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Eternal India
encyclopedia
EDUCATION
The National Council of Educational Research and Training
(NCERT) was set up in 1961 to assist and advise the Ministry of
Education in implementing policies and programmes in the field of
education. Among the programmes which NCERT has taken up is
revision and evaluation of the secondary level syllabus and text
books from the standpoint of national integration. It also organises,
every five years, national surveys of teacher education at secondary
and elementary levels.
Adult education has been accorded a very high priority in the
Eighth Plan (1992-97). It is expected that by the end of the Plan
period 345 districts or 75% of the districts in the country would be
covered by the total literacy campaigns and it is hoped that with the
combined efforts of other programmes of adult education and
universalisation of elementary education, the overall literacy rate
would reach 70%, a level considered crucial for achieving total
literacy in the subsequent 2-3 years.
The Regional Colleges of Education under NCERT at Ajmer,
Bhubaneswar, Bhopal and Mysore organise pre-service and in-
INDIANISATION
SWAMIDAYANANDA
The edifice of the indigenous system of education radiating
excellence in philosophy, religion and spiritualism, as well as in non-
religious mundane subjects like medicine, archery, economics, mathe-
matics and astronomy had been shaken by the advent of the Islamic
rule. It was further given almost a death-blow by the English-
dominated Western system of education built on the basis of
Macaulay’s Minute on Education of 1835. Yet the flames of the basic
spiritual values of India have been kept alive throughout the course of
history. A number of luminaries have attempted to Indianise the
Western system keeping the spiritual aspect at the core.
The earliest was Swami Dayananda, bom in 1824 in Gujarat. A
number of schools established according to his scheme of education
are now thriving as Dayananda Anglo-Vedic (DAV) Schools through
the length and breadth of India. Those at Lahore established in 1886
and at Kangri near Hardwar established in 1902 are the earliest.
In his scheme, he laid stress on the parents’ role, religious and
moral training, chastity and celibacy, personal hygiene, study of
Vedas,
Shastras and Upanishads and fatherly relation of the teacher
towards the taught. He preferred the mother tongue as a more effec-
tive medium of learning than a foreign language. His scheme of
studies also included arithmetic, algebra, geometry, geology and as-
tronomy. He also advocated practical training in sciences. He was
against co-education of youths and his preference was for residential
schools away from the cities.
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
Next in line comes Swami Vivekananda (his original name is
Narendra Nath Datta) born in a Kshatriya family in Calcutta in 1863.
He was an earnest student of philosophy and poetry. Remarks of his
Principal Mr. Hastie are noteworthy : “Narendranath is really a gen-
ius. I have travelled far and wide but I have never yet come across a
lad of his talents and possibilities, even in German Universities amongst
Philosophical students. He is bound to make his mark in life.”
service courses as well as summer school-cum-correspondence
courses.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has
schools affiliated to it from all parts of the country. These schools
provide a uniform kind of education cutting across state borders
and linguistic areas, thus promoting national integration.
Central Schools or Kendriya Vidyalayas provide uniform
education for children of transferable Central Government and
Defence personnel. There are 744 Central schools providing
education to 550,000 students.
SELECTED REFERENCES
D.M. Bose (Chief Editor),
A Concise History of Science in India,
New
Delhi 1971.
Challenge of Education,
New Delhi 1985.
Natioal Policy on Education,
New Delhi 1986.
Annual Report
1992-93, Ministry of Human Resource Development,
New Delhi 1993.
Moonis Raza (Ed)
Higher Education in India,
1991.
OF EDUCATION
It was on Hastie’s advice that Narendra met Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa, which incident began a new chapter in the history of
Hinduism. He urged the Indian youth to banish the feeling of inferior-
ity. He said : “Make your nerves strong. What we want is muscles of
iron and nerves of steel. We have wept long enough. No more
weeping, but stand on your feet and be men. It is man-making
religion that we want. It is man-making education all-round that we
want”. His stirring call, “Up, India, and conquer the world with your
spirituality” is the essence of his dream. According to him, “Educa-
tion is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.” He
believed that each one must teach himself. The duty of the teacher is
“to afford opportunities and to remove obstacles.” He said, ”A plant
grows. Do you make the plant grow? Your duty is to put a hedge
around it and see that no animal eats up the plant and there your duty
ends. The plant grows by itself.” Concentration was the best method
by which to attain knowledge. As regards the teacher he says : “The
only teacher is he who can immediately come down to the level of the
student, and transfer his soul to the student’s soul and see through the
student’s eyes and hear through his ears and understand through his
mind.”
•
He recommended training in agriculture and industry to solve
the practical problem of hunger in the country. Exhorting the edu-
cated to help the poor and the hungry he thundered, “So long as the
millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor, who,
having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to
them.” He desired that education in the country should be wholly
national in spirit. It is this inspiration that motivated the starting of
Ramakrishna Mission Schools which are well-known for their moral
fervour.
ANNIE BESANT
Born in 1847, Annie Besant, an Irish lady, was the pupil of
Madame Btevatsky, one of the founders of the Theosophical Move-
ment. Before she joined the movement, she had been a great lover of
Hinduism and, being a believer in reincarnation, she claimed she was