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2.1, POSITION PAPER, NATIONAL FOCUS GROUP, ON, , AIMS OF EDUCATION
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2.1, POSITION PAPER, NATIONAL FOCUS GROUP, ON, , AIMS OF EDUCATION
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ISBN 81-7450-494-X, First Edition, Mach 2006 Chaitra 1928, Reprinted, December 2006 Pausa 1928, PD 5T BS, © National Council of Educational, Research and Training, 2006, , ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, , , No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher., , , , This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of without the publisher’s consent, in any form, of binding or cover other than that in which it is published., , , , The correct price of this publication is the price printed on this page, Any revised, price indicated by a rubber stamp or by a sticker or by any other means is incorrect, and should be unacceptable., , OFFICES OF THE PUBLICATION DEPARTMENT, NCERT, NCERT Campus, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi 110 016, 108, 100 Feet Road, Hosdakere Halli Extension, Banashankari III Stage, Bangalore 560 085, Navjivan Trust Building, P.O.Navjivan, Ahmedabad 380 014, CWC Campus, Opp. Dhankal Bus Stop, Panihati, Kolkata 700 114, , Rs. 15.00, CWC Complex, Maligaon, Guwahati 781 021, , Publication Team, Head, Publication, Department, , : P. Rajakumar, , Chief Production, Officer, , : Shiv Kumar, , Chief Editor, , : Shveta Uppal, , Chief Business, Manager, , : Gautam Ganguly, , Printed on 70 GSM paper, , Editor, , : Bijnan Sutar, , Published at the Publication Department, by the Secretary, National Council of, Educational Research and Training,, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi 110 016 and, printed at Bengal Offset Works, 335, Khajoor, Road, Karol Bagh, New Delhi 110 005, , Production Assistant : Arun Chitkara, Cover and Layout, Shweta Rao
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CONTENTS, Members of National Focus Group on Aims of Education, , ...v, , 1. INTRODUCTION ...1, 2. THE BACKGROUND, , ...1, , 3. AIMS OF EDUCATION ...2, 4. SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR PEDAGOGY AND EVALUATION, Annexure: Language, Tradition and Rationality...7, , ...5
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1, 1. INTRODUCTION, For a fairly long time now, we have been engaged in, the great task of educating the children of India, an, independent nation with a rich variegated history,, extraordinarily complex cultural diversity, and, commitment to democratic values and general, well-being. Given the enormity and importance of this, task, it is necessary that we create occasions from time, , which could deprive them of a quality of life, much richer in content than that the education, system prepares them for;, (d) what is presented and transmitted as, knowledge in schools leaves out vital, constituents of man’s epistemic enterprise; and, (e) schools promote a regime of thought which, discourages thinking and precludes new and, surprising insights., , to time to sit back collectively and ask ourselves, ‘What, are we doing in our engagement with this task? Is there, , 2. THE BACKGROUND, , a need to ask ourselves afresh some of the basic, questions such as what ought to be the purpose of, , Education, of course, is not a modern practice, although, , education?’ The constitution of the Focus Group on, the Aims of Education is perhaps meant to provide, , it may be claimed that there is a modern way of, practising it. So far as we assume it to be a system of, , such an occasion., If we look at what the school education system, , teaching and learning, all traditional communities have, devised both formal and informal ways of learning, , has done in the last decades, perhaps we have much to, be satisfied with. Products of this system have gone, on to make their mark in diverse fields of national and, , and teaching. The aim of such learning and teaching, has primarily been to induct the child and the adolescent, , international life. But there is also a deep disquiet about, several aspects of our educational system, particularly, the school system. The disquiet springs from a variety, of factors, such as:, (a) the school system has come to be characterized, with a kind of inflexibility that makes it very, difficult to breathe fresh life into it;, (b) learning for children seems to have become a, sort of isolated and perfunctory activity which, they are unable to connect in any organic or, vital way with the rest of their life;, (c) education has come to be perceived more, and more as a means of ensuring the future, ‘well-being’ of students (i.e., their place in, society and their economic status which, guarantees this place)—this has led to a neglect, of children’s present abilities and difficulties,, , into the way of life of the community., The most amazing bit of learning that takes place, in very early childhood is learning to wield the language, of the community, i.e., the native language of the child., One important aspect of this process is that there is, not much of deliberate, organized teaching here. It is, more a process of fairly unselfconscious entry into a, specific world, the world of the community. St., Augustine said a long time ago that language lights up, the world for us. And we might add that every language, lights up the world in its own specific way. For a child,, the process of learning its native language is almost, like a particular world gradually taking a distinctive shape, within its ‘field of vision’. Learning one’s native language, also involves learning to distinguish between the right, and the wrong, the truth and the untruth, of one’s native, community. [In view of the great importance of, language for education, we have appended a separate
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2, note on language to this report.], One main educational concern of traditional, communities was the transmission of various skills,, especially those related to the economic life of the, community: agriculture, hunting, fishing, and caring for, its environment—its trees, animals, birds, water bodies,, etc. But great emphasis was also placed on transmitting, skills related to the pursuit of the community’s specific, desires and aspirations—broadly and perhaps, misleadingly classified as ‘aesthetic’ and ‘spiritual’—which, have to do with giving expression to what might be, called the community’s ‘inner’ life. These skills include, music, crafts, painting or drawing pictures, carving,, pottery, creating various artefacts, which may be useful,, but, very importantly, have this other expressive aspect., A community traditionally assumes a degree of, continuity for itself—continuity of its constituent, structures of human relationships, which give it, to a, large extent, its identity and meaning. Given this, assumption, the aims of education within what might,, somewhat misleadingly, be called a communitarian, framework, have primarily to do with the community’s, idea of its well-being and flourishing. The highest value, that education within such a framework was expected, to promote and foster was, perhaps, ‘allegiance to the, community’., However, even though community continues to be, a powerful presence in our own times, and despite, proliferation of deliberately constructed communities,, the world has for a long time been moving away from, , Humanity is sometimes conceived as the, ‘community’ of all individual human beings. But this is, a serious misconstrual of the idea of a community., Our attachment to the notion of community is, profound and persistent. In equating humanity to a, community, we not only give expression to this, attachment but also invest it with a meaning it does not, have., Given the radical change of perspective that has, taken place, education must now be seen as fostering, values which constitute the well-being of the individual, on the one hand and the well-being of humanity on, the other., But the difficulty here, of course, is to be clear, about the notion of the individual independent of the, complex matrix of relationships in which an individual, is inevitably located? And what is this all-inclusive, humanity, as distinct from this or that specific variety, of humanity?, The lack of clarity about the idea of an individual, and humanity as such is bound to create difficulties for, us in thinking about the aims of education in our times., Thus, for instance, we have to find a way out of a, seeming contradiction such as: We must encourage, children to cultivate the ‘scientific temper’ (that is, the, tendency to follow their reason beyond the dictates of, culture, tradition, and community) and also teach them, the unassailable values of humanity. Also, we must find, a stable room for the nation between the individual, and the humanity., , a community-centric view of human existence in two, widely divergent directions: the direction of the individual, , 3. AIMS OF EDUCATION, , and the direction of the universal or the global. The, well-being of the individual is seen to be more important, , There are, however, issues relating to education about, which we have a fairly clear idea and about which there, ought to be general agreement to a large extent. It would, be helpful to seek an answer to the question ‘what ought, to be the aims of education?’ by way of our, , than the well-being of the community. This perhaps is, the genesis of the idea of human rights as of many, other central concepts of the modern world.
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3, engagement with these issues:, (i) School education is a deliberate and more-or-, , being just to the other. Education must be a, continuous process of self-discovery, of, , less external intervention in the life of a child., Although much learning and teaching takes, , learning the truth about oneself. This is a life, long process; but the school, through insightful, , place at home, in the neighbourhood, community, and in actual living communities, , teaching and learning situations of various, kinds, can bring home to the child the great, , in rural and tribal India, the school introduces, the child to an environment of teaching and, , importance of this process., (iii) There is need to convince the child or the, , learning that, quite by design, marks itself off, from the rest of the child’s environment., , adolescent of the superiority of a life of, virtues to a life of vice and wickedness. The, , Tagore’s experience of his first day at school, is repeated with greater or less intensity in most, , only way to do this is to effectively, demonstrate that genuine human happiness can, , children’s first encounter with school: “…all, of a sudden I found my world vanishing from, , spring only from a life lived in accordance with, virtues. But, how is this to be done? How is, , around me, giving place to wooden benches, and straight walls staring at me with the blank, , one to counter the opposite belief that it is, not the virtues but power and wealth that are, , stare of the blind.”* While the school must, perhaps have boundaries of its own—as the, , constitutive of true happiness? In a world, where the latter belief is pre-dominant, it may, , life of the school cannot just be merged with, the life of the community around it—these, , be impossible to teach the value of virtues to, our children. We need, therefore, to create the, , boundaries must not become barriers. They, must, on the other hand, facilitate the creation, , possibility of profound questioning of our, social structure, and show in various ways the, , of vital links between children’s experiences at, home and in the community and what the, , deep connection between human discontent, and a life devoid of virtues., , school offers them., (ii) Self-knowledge is diametrically opposed to, , In this connection, and in the light of so, much of breast-beating about the need of, , self-ignorance and self-deception. To be, deceived by others is bad but to be deceived, , ‘value education’, the following points need, to be made about a virtuous or moral life:, , by oneself is even worse. However,, unfortunately, we deceive ourselves much of, , First, a virtuous man is not simply one who, happens to possess the virtues, say, courage,, , the time. The big fat ego, which most of us, have, can remain fat only on a daily diet of, , intelligence, temperance, and so on. In isolation,, virtues may not have anything to do with, , self-deception. Self-knowledge can be, achieved only through the knowledge of the, , moral life at all. Thus, e.g., courage by itself, can be put to incredibly evil use; think of the, , other, and one cannot know the other without, , courage of Nathuram Godse. The same thing, , *, , Tagore, Rabindranath 1996. My School. In Sisir Kumar Das (Ed.) English Writings of Tagore, vol. II. Sahitya Akademi.
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4, , *, , can be said of intelligence. As to temperance,, if it is not tempered with the vital unity of a, , utilitarian position epitomized in the dictum, ‘honesty is the best policy’.) In the moral sphere,, , moral life, it is in perpetual danger of, degenerating into soulless, ritualistic disciplining, , the process is integral to the product and the, product is inalienable from the process. Here,, , of oneself., What is it that breathes morality into the virtues?, , there can be no such thing as finding the most, efficient means of achieving a predetermined, , It is—we must have the courage to, acknowledge—truth and love, or, in terms of, , goal (as in, say, matters of management), for, the means in the pursuit of a moral end is not, , our own powerful tradition of moral thought,, ahimsa. Truth means freedom from self-deception;, , replaceable., An important corollary of this is that if, , here it is never enough to speak the truth, occasionally. As Wittgenstein puts it, “The truth, , value education must be a part of the education, system, values or virtues must be integral to, , can be spoken by someone who is already at, home in it; not by someone who still lives in, , the whole process of education. Value, education cannot be imparted as a separate, , falsehood and reaches out from falsehood, towards truth on just one occasion.”* Courage,, , bit of education; the whole of education has, to be value education. Here, we need powerful, , temperance, intelligence, and so on cannot, come together in the vital unity of a virtuous, , reminders, in a variety of ways, of the, Gandhian ideas of ahimsa, peace, and, , life unless they are profoundly mediated by, the love of truth. And the love of truth—, , harmony., (iv) Cultural diversity is one of our greatest gifts., , when we are talking of a moral life—can, flourish only in the supreme and active presence, , To respect and do justice to others is also to, respect and do justice to their respective, , of ahimsa., Secondly, in the context of a moral life,, , cultures or communities. We, therefore, need, to radically change the centre versus periphery, , the means and the end must form a continuum, such that, as it were, the means and the end, , perspective on intercultural relationships in our, country. Cultures on the so-called periphery, , make a wholesome unity. The distinction, between the means and the end in this context,, , must receive as much attention as cultures in, the centre. As for education, its implication is, , if there is one at all, is not the same as the, distinction where the means is merely, , that ways of life other than one’s own must, be imaginatively and effectively presented as, , instrumental in producing the end, e.g., playing, football as a means of keeping physically fit., , deserving of as much respect as one’s own., (v) Individual differences are as important as, , Morality is not external to a virtuous life in the, way football is external to physical fitness. (The, , cultural differences. Individual children, frequently have capacities and skills which do, , position taken here is distinct from the, , not find adequate recognition in the school, , Wittgenstein, Ludwig 1973. Culture and Value. Blackwell.
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5, environment. Development and flourishing of, these skills and capacities would not only, enhance the individual’s life but also enrich the, life of the community. Education must, therefore promote and nourish as wide a, range of capacities and skills in our children as, possible. The gamut of such skills include the, performing arts (music, dance, drama, , and, so on), painting and crafts, and literary abilities, (weaving stories, wielding language to portray, different aspects of life, a flair for metaphorical, and poetic expression, etc.). Also, skills as, diverse as some children’s special capacity to, bond with nature—with trees, birds, and, animals— need to be nurtured., (vi) Knowledge is not a unitary concept. There are, different kinds of knowledge as well as, different ways of knowing. The idea that, objectivity, which is a necessary constituent of, knowledge, can be achieved only if knowledge, is free from emotions (care, concern, and love), must be abandoned. One implication of this, for education is that literary and artistic creativity, is as much part man’s epistemic enterprise as, is seeking knowledge through laboratory, experiments or deductive reasoning. The, former frequently enables us to see the truth, in a way that the paradigmatic scientific quest, cannot., (vii) Education must be seen as a liberating process;, otherwise, all that has been said so far will be, rendered pointless. The process of education, must therefore free itself from the shackles, of all kinds of exploitation and injustice (e.g.,, poverty, gender discrimination, caste and, communal bias), which prevent our children, from being part of the process., , (viii)It is very important that school teaching and, learning takes place in an environment that is, aesthetically pleasing. It is also essential that, children take an active part in creating such an, environment for themselves., (ix) It ought to be possible for every child to be, proud of his or her nation. But, one can be, proud of something only if it is an achievement, of one’s own or if one is very intimately, connected with those whose achievement it is., We can be proud of our own achievements,, or the achievements of our children or friends., If we feel an intimacy with God or nature,, we can be proud of even the skies and the, whole universe. It is therefore very important, that education fosters within the child an, intimacy with people who are directly, connected with achievements which are part, of our national heritage. It is of course equally, important to see that children’s pride in their, own nation does not negate their pride in the, great achievements of humanity as a whole., , 4. SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR PEDAGOGY AND, EVALUATION, It may be useful to consider some of the implications, of what has been said so far for pedagogy and, evaluation. The strangeness of the school environment, can be mitigated by imaginatively linking the experience, of school with the child’s experience outside it in the, community. While school might have many new and, exciting experiences for the child, it must not appear as, rejecting or even ignoring the child’s experience in the, community. Pedagogy will gain by incorporating, children’s experience of what the Greeks used to call, oikos, and likewise it can teach them fresh ways of, experiencing the world outside the school. For
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6, example, if a child has grown up in intimate contact, with the nature around him, as most children in tribal, , education, and if means and ends in moral matters are, organically or internally connected, then the teacher,, , communities do, school can enrich and enhance this, intimacy by sharpening the child’s awareness of his own, , who is the primary vehicle of education, must be seen, substantially as an embodiment of virtues in his role as, , natural environment—something that sadly does not, happen in most of our schools. The role of the teacher, , a teacher., Teaching should be in the conversational mode, , here is absolutely crucial. One is reminded of the, nineteen-year-old teacher who came to help Tagore, , rather than in the mode of authoritarian monologue., It is in the conversational mode that the child is likely, , with the teaching in his school:, , to grow in self-confidence and self-awareness and will, more easily establish connections between the teachings, and his own experience. Similarly, while learning, discipline is an important part of education, externally, imposed discipline should merge into the orderliness, that children perceive as an essential part of their, well-being. Enforced accountability should also, therefore gradually give way to a sense of responsibility,, which means that there should be more emphasis on, self-assessment and shared accountability., Intelligence is diverse, and pedagogy and evaluation, should aim at making it possible for this diversity to, bloom. Excellence in diverse areas should be recognized, and rewarded. And it is children’s responsiveness to what, is taught rather than just their capacity to retain it that, should be the focus of evaluation. Such responsiveness, includes their ability to connect their learning to various, other experiences in their life, their capacity to frame, questions about the content of their learning in novel, ways, and, particularly, their capacity to see deviations in, their ‘lessons’ from the idea of the right and the good, that the school might be trying to inculcate in them., , With him boys never felt that they were confined in, the limit of a teaching class; they seemed to have their, access to everywhere. They would go with him to the, forest when in the spring the sal trees were in full, blossom and he would recite to them his favourite, poems, frenzied with excitement… He never had the, feeling of distrust for the boys’ capacity of, understanding…He knew that it was not at all, necessary for the boys to understand literally and, accurately, but that their minds should be roused, and, in this he was always successful. He was not like other, teachers, a mere vehicle of textbooks. He made his, teaching personal, he himself was the source of it, and, therefore it was made of life stuff, easily assimilable, by the living human nature.*, , Pedagogy must draw upon resources of creativity, and exploration, such as literature in its various forms, and history in its uncovering modes, e.g., unmasking, the mind of the colonizer as well as that of the colonized., It is important to establish connections between, apparently discrete events and things, between things, and events close to one and those distant in time and, space—connections which can bring sudden light to, the workings of the child’s own mind., If the whole of education is, in a sense, moral, , *, , Tagore, Rabindranath 1996. My School. In Sisir Kumar Das (Ed.) English Writings of Tagore, vol. II. Sahitya Akademi.
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7, ANNEXURE: LANGUAGE, TRADITION AND, RATIONALITY, We begin to learn as a part of growing up in our, families. While learning to speak in our native tongue,, we learn many things. We are inducted into the moral, order/perspective of our family and community, through language. We learn to name, identify, classify,, evaluate, and define our experiences in our daily life., While growing up in our respective communities, we, inherit concepts that consolidate our sense of, self-identity. It is not necessary that we agree with all, such views and perceptions, yet in some way we remain, tied too them, e.g., it is possible to speak of originality, or innovation only within the context of a practice and, its traditions. Our practice of speaking a language, becomes intelligible with the help of cognitive and, evaluative notions such as ‘grasping the meaning’, ‘seeing, the point’, ‘understanding’, ‘recognizing as correct’,, ‘recognizing the mistake’, ‘responding appropriately’,, etc., In learning to speak a language, we develop, what, Meinong called, knowledge-feelings and value-feelings., Knowledge-feelings refer to cognitive attitudes as these, are expressed in judgment of knowledge and, conviction, and value-feelings are expressed through, valuing oneself and valuing other persons and things., In learning a language, we learn to think and recognize, the significance of communicating our thoughts to, others. In our interactions with others, we experience, and become aware of patterns and structures of, hierarchy, power and authority, subordination and, oppression. We also learn to cope with these structures, by finding ways to survive either by escaping them,, accepting them, or confronting and resisting them. The, easy way is not to resist or challenge but to accept, *, , Wittgenstein, Ludwig 1973. Culture and Value. Blackwell. p. 76., , them. However, this acceptance becomes possible only, by discouraging independent thinking., The systematic structuring or ordering of our beliefs, constitutes a theory, and a practice is developed through, the consistency of our efforts. Practical knowledge, serves as the bedrock of all knowledge. All theoretical, knowledge is an articulation of what we have learnt, through participation in the practices of our, communities. In different communities, the practices, and traditions vary widely., The term ‘tradition’ may be interpreted in many, ways. In its barest sense, it means that which is handed, down or transmitted from generation to generation in, a community because it consists of devices and, principles that have helped the community to make, sense of its experiences and activities. Perhaps, it was, for this reason that Wittgenstein had rightly remarked,, ‘Tradition is not…. A thread he (man) can pick up, when he feels like it any more than a man can choose, his own ancestors.’*, Education, as a planned endeavour, at a personal, level on a small scale or institutional level on a large, scale, aims at making children capable of becoming, active, responsible, productive, and caring members, of society. They are made familiar with the various, practices of the community by imparting the relevant, of skills and ideas. . Ideally, education is supposed to, encourage the students to analyse and evaluate their, experiences, to doubt, to question, to investigate—in, other words, to be inquisitive and to think, independently., As we grow, we face new and unfamiliar, experiences which question our old ways of thinking, as these experiences are either inconsistent with or at a, considerable variance from what we had gradually learnt
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8, to take for granted. Such experiences are critical and, challenging as they involve or require formulation of, , position to be certain about anything. This quest for, certainty, taken to its extreme, may become a demand, , new concepts, revision of preconceived notions, and, new ways of looking at and dealing with the world., , for a monistic and absolute criterion by which it would, be possible to draw sharp lines between the rational, , It is this unique human ability that is called rationality,, which is manifested in human behaviour in a wide variety, , and the irrational, knowledge and a lack of it. In, becoming captives of such a restricting vision, we, , of ways., Our attempts to make sense of our experiences,, , forget that there are numerous ways in which we learnt, to know and to reason about the world. This forgetting, , to comprehend the world that we live in, require that, we recognize patterns, structures, and order in the, , leads us to reduce rationality to mere formulas of, deductive reasoning, placing greater value on theory, , world. Without such recognition, we would not be, able to make any judgments, we would not be in a, , over practice, natural sciences over art, and information, over knowledge.
