The Rediff Special / E M S Namboodiripad
'What India today needs is secular education'
Every week, E M S Namboodiripad delivers a homily on
the popular television channel Asianet. The Marxist patriarch,
who became the world's first democratically elected Communist head of government in
1959, is a shrewd observer of the Indian polity and we are happy to bring
you his observations from time to time.
People generally say the education sector
in Kerala is in a chaotic
situation. There are serious differences as to how this came about
and how to set it right. Most people believe the biggest
problem affecting education in Kerala is politics and they feel
that if elections are banned in schools and colleges everything
will be alright. This ultimately means that students should
not form their organisations and they should not join any political
parties and what they should do is merely study.
I do not subscribe
to this view, because it amounts to depriving the students of
their fundamental and democratic rights. I do agree that there
are several undesirable things in the elections. Instead of banning
politics everybody should sit together and try to solve these
problems. A consensus for this is inevitable.
There are several mistaken notions about the objective of
education. One such is the belief that each state of education
is a preparation for the next stage. I cannot agree that one stage
is a stepping stone to the next stage. I rather feel that each
stage should be complete in itself so that if one drops out at
that stage he can sustain himself in the society finding some
gainful employment. I therefore feel that in each stage the students
should be given a general education and training for job which
should be complete in themselves.
Two reports have recently some
out in Kerala on the pattern of education we should follow. These
reports are by the Students Federation of India in the form
of an 'alternate document' and the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad-sponsored
education commission headed by Ashok Mittra. Both the reports
are against the present approach to the education system and they
give some useful suggestions.
Most people believe that education means learning English and other
languages. They tend to forget that language is only a medium
of education. Study of language is entirely different. The two
reports on education dwells in length on this issue and stress
the need for making Malayalam the medium of instruction in all
stages. This does not mean one should not learn English. English
can be learnt from class V or VII.
We should give due importance
to our mother tongue. In most countries the medium of instruction
is their own mother tongue. In India even the medium in the pre-primary
section is English. This I feel is a hangover of colonialism.
It was alright as long as the Britishers ruled us. But it is unfortunate
to continue the same system even after 50 years of Independence.
Another malady of today's education system is the complete dominance
of the private sector. Although the Constitution lays the responsibility
of education on the government, the government seems to have surrendered
its role to the private sector.
The government has lost its right to decide what is to be taught
and how to be taught, what fees should be collected from the students
and what salary be given to the teachers. The private sector should
function under the controls of the government. Unfortunately this
has not been happening.
In the name of liberalisation the government
has given full liberty to the private sector.
The private sector
has been mushrooming in Kerala in the past one decade. The United
Democratic Front government in Kerala had sanctioned schools and
colleges strictly on the lines of caste and religion.
What India
today needs is secular education. The education system should
aim at carving out good citizens, giving them good training in
culture, job and education.
Kind courtesy: Asianet
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