ROLES, GOALS AND VALUES OF EDUCATION
1.1 This thoughful Chapter dwells on the basic objectives of education and also explores basic issues like the value and cultural dimensions of education. While stating that the NPERC was in basic agreement with the 1986 Policy perspective and thrust the Chapter elaborating on certain key result areas, which according to the Committee have not received adequate ground level priority. Redesign of curriculum and methodologies and a machinery for effective implementation are mentioned as illustrations of such key result areas which need priority.
1.2 The chapter begins by referring to Gandhiji's perception of the goal of education as being the establishment of a nonviolent and non- exploiting social and economic order. It is opined, rightly so, that Gandhiji's perception is extremely relevant, even more so now, and that the purpose of education in a modern democratic society should be attainment of the goal set out by Gandhiji in the long run.
1.3 The chapter does attempt to present a process defintion of education and while doing so sets forth the time-honoured perception of education as a life-long process, that goes beyond the transaction in the school. The life-long process should help the learner to be and to become, and to acquire the discernment to unlearn when the situation demands and not to be a prisoner of outmoded dogmas and shibboleths. Seen in this perceptive the schools as well as the higher institutions
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of learning only Provide the "beginning education" - a right perspective which recalls to mind the old saying that education Is what remains when one forgets what all one learns at school.The beginning education provides the foundation knowledge - a mix of manual and cognitive skills, of attitudes and values - which can help the learner to begin a life-long exploration of the self, of the community and of the world at large. Education Is a process of empowerment - power to explore - and of liberation - freedom from dogma, superstition and prejudice. From this perspective education can also emerge as an instrument of social change, of promoting the right values that should guide citizens in a modern, secular democracy.
1.4 The chapter makes a strong plea for emphasising in the content and process of education the value and cultural dimensions of education. Education must find a part of the solution to the problems facing the body politic and should foster national goals such as national unity and secularism, scientific temper and modernisation, work culture and work ethics. The acculturing role of education should be given importance as acculturation is basic and essential to education.
1.5 Four specific goals and roles of education are specifically delineated
-provide a sound knowledge base on which one can build later on
-provide opportunities to acquire skills of a diverse nature.
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-provide a climate for nurture of values so as to develop character, conviction and commitment as well as the ability to understand the context and meaning for actions and decisions
-Interventionist roles and catalytic roles of education for promoting national cohesion and unity.
1.6 All these goals are in a sense eternal verities and have informed the educational philosophy of eminent thnkers of India.They also inform the policy perspective of NPE 1986.Thus para 2.2 of NPE refers to the acculturing role of education in refining sensitivities and perceptions that contribute to national cohesion, a scientific temper and independence of mind and spirit. Para 4.10 of NPE states:
"Our ancient scriptures define education as that which literates - i.e. provides the instruments for liberation from ignorance and oppression. In the modern world, it would naturally include the ability to read and write, since that is the main instrument of learning. Hence the crucial importance of adult education, including , adult literacy."
Paras 8.5 and 8.6 relating to value education state:
"In our, culturally plural society, education should foster universal and eternal values, oriented towards the unity and integration of our people. Such value education should help eliminate obscurantism, religious fanaticism, violence, superstition and fatalism.
Apart from this combative role, value education has a profound positive content, based on our heritage,
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national goals universal perceptions. It whould lay primary emphasis on this aspect."
1.7 The chapter poses the critical question, can education which Is just a sub-system of the larger society, Influence the society ? How can change be effected from within ? If only all the roles of education (spelt at para 1.3 above) are given adequate attention and If only the value education role and interventionist role of education are not neglected education can play a catalytic role in transforming the society.
1.8 The chapter stresses the importance of developing more appropriate curriculum, through new designs and planning the transaction methodologies. According to the Committee the curriculum, while full of content, tends to be selective presentation of facts; the selectivity may conceal bias and may foster wrong values. The curriculum, sometimes tends to gloss over reality out of fear that this will arouse communal passion. Thus to illustrate, the unfair treatment of SCs and STs and minorities is often glossed over, similarly, the history taught neglects the contribution of masses and work culture, an urgent national need, is ignored. The biased inclusions and exclusions follow a hidden curriculum fostering stereotypes and myths.
1.9 The perceptions of the Committee are unexceptionable and NPE 1986 inform also. Thus para 8.4 of NPE states that "the growing concern over the erosion of essential values and an increasing cynicism in society has brought to focus the need for readjustments in the curriculum in order to make education
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a forceful tool for the cultivation of social and moral values." 1.10 Curriculum reform Is a continuous process. Following NPE, the NCERT brought out the National Curricular framework. The framework aims at internalisation of values of a composite Indian culture through appropriately formulated curricula for the school system through integration of core components of: (i) India's common cultural heritage; (ii) egalitarianism, democracy and socialism; (iii) equality of the sexes; (iv) protection of the environment; (v) removal of social barriers; and (vi) observance of the small family norms. The framework provided the guidelines on the basis of which the school syllabi/textbooks were revised by the NCERT and by the State agencies.
1.11 Further, the Ministry, with active academic support from the NCFRT, has been engaged in review of school textbooks from the standpoint of national integration to ensure that the school curricula designed in this country, while matching the cultural, geographical and ecological diversity of land, do not contain material or approach which can directly or indirectly perpetuate untouchability, racialism, regionalism, casteism and communalism in the impressionable minds of our school students. School textbooks have been reviewed from the standpoint of national integration in States/UTs where NCERT textbooks have been modified or where textbooks printed by non-NCERT organisations are in use. A Steering Committee at the national level has just been set up to oversee the evaluation of textbooks brought out by the State level agencies
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and private publishers which are being used schools under all types of management.
1.12 This chapter also reiterats the statement made by NPE 1986 to equalise opportunity through provision of education of comparable quality to all and wants effective steps to be taken to implement the NPE formulation.
1.13 The chapter refers to a Conference organised in 1989 by NIEPA, at government Initiative, to discuss the empowerment of Heads of Institutions. It strongly advocates the empowerment of heads of institutions and vesting the heads with functional autonomywithin a clear framework of accountability. It may be mentioned that the confernece was,organised in pursuance to para 10.7 of NPE.
1.14 The chapter also highlights the need to ensure the social accountability of educational institutions, which also figures in para 10.1 of the NPE.
1.15 The chapter also strongly pleads for developing every school into a community school which would mean that school is not only teaching all the children from the community that it serves but is also organically linked with the community and is actively involved with the life and concerns of the community. The committee's perception of the community schools are more elaborately dealt within Section-D of Chapter-4, entitled the common school system; these perceptions were also discussed at the second meeting of the CABE Committee on September 2021, Hyderabad.
1.16 It may be mentioned that the common School System was
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Initially recommended by Kothari Commission In 1966. When the report of the Commission was presented the Item to which Dr. Kothari drew pointed attention was the recommendation regarding the common school. The National Policy on Education, 1968 enjoined the implementation of the common school system as recommended by the Kothari Commission. NPE 1986 announced the intention of the government to achieve a National System of Education which implied that, upto a given level, all students, irrespective of caste, creed, location and sex should have access to education of a comparable quality. NPE also restated the determination of the government to take effective measures in the direction of the common school system as recommended in the 1968 Policy. However, the fact remains that we, are nowhere near a common school system. The NPERC and its Chairman Acharya Ramamurti gave a great deal of importance to the Common School System as it is perceived to be the, first step in securing equality and social justice in education. 1.17 The NPERC conceived of neighbourhood schools in a sense which is different from that commonly construed in a sense different from that of Kothari Commission. In Western countries, and also in Kothari Commission, neighbourhood school, implies that each school should be attended by all the children in the locality. In contrast to neighbourhood schools, in public schools children are taken away from the families anti placed in a different environment. Kothari Commission also considered that the neighbourhood school should be the ultimate goal with the common school emphasised as indispensable for a national educational system, The NPERC,
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however, perceives neighbourhood school to be a school which is closely concerned with the concerns of the community around and serves the community and suggests conversion of all schools Into neighbourhood schools as the first step towards a common school system.