As India marches ahead in its educational enterprise, amidst a complex web of ever-increasing challenges, the thoughts and ideas of this illustrious educationist-philosopher should indeed enlighten the country’s path
Children love to celebrate Teacher’s Day. It is a day that provides them an opportunity to realise the significant role of their teachers in shaping and molding their personalities. A teacher transforms a lay individual into a ‘personality’. Every year, on September 5, great tributes are paid to teachers; quotations from scriptures included in ample measure; and practically in every school and academic gathering, one of India’s most illustrious teachers, S Radhakrishnan, is remembered with a deep sense of reverence and gratitude for his lasting scholarly contributions.
As India marches ahead in its educational enterprise, in a complex web of ever-increasing challenges, in a globalised world that that stands mesmerised by the over-arching intense shadow of materialistic pursuits over the eternal spiritual quest, thoughts and ideas of this illustrious philosopher could indeed enlighten the path. These could also provide an opportunity to effect course corrections.
What is the meaning of education if it does not acculturateIJ How relevant is the process of teaching and learning that has the sole objective of higher grades in Board examinationsIJ Can education and teachers remain oblivious to the erosion of values all aroundIJ Can a system of education that stands divided into two distinct categories, for haves and have nots, be allowed to widen inequalities among the people who have been assured of equality of opportunity by the Constitution of IndiaIJ
S Radhakrishnan answers: “Equality of opportunity is the basic principle of democracy and that can be realised only if we have faith in the dignity of human soul.” He further guides on the theme: “We are demanding a more equitable social order. We can achieve it only if we plan our education properly and strive to eliminate the sources of inequities and injustices. Education is the means for the reconstitution of the society. If we are to prepare ourselves for a democratic order, our education must have in view the development of each and every individual as a producer, as citizen, as a human being. He must have opportunity to develop to the utmost his innate ability and genius, physical, mental and spiritual.”
And towards this goal, the policymakers have a responsibility to assimilate and internalise the essence, and then, put it in the policy in terms that can be translated in to pragmatic implementation strategies. Our failures are mostly at the stage of implementation that suffers over-bureaucratisation and short-sightedness. We enacted the Right to Education Act but forgot, in its implementation, the golden words of this great teacher: “Education is a universal right and not a class privilege”.
S Radhakrishnan commanded universal respect and adulation for his unparalleled insights in comparative philosophies, cultures and religions. He saw great similarities between ancient India and Greece in that the aim of education is to train “to apprehend the eternal values, to appreciate the supreme human virtues and the simple decencies of life”. In the contemporary context, he expressed in strikingly touching terms on what should be happening in education: “We must develop the freshness of feeling for nature, the sensitiveness of soul to human need. We must foster the freedom of the mind, the humanity of the heart, the integrity of the individual. Even from the nurseries, we must train human beings by unconscious influence and conscious effort to love truth, beauty and goodness”.
Most teachers appear disinterested when reminded that they continue to remain role models and that their influence is everlasting. “No, Sir, we are not the role models; those come from Bollywood and the Indian Premier league” — is a response that one repeatedly receives from teachers in their gatherings. It only indicates that more effort and better insight need to be put in the process of teacher preparation, an area that has lapsed in to shockingly low levels.
In the field of education, criticism prevails all-around. Meet any functionary in the education system, and he will criticise all others. Outside the system, one will hardly find anyone who has great appreciation for the system in comprehensive terms. This trend must change.
The first is that the nation must trust its teachers. It comes only after this trust becomes universal, teachers will certainly reflect and find that they still remain the agents of social change, and that they can change the face of the future.
S Radhakrishnan had put things in perspective. “Ethical sublimity is the mark of the magnanimous man; ethical depravity is the mark of the low man. All other distinctions are irrelevant”, he says. He elaborates, “Wisdom requires us to be compassionate, to be forgiving, to forebear judgment. Unfortunately we are more critical of others than of ourselves. We preach from platforms tolerance and understanding but do not manifest these qualities in our daily lives, in our dealings with others”.
S Radhakrishnan was highly critical of the caste system which gave people the notion that some human beings are not to be treated as equals. Our teachers must ensure that such practices are erased from the minds of every child.
The Indian tradition of knowledge, quest, and pursuit receives global appreciation for its vitality and universality. S Radhakrishnan represents its continuity. Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore are all part of it. Unfortunately, the young of today and their teachers are not familiar with the great wisdom that evolved in ancient India. It is the study of those traditions, thoughts and philosophies that had ignited these luminaries.