what education, should help to achieve, as has been expressed by one. observer in the Hindustan Times:

The education policy for tomorrow must have four basic contents - ethical, social, academic and vocational. At the ethical level, a student must develop a passionate commitment to Truth, Beauty and Goodness... At the social level, to achieve national integration he must learn to rise above the prejudices of caste, creed, community, wealth and previlege. To be a useful member of the society he must learn to reconcile his personal interests with the larger national interests. At the acadamic level, instead of acquiring knowledge merely be memorising, he should develop a life- lone, thirst for knowledge - to learn, to think, to analyse and to conclude. Above all there must be an abiding commitment to reason and rationality. Vocationally he must learn to earn. It is not mere money but better management and execution of educational policy that can give true content and meaning to education.

Judged against such objectis, in the estimation of the people, our education system has been a miserable failure. One could cite numerous observations about education's failure. It would suffice to note (i) the failure of Indian education system in relation to the nationally accepted goals; (ii) failure's manifest inspecific stages like schools and colleges; (iii) its failure to permit individuals to develop their natural aptitudes and enable them

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to choose a profession of their choice; and (iv) its failure in relation to the developmental needs of the country. The National Policy on Education, 1968, sought to relate education:

"to the lie, needs and aspiration of the People and thereby to make it a powerful instrument of social, economic and cultural transformation necessary for the realisation of our national goals"

However, in respect how much of these goals has been achieved The Tribune has lent its columns to an observer to state:

But after two decades the result remains as far from the national goals as ever. There is not even job orientation of any kind.

As regards the distortions that have crept in and affecting specific stages of education, the school stage for instance, another observer grieves;

Our marks-oriented school education is becoming more competitive day by day. Parents in their craze to make their wards meet the challenge of competition cause mental torture of their own children - some knowingly but helplessly other unintentionally.

Education's failure to be the medium of individuals' development to enable then to choose a professional career of their choice makes a Calcutta observer to feel:

The most glaring defect of our present multi-teired system of education is that it does not allow students at any stage to follow the natural bent of their, mind or to plan for their future. There are many instances of first class post- graduates in natural sciences or in English literature working as bank officers or business executives. For the

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general run of students, education, even upto the university stage, is just aimless driffing or flirting with books for a few years...

The alround failure of education and specially in relation to the development needs of the country forces the National herald to state:

One must agree with neither pride or prejudice that formal education in India - a product or legacy of colonial administration in India - has become over time more costly, more time consuming and morek remotely connected to the development needs.

A brief over view has been taken of the broad spectrum of the expected but unfulfilled role of education in individual, social and national developmental needs. It would be useful to briefly survey the concerns of the intelligentsia to restore education as a potent instrument of achieving individually, socially and nationally perceived and cherished goalls. Here too, there is an immense variety and for brevity's sake, an illustration in respect of each one set of goals would be sufficient.

As regards the general but what many would hold most comprehensivegoalsk of education, one example seen in the columns of the Free Press Journal, Bombay, would he usefull.

What we need in the new Education Plan is that this system should be based or, ensuring a good future for the children And that they acquire real knowledge. Securing Job should not be the primary object of education. he should get sufficient knowledge so that he should be confident of securing, a job. Emphasis should be given on `moral' aspect and the students should be `Morally sound' after the completion of education and then only they will become

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competent and good citizens for carrying on the government and other administrative work in all the spheres...

The Prime Minister's observations at the Conference of State Education Ministers last year, about the lines along, which education should to be reorganised, could be taken as an example of a pragmatice view of education as veil as the lofty objectives with which it should be fortified. An observer, in the Northern India Patrika a quotes the Prime Minister stressing what the new education policy aim at

... qualitative improvement in the curricula and teaching methods to ensure relevance; and to impart of students workers and artisans the values, knowledge and skill required for emerging developmental tasks.... it should anticipate future problems and find ways of coping with them. It should help realise the nation's basic values of socialism, democracy and non-violence and reach down the people at the lowest level.

Touching upon the more prefound and general goals, the reporter also quotes the Prime Minister as saying.

... education should aim at soothing social. tensions, while at the sametime giving full opportunity to the people of the lowest strata of society to develop their intellect. The education system should not provoke social unrest, and should lead to social stability ... education should help to develop a value system and an intellectual frame work which allowed the country to tackle its problems by developing its own mechanism. Thus the aim of education should be to develop the country's own `mind' and make it aggressive so that solutions to the country's problems could be found.

The new policy perspective seeks to link education to the cultural milieu, promote national cohesion and work ethic, expose

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students to the grandeur of India's freedom struggle and its significance for national integration, acquaint students with India's rich cultural heritage, reorient curricula and text-books to curb parochial and communal interpretations of India's composite culture.

Many an individual's perception of the goals and objectives of education runs almost on parellel lines. One observer writes in Patriot:

The whole philosophy of our education should emphasise the training of independent and sellf-contained individuals who could face the problems, of life and of the society they live in, It is necessary to link-education with real life and productivity through introducing work experience as an integral part of education and vocationalisation education after the higher secondary level.

Closely resembling to this practial objectives, one could also add a dimension of the `limitations of education' as perceived by another observer who writes:

Educators are expected to take the lead in preparing, the students for poductive healthy and socially responsible lives in an environment where resources are typically limited, ideals conflicting and imperatives contradicting. One is often tempted to argue that education may be the key to change; but it sometime appears to be locked on the other side of the door.

By far the most important objective of education is perceived to be the inculcation of values and morals as well as building of character, warped on Indian tradition, culture and ethos. One illustration is taken here as a representative of this near consensus illustrtion from an observer to the Nagpur Times:

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India has ever presented a composite culture where different faiths and equality of opportunity have been the basic notes. Our sages and our poets of the old have all sung the songs of unity and goodness. On these solid foundations it should be possible to build a strong national system of Indian education; a system that should send our young men and women with the supreme thought in their minds that they are Indian first. They should be able to counter all disruptive tendencies and mental animosities and above all material temptations. Such an orientation has been missing so far... If we succeed in building or the individual, society will take care of itself. Character building, therefore, should be the base of all education because character is the greatest builder of human life. As such all proximate aims of education such as the development of knowledge and productive skills should automatically take their direction from this ultimate aim.

In conclusion, one could observe that the goals and objectives of education, as perceived by the intelligentsia and articulated through the press are multidimensional in nature. however, the development orientation, nationally cherished political values, and strengthening toe moral and cultural fibres of the students on the basis of Indian historical traditions are the strongest elements pleaded for inculcation.

II. Content and Curriculum

Education as an instrument of shaping the destiny of a country is an axiom of wordwide acceptance. Experts do not hesitate to point out that education is one element of social framework being restructured in the course of a country's development process. It is also one of the essential keys for controlling the rate and direction of change within the rest of the society. Education reform, therefore, is an important priority. And when it comes to reform of education, invariably, the first aspect that attracts

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public attention is that of content and curriculum which, it is felt, lies at the root of ll reforms in education. Content and curriculum, it isk universally recognised, form the main instruments that help to forge education as a catalyst of development and change. It is natural, therefore, to find the highest degree of emphasis is laid by the press - the medium of public expression - on the reforms required in content and curriculum. In this analysis of press clippings, those related to content and curriculum account for 21.5 percent of total responses.

Starting with the premise that content and curriculum. constitute the heart and core of the educational process, as well as the soul force of education's potential for development and change, perceptive observers proceed to diagnose the state and potential of the present content and curriculum as well as elements in them warranting urgent change. The first thing that is said about the content and curriculum of our education reform is its inadequacy at ail levels and in every crucial respect vis-a-vis the, expectations placed on it.. Such inadequacies are noticed in respect of relevance, in. respect of overloading even the irrelevant content and curriculum, the input- output ratio, measured in terms of capabilities vis-a-vis educational levels; lack of practical bias and job orientation, the rigidity of the present curriculum in and its reliance on formal class room instruction; and its failure to promote the cause of national interest - unity and patriotism.

The very first reform urgently called for is in respect of the load of the educational syllabus. What adds to the public resentment against an already irrelevant curriculum is its overdose. The following observation sums up the popular view in this regard:

The educational syllabus both at the school and the university level is under review by experts. It is hoped that the imbalance in over loading a child with many subjects and books

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at the school level and comparatively loss work when they could do more at the university level would be set right.

In the estimation of popular viw, as it emerges from the press, the second most urgent step needed in content and curriculum is the removal of its irrelevance - irrelevance in relation to the practical skills and vocational abilities expected from education. It is felt that what makes the parents and students feel that the school curriculum has little relevance to their life is the lack of job- orientation. It is not merely the lack of job-orientation that afflicts the present content and curriculum. Its alround inadequacies are manifest in respect of practical skills at any stage. A vivid protrayal of this inadequacy is seen in one of the national dailies, the hindustan Times:

A severe lacuna in our education system is that the students emerging out of schools know practically very little about the world all around them. It is highly distressing that a rural youth, even today would find it. difficult to handle a telephone, book a ticket or even write cut an application form. A majority of our students are unaware of the developments taking place in our country and elsewhere in the world.

The dissatisfaction with content and curriculum on its irrelevance in relation to the felt needs of lie, the practical skills and job needs constitute only one aspect of its inadequate utility. However, its failure to imbibe and reflect those elements deemed most essential from the point of view of national interest, is the most greivous inadequacy. This is sought to be overcome by the incorporation of the core curriculum. Through this core curriculum it is sought to build a national identity and to focus on India's culture, heritage and freedom struggle. In the national policy on education these elements are desired to form the core of the national system of education.

Through the columns of the press, a great deal is also said about the type of skills and the degree of proficiency to be cultivated at each stage. An illustration of such views appearing, in this case, from columns of Northern India Patrika is as follows:

The present structure of school education divided into primary, secondary and higher secondary stages may profitably be combined into one continuous course of study for 14 years. The primary aim of education at this stage should be to help students to acquire liberal ideas, catholicity of mind, knowledgability and intellectual and cultural fitness required to live in a modern society. The last two years of this course may be diversified into streams of arts, science, commerce, technology, etc., but the emphasis ought to be on liberal education so that the sense of values acquired through this education, has a strong bearing on the subsequent professional career of the student.

As if to elaborate this point. another observer states:

Certain aspects of curriculum development need agreat, deal of consideration. First, the general and the liberal course of study should be integrated With work oriented courses so that the students should involve themselves in community services and off campus activities. It is time that we make education more useful to industry and agriculture. What is required is the interviewing of general education with employment motivation. While general education encourages understanding, vocational education helps to prepare individual to work more effectively. This interviewing will lead to a great deal of social stability. General education and special skills should be developed in response to specific and urged needs of both urban and rural areas.