Education Portal for Students in India

Gandhi’s Educational Thoughts – Gandhiji’s Basic Education was the practical embodiment of his philosophy of education. His basic education takes up the challenging task of preparing the young learners to become morally sound, individually independents, socially constructive, economically productive and responsible future citizens which can prove helpful in solving the problem of unemployment by making youth self-employed by giving them skill training.

Gandhiji believed that education should develop all the capacities of the child so that he becomes a complete human being. In this way, fully and harmoniously developed personality is able to realize the ultimate aim of life which is Truth or God. Gandhiji has himself explained – “By education I mean all-round drawing out of the best in child’s and man’s body, mind and spirit.

Literacy is neither the beginning nor the end of education. This is only a means through which man or woman can be educated.” His Basic Principles of Education includes:-

From seven to fourteen years of age, education of each child should be free, compulsory and universal. The medium of instruction should be mother-tongue. Mere literacy cannot be equated with education. Education should employ some craft as a medium of education so that the child gains economic self-reliance for his life. Education should develop human values in the child. Education should create useful, responsible and dynamic citizens. By education all the hidden powers of child should develop according to the community of which he is an integral part. Education should achieve the harmonious development of child’s body, mind, heart and soul. All education should be imparted through some productive craft or industry and a useful correlation should be established with that industry. The industry should be such that the child is able to achieve gainful work experience through practical work. Education should be made self-supporting through some productive work. Education should lead to economic independence and self-reliance for livelihood.

Thus, in Gandhiji’s educational thoughts the development of the personality of child is more important than mere literacy or knowledge of different subjects. In other words he believed in life-centered as well as child-centered education. Besides learning of three R’s Reading, Writing and Arithmetic in school, he insisted on development of these H’s Hand, Heart and Head.

• Thus, the aim of Education should be of developing the integrated personality of the child.
• Gandhiji was having clarity in the idea that one of the basic principles of education is that work and knowledge must never be separated.
• Separation of learning from labor results in social injustices.
• In dynamic societies, education has to equip individuals with the skills and attitudes necessary for them to adapt to changing conditions, and for constructive participation in the task of social change.

This can prove helpful in solving the problems of frustration, depression, anxiety and feeling of committing suicide among youth. According to Gandhiji through education a child must be able to learn a productive craft to meet his future needs of life by adopting some industry or business.

• Hence, he advocated education for self-reliance and capacity to earn one’s livelihood as the main aim of education.
• By this aim he did mean to make the child a laborer but wished that each child should earn while engaged in learning and gain some learning as he is busy with earning.
• He advocated that together with vocational education cultural advancement should also be achieved.

The two aspects of development should go together side by side. Gandhiji insisted that education should develop all aspects of individuality harmoniously. He also believed that one of the essential aims of education is the moral development or character development.

Gandhiji wishes that every child should grow into a divine human being by realizing Godliness in his self. Gandhiji himself writes. “To develop the self is to build character and to prepare the self for complete realization and realization of Godliness. Gandhiji’s ‘Basic Education’ was job centered, value based and mass oriented.

Here it is important to note that these are still the important requirements of education in our country. In his scheme of education, knowledge must be related to activity and practical experiences. Therefore his curriculum is activity centered. Its aim is to prepare the child for practical work, conduct experiments and do research so that he is able to develop himself physically, mentally and spiritually and become a useful member of society.

• In this activity-centered curriculum, Gandhiji included Mother-tongue, Basic Craft, Arithmetic, Sociology, General Science, Art, Music and other like subjects.
• He further advocated that curriculum for boys and girls from classes 1 to 5 should be the same.
• After that boys should be taught some Craft and girls should study Home-Science.

It should be noted that Gandhiji’s scheme of Basic Education is limited to primary and junior stages only. Gandhiji also insisted that his scheme for primary education would include “the elementary principles of sanitation, hygiene, nutrition,” besides “compulsory physical training through musical drill.

Gandhiji argues that his scheme would make students strong, confident and useful to their parents and their country. Gandhiji adds that his system would lead to communal harmony because it would be the same for all; it would this be “practical religion, the religion of self help”. Gandhiji disapproved rote learning educational methods and considered it as defective and emphasized to make crafts and vocations as means of education.

He wished that some local craft should be made as medium of education for children so that they develop their body, mind and soul in a harmonious way and also meet the ends needs to their future life. In this way, Gandhiji’s method of teaching was therefore, different from the current one.

To achieve mental development, training of senses and parts of the body should be given. Reading should precede the teaching of writing. More opportunities should be given for learning by doing. Encouragement should be given to learning by experience. Correlation should be established in the teaching methods and learning experiences.

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What was Gandhi’s idea of education?

Gandhi’s concept of education and its ethical perspectives for the development of peace By Dr. Akham Hemabati Devi Gandhi was a utopian; he tried to bring ‘the Kingdom of God on the earth (Ram Rajya) where truth and non-violence would be guiding principles.

His utopianism arose out of his love for humanity. “Gandhi was humanist, shall we say from the first moment of his self consciousness.” 1 He firmly believed that the goodness of the individual formed the constituent part of the goodness of the society. Like John Ruskin, he considered ‘man’ is the most important to bring a peaceful and harmonious society.

He says, “The individual is the one supreme consideration.” 2 “Man is neither mere intellect, nor the gross animal body, nor the heart or soul alone. A proper and harmonious combination of all the three is required for making of the whole man and constitutes the true economics of education.” 3 His concept of political system is closely connected with education.

• In a good political system, there must be the element of goodness necessarily present in every man.
• There is the need of a proper education system to the individuals in order to bring out such element of goodness.
• He talks about education is more comprehensive than that of the literal meaning.
• He says, “By education I mean an all round drawing out of the best in child and man-body mind and spirit.

Literacy is not the end of education not even the beginning. It is one of the means whereby man and women can be educated. Literacy in itself is no education.” 4 He thought that education is closely associated with the socio-economic development of the society.

1. He took up scheme for basic education in which vocational training or work experience is the utmost important.
2. It is due to the fact that it stimulates the human mind for creative thinking or dignity of manual labour.
3. He thought that such creative thinking should be taken up from primary to higher level education.

His view on basic education is greatly influenced by his philosophy of satya (truth), ahimsa (non-violence), firm belief in God, dignity of labour. The Kothari Commission also followed Gandhi’s ideal of vocational training in education. This commission says, “We recommend that work experience should be introduced as an integral part of all India education-general or vocational.

We define work experience as participation in productive work in school, in the home, in a workshop, on a farm, in a factory or in any other productive situation.” 5 This commission re-emphasizes the Gandhian principle of learning by doing in the modern education. The main aim of education is the development of human personality.

He expanded fourfold personality in the individual that is body, mind, heart and spirit. True education stimulates the spiritual, intellectual and physical strength of the individual. His view on education of heart which brings the idea of sympathy, fellowship and deep feelings of love.

• The aim of education is not only to produce good individual but also one must understand one’s own responsibilities in which one lives.
• It is closely related to Hindu concept of varnashram dharma.
• One who understood his or her responsibilities would lead to the spirit of social consciousness and social mindedness.

Then, all the activities of such persons will have a social content as well as co-operation to others. He talks about education in terms of discipline. It is regarded as one of the most important parts and parcels of education. Without discipline, the sound education system is impossible.

It is a quality that one’s self can lead to the regulation of one’s intellectual, moral, spiritual and social behaviour. It is stated that the goal of education consists of character-building. Such character-building requires the moral, intellectual and social behaviour under all circumstances i.e., strength of personality, the virtue of compassion, kindness, fair-mindedness and the spirit of dedication.

Gandhi strongly holds that education is not end in itself but it is the most powerful weapon which creates all persons of genuine characters. There is degeneration of education when the qualities of truthfulness, firmness, tolerance are absence from it.

True education is life process which helps in cultivating the spirit of co-operation, tolerance, public spirit and a sense of responsibility. All these qualities are considered as disciplines for the development of human personality. Such disciplines can create the harmonious balance between the individuals and social aim of education.

His principle of ‘learning by doing’ tries to stimulate the individual’s mind to think creatively, independently and critically. His great emphasis on work-culture to the students from the primary stage to higher stage is to enable the students to start producing from the time he started his training.

1. So, his primary information of basic education is Head, Heart and Hand rather than Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.
2. Gandhi also maintains that education is essential for the attainment of the goal of peace.
3. It can be attained only through morality and ethics.
4. According to Gandhi, education is the realization of the best in man – body, soul and spirit.

He maintained that education must be based on ethics and morality. Ethics and morality are integral to Gandhi’s life. All his thoughts, actions and speeches are based on these two concepts. From the ethical perspective, education may be considered as a means of attainment of salvation.

1. It helps to the path of the complete peace.
2. Peace is the absence of violence and hostile thought.
3. As a daily practitioner of non-violence, Gandhi right from his earlier stage considered that non-violence is an indivisible, important and essential part of education.
4. We cannot be separated education from ethics, morality and spiritualism.

For this purpose Gandhi has given some rules for all students so as to ensure that morality and righteousness always be considered as an essential part of their education. Regarding this, such rules can make to right thinking, self-control, service to the society, respect to others and constant awareness for their duties and responsibilities.

• Today, the world is suffering from immense crisis from many sides.
• Crimes, conflict, hatred and distrust between one community and another, hunger, unemployment, poverty and literacy, paucity of resources and pollution of environment, deforestation and desertification, swelling number of migrants and refugees, ethnic and sub-national violence, terrorism, drug trafficking, AIDS etc., all these altogether make a grave danger to peace.

The present day crisis is greater than the crisis that occurred during the time of Gandhi. The world is now full of violence. With the advancement of science and technology human being has invented many new technologies which are very helpful in our life.

In some other ways, some selfish people who used it as a weapon for gaining his desire wish and pleasures. An action done under the motives of selfishness is a kind of violence. Purity of means is an essential condition of realizing good ends. If a good end is to be attained, it is also essential that the means adopted for the realization of the end is also good.

He says, “if one takes care of the means, the end will take care of itself.” 6 End and means are the two important concepts in Gandhian philosophy which play very important implication for his doctrine of truth and non-violence. His principle of aparigraha is one of the most important to bring simple and peaceful living, co-operation with one another.

1. However, in our present day society we are facing so many conflicts.
2. One of them is based on our knowledge which has been separated from work-ethics.
3. Nowledge is separated in thought, in life as well as in market values by faulty psychology, faulty sociology and faulty economics respectively.
4. Education plays an important role which helps to equip individuals with the skills and attitudes that are necessary in order to adapt in changing situations and to add the creative spirit in the task of social change.

‘Work and knowledge should go together’ is the Gandhian principle of education. The educational systems try to develop the individual soul and mind, courage and self-reliance, cultivate the highest intellectual, scientific, moral and ethical accomplishments.

Gandhi’s concept of education is of quite significance in the contemporary situation. His philosophical concept of education is entirely based on the development of human personality, to maintain the discipline, to create the manual work with learning and to develop the culture of the peace. He was a great educationist and an individualist par excellence.

He knew that education is the most important means in the society which can be used as an instrument of socio-economic progress, material advancement, political evolution and moral development of an individual. Gandhi’s whole philosophy and work was based on ethics and morality.

• His concept of education is also founded on ethics and morality.
• It may be said that his concept of education has full of religious ideas.
• His idea of religion is different from common concept.
• His concept of religion is ‘service of humanity’.
• For the spirit of religions he propounded ‘Nai Talim’ or ‘basic education’.

This new education system, Archarya Kriplani says, ‘.is the coping stone of Gandhi’s social and political edifice’. His philosophical thought on education is highly pedestal that creates the socio-economic development of the society. We can draw a conclusion that his concept of education is not only the eradication of illiteracy but learning by doing.
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What changes did Gandhi make in education?

Towards a Gandhian Educational System By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in a child and man – body, mind and spirit. Literacy is not the end of education nor even the beginning. It is only one of the means whereby man and woman can be educated.

Literacy in itself is no education. I would therefore begin the child’s education by teaching it a useful handicraft and enabling it to produce from the moment it begins its training. Thus every school can be made self-supporting, the condition being that the State takes over the manufactures of these schools.

– M.K. Gandhi Though India became politically independent, the impact of British colonialism continued in all facets of Indian life. Literally independent India followed all institutions and systems of the colonial period with slight modifications. Everybody thought that after independence, the system of education will radically change, but nothing of that sort happened and practically the same system of education continued.

‘By education most have been misled; So they believe, because they so were bred. The Priest continues what the nurse began, And thus the child imposes on the man.’On the other hand, one should also remember what Lord Henry Brougham said: ‘Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive, easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.’

Education plays an important role in the life of an individual. In fact, school is the place where the life of a pupil is moulded. The great philosopher, Leo Tolstoy said about the impact of his school as follows: ‘It was all my life, it was my monastery, my church in which I redeemed myself while being saved from all the anxieties, doubts and temptations of life.’ Almost all philosophers and thinkers reflected on the education, the role of schooling and the issues connected with it.

Alvin Toffler, the author of well-known work Future Shock, and Third Wave expressed his opinion about the educational system, in the following words: ‘In every school system, there is an overt curriculum and a covert curriculum. At overt level, there are differences from place to place. We teach American History, Japanese teach Japanese History.

All these systems teach three basic courses. The first course is punctuality. Kids must show up on time or be punished. The second is a course of obedience. Even in schools that pride themselves on teaching kids to think and ask questions, the smartest kids quickly discover which questions not to ask.

1. The third is a course of rote work.
2. The school has the task of breaking the child into a life of routine and repetitive toil.
3. We must teach what life would hold later on-an advanced stimulation of adult life.
4. It is not history that we need to know.
5. It is fabulously valuable experience for students to start thinking about their own and the society’s alternative future.’ In the late nineteen sixties the Students’ Movement took place in the western countries and its leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit severely criticised the then education system because it was creating only a stereotype society or the society of employees.

Daniel Cohn- Bendit aptly described the disgusting system of education in the work ‘ Obsolete Communism: The Left Wing Alternative ‘ many students are becoming increasingly disgusted and sickened not only by this system but by the very culture that produces and fosters it.

After the Students’ Movement, the Director General of UNESCO observed: ‘The gulf between young and adult seems to be growing every day not only with university but with society as a whole. With their needs for absolutes, the young are less than ever able to tolerate injustice and disorder of this world.’ If this has to become a reality, then the education system must undergo a drastic change.

What is required now is a deep rethinking about the whole system and process of education. It should include not only the teacher-students relationship, but also their relationship with the parents, because the values cannot be taught, but can only be caught.

The catching of values by pupils will obviously depend upon the educational system as well as the society in which they live. Learning is a process in itself. Bernard Shaw has rightly said: ‘I wanted to learn, but they went on teaching only.’ Therefore, the learning and teaching process should be the same for the teachers and students.

A teacher, who is not able to learn new things, can never teach or meet aspirations of the students. Rabindranath Tagore wrote: ‘A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its flame.’ The teacher must invest his life in the development of the personality of students.

1. To borrow the words of the immortal Helen Keller: (blind and deaf, who touched the lives of millions) ‘I will not just live my life; I will not just spend my life; I will invest my life.’ In the primary schools, students either worship or fear the teacher.
2. In the middle school, they either admire or ridicule him.

In the senior classes, they assess their teachers and emulate them. Whatever else students might do, they could never remain indifferent to their teachers. They have become an inseparable part of their lives. A teacher must have a mother’s heart. Mother does not love her children by adopting percentage formula.

For her every child is a cent full personality and integral whole. The success of schools or project or plan cannot be measured by its capacity of spending. In any case, it is not an indication of quality or the standard of education. A model or blueprint will have to be developed and created, which will provide for the quality control at every stage.

Otherwise, as it is normally said that the success is counted on the basis of the money spent. But standard of spending cannot be equated with standard of education. The whole system of education will have to be an integrated and correlated one, and it must be a system, which can be rightly described as ‘learning and teaching’ system.

1. This system should be organically correlated with social and physical environment of the country.
2. Having spent the earlier years of my life at Wardha and having been associated with the concept of Mahatma Gandhi’s Basic Education, I feel that we should consider Gandhi’s concept of education, which is known as Nai Talim, very seriously.

I am aware of the fact that we are living in an era of globalization and we have to look at the issues from a global perspective. But it is my firm conviction that ultimately we will have to “think globally, but act locally.” Therefore, all of us have to do some loud thinking about the system of education we follow and the issues involved in it.

• Mere thinking, planning and legislations will not solve the problem in this field, because our nation is well known for its maximum legislation and minimum implementation.
• So far, we are following a top to bottom implementing system, but in that process nothing reaches at the bottom and everything is vanished in between.

Therefore, the implementation will have to be oceanic, meaning thereby that there is first a small circle, and then circle widens up. Therefore, the beginning should be from the bottom. Then alone fruits will reach to the bottom. When I travel abroad, I have experienced that people from the western and other countries are eager to know much more about the Nai Talim, because they feel that the present educational system will not solve the problems, faced by today’s world.

1. Instead of cut-throat competition, they feel that education should help in developing the qualities of love, friendship and fraternity.
2. It was thought that the modern education could solve all the problems, but unfortunately, education itself has become a problem.
3. That is the reason why rethinking and relooking about the educational policy, as a whole, is necessary.

It is good that compulsory and free education ( Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan ) for all at the primary level has been introduced. But that will not be enough. Equality means to treat equals equally. To treat unequal equally results in inequality. The reservations or concessions, as contemplated by the Constitution of India, are meant for achieving the said objective.

• The starting points of different lives are not the same or common.
• Concept of equality contemplates equal opportunity.
• We cannot achieve equality without equal opportunity for all.
• In the field of education, there is gradation and classification of the educational institutions.
• Rich people choose public schools for their children, which are run at the public cost, but where the common public can never go.

Others choose convent education. Children of this class, get all the advantages because their parents are educated. Apart from this, they can afford tuitions or attend tuition classes. The last and the worst category is of the children, in whose house, nobody is educated, no facilities such as electricity and water and books are available.

• They live amidst ruthless poverty.
• They normally opt for the educational institutions run by the municipalities or the Zilla Parishads or ashram.
• Even if we want to achieve the goal of universal education, still inequality persists, because of poverty and other circumstances.
• Apart from universal education, neighbourhood school system will have to be vigorously implemented because the culture at home and the culture at school will have to be harmonised.

Today, unfortunately, students are well disciplined in the school, but they are undisciplined at home. Therefore, the system will have to be one which will reach out to the homes. We want to educate parents through these children. In a sense, it will be an education of the parents also.

Ours is basically an economy based on agriculture. Even if there is free and compulsory education, it is noticed that the children are not able to go to the schools at all. This is because of the domestic circumstances prevailing in rural areas where the children have to help the parents in agricultural operations.

Elder brother or elder sister is forced to live at home to take care of their younger brothers or sisters, as their parents go out in the field for the agricultural work. Therefore, the whole timetable of the educational institutions will have to be rationalised.

• It was good, when the British rule was there and as the rulers wanted to go to the hill stations in the summer.
• Therefore, there was a summer vacation for the educational institutions also.
• These vacations have no meaning for the Indian situations.
• Now, we will have to think to give vacation in a season, when the parents can live at home, and when the initial agricultural work is over.

Therefore, children can go to the school, because their presence at home is not needed to take care of their younger brothers or sisters, or for the household work. Vacation will have to be harmonised with the agricultural work, so that the children can afford to go to the school or to be precise, their parents can afford to send their children to the school.

• In our view, this is the crucial question before the system of compulsory education.
• Martin Luther King Jr., in his speech “Youth and Social Action” rightly observes: ‘The largest group of young people is struggling to adopt itself to prevailing values of our society.
• The second group is of radicals.
• They agree that only by structural change can current evils be eliminated, because the roots are in the system rather than in men or in faulty operation.

They are in serious revolt against old values and have not yet concretely formulated new ones. Ironically, their rebelliousness comes from having been frustrated in seeking change within the framework of existing society.’ It will be almost impossible to think about Nai Talim or swadeshi educational system within the framework of society in which we are living.

A total restructuring of political and economic system is a prerequisite for the natural flowering of the education system. It would be appropriate to discuss briefly Gandhi’s concept of Nai Talim or Basic Education. Nai Talim is an educational system that draws out the best in child and man. It takes care of all the problems relating to his body, mind and spirit.

It is a system of education for life, through life and throughout life. It was universal education, free for all and free from the control of the Government and others. If you want to have freedom in education, it has to be self-reliant and self-supporting.

It was an education through medium of craft. All subjects were correlated to the basic craft. An appropriate craft has to be selected which will ensure socially useful production. It will make the education system self- supporting. This handicraft has to be taught scientifically and not mechanically. This in turn requires highly trained teachers.

They should know why and wherefore of every process of the craft selected. Man is born with two hands and the process of education should be “learning by doing” and not from the books alone. A similar system is followed in China and Korea where artisans, like potters, blacksmiths and carpenters and others viz.

are involved in the educational system. They teach the students crafts and dignity of productive labour. Their status is that of a teacher. In today’s educational system, there is no swadeshi spirit. Everything is based on foreign ideas and concepts. Akbar Allahabadi, a noted Urdu poet, described present day education in his Urdu couplet as follows: तिल्फ़ में बू क्या आये माँ बाप के ऐतबार की | दूध तो डिब्बे का है, तालीम है सर्कार की || The above couplet means that the culture of parents is not reflected in their children because they are brought up on milk powder and government education.

Swadeshi education cannot be a borrowed one. It has to be evolved taking into consideration our environment. We wanted to create independent thinking in children and man through Nai Talim, The purpose of education is not to produce clerks who are not supposed to use their brains.

• Nai Talim aims at producing self-reliant and socially useful citizens trained through real life situations.
• They will possess skills/ capacities required for all round development of both society and individuals.
• By its very nature, its emphasis is on character building rather than on providing information.

The moot question is whether we want only ” Saksharta ” (literacy) or our aim is ” Sarthakta “(meaningful life). According to Gandhi, literacy in itself is no education. He observes: ‘literacy is not the end of education nor it is even the beginning.’ Literary education should follow the education of the hand-the one gift that visibly distinguishes man from beast.

• True education must be self-reliant and should fulfil the requirements of individual and correspond to the needs of the society.
• Otherwise, it is not a healthy growth.
• The function of Nai Talim was not merely to teach an occupation, but through it to develop the whole man.
• The true education should be easily accessible to all and should be of use to everyone in his daily life.

The notion of education through handicrafts originates from truth and love pervading life’s activities. Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisite for acquiring learning of any kind. If we want to impart education best suited to the needs of the villagers, we should take the vidyapiths and educational institutions to the villages.

In a democratic scheme, money invested in the promotion of learning gives a tenfold return to the people even as a seed sown in good soil returns an abundant crop. Acharya Vinoba Bhave also expressed views about education or Nai Talim, He said: ‘On the day India attained independence, I had said that as a new flag necessarily followed in the wake of the establishment of a new State, new education or Nai Talim should also follow in its wake in the same manner.

I do not see anything but a desire to maintain in now maintaining here the same system of education which suited those who kept the country under bondage.’ That was our first misfortune. The second misfortune was that the standard of living of those who were given education was raised, which was against the cultural traditions of this country.

• Here, the spirit of sacrifice has been deemed as a concomitant of learning and wisdom.
• It has been held that while there is not much harm, if those who are uneducated indulge in the enjoyment of sense pleasure for they are ignorant, it is not proper for men of wisdom to indulge in them.
• The third misfortune was that work was not linked with education.

The result is the tendency in the educated to enjoy pleasures without doing work and to look down upon physical labour, even of their parents. There is no true joy for the man whose life is cut off from the heavens above and the world of Nature around.

1. This means that the task before education is to change the whole system of values and the ways of life that are current in our cities.
2. How this is to be done? It is not a question only for you and me.
3. It is for the whole humanity.
4. Whether the children have been educated or not should be decided by the criterion, whether they have developed such qualities as loyalty to truth, spirit of service and fearlessness.

What is also to be looked into is how far they have developed practical knowledge and qualities useful for social service. I am personally of the view that just as judiciary is independent and the government has no authority over it, similarly the educational institutions should be free and independent.

If the education is in the hands of the government, it is open to two objections. One, it acquires a rigid form and is coloured by the complexion of the government. Two, all teachers become government employees. The ideal situation would be that education institutions should be in the hands of public men of knowledge and if the government so desires, it may extend some financial help to them.

The philosophy of Nai Talim does not accept the unequal values assigned by our present society to physical and mental work. It takes the position that every kind of service rendered by a man, whether it is physical or mental, is ethical in its nature.

1. The value of an ethical act cannot be calculated in economic terms.
2. The spiritual principle of Nai Talim is that knowledge and work are not two separate things.
3. They are the same thing.
4. It is a mistake to say that knowledge is higher than work or work is higher than knowledge.
5. Nai Talim is based on the concept of unity of knowledge and work.

It is not possible that the people take over educational system into their hands all at once. Until and unless it happens, it is bound to remain in the hands of the government, precluding any reform. Hence, there should be such independent schools in the country as will be able to act as models for the government.

• By “independent’ I mean that the government will have no control at all over them, be it of any type.
• If, in spite of it, the government helps them, it does not matter.
• This is one definition of “independent” schools.
• There are also institutions, which neither accept government aid nor are controlled by it.

There should be three kinds of schools in the country; (1) government schools, (2) schools accepting government aid but not controlled by it, and (3) fully independent schools, accepting neither government help nor its control in any form, whatsoever.

1. The “independent schools” would be looked upon as the model schools.
2. They would be undertaking independent research and experiments to point out the way for the progress of the nation.
3. This will gives us an idea how Vinoba looked upon education and related matters.H.L.
4. Wayland has correctly said: ‘Universal suffrage, without universal education, would be a curse.’ After framing of the Constitution and adopting adult franchise as the basis of election process, it was said that “We must educate our own masters, meaning thereby, a common man, who is real master of democracy.” No political party was interested in this because obviously, if the people are ignorant and poor, then they can manipulate the whole election process to their advantage.

Therefore, no political party undertook this sort of education. Today, it is necessary that at all stages of education should be such, which will make a person a good citizen. The preamble of the Constitution lays down broad blueprint of the direction in which the country should move forward.

Our agony is that while emphasising upon fundamental rights, incorporated in the Constitution, we are forgetting that, every right has a corresponding duty. Rather, it is to carry out the duties that, rights are given. Duty gives the birth to right and not vice-versa. Therefore, while considering the right to education, we must also consider corresponding duties of parents, teachers, government agencies and the schools.

Since we did not realise this in the initial stages, the chapter relating to the fundamental duties namely Article 51 (A) was added to the Constitution by an amendment. It includes the duty of the parents to educate their children. This necessarily calls for the inclusion of fundamental duties of the citizens in every system of education directly or indirectly.

• This should also be a parts and parcels of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and adult education.
• I expect, at least the fundamental duties of citizens enumerated in Article 5l (a) of the Constitution of India, will find a place in our educational system.
• The education will have to be at two levels – one at students’ level and other at the citizens’ level.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan should cover such subjects, which will help them to become good citizens and realise their duties and responsibilities towards the society, as a whole. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was the Minister for Education, when the Constitution was under preparation.

• He was of the emphatic view that education as a subject should be included in the Union list and that under no circumstances should it be left to the States.
• He had an apprehension that if education is retained in the subject list of the State, an educated man in India would become a narrow provincialist.

In a letter written to the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, Maulana Azad advocated that education should be under Central guidance if not under Central control. He strongly opposed leaving education with the States. According to him, if education was not under Central guidance or control, the intelligentsia of the country would become regional in outlook.

Azad also believed that the educational planning should be a Union subject. Nehru also supported his point of view. Gandhi was an advocate of national education. He established national level institutions like Gujarat Vidyapith during the wake of non-cooperation movement. The aim of national education according to him was the inculcation among the young people of the values of patriotism and similar other social and cultural values.

So that they rise above the feeling of personal gain or loss. National education was not just a change in the medium of instruction. Singing the glory of slavery in Gujarati or Marathi instead of in English could not be called national education. A change in the medium of instruction was a matter of details.

• Similarly, a change in subjects taught could not be equated with national education.
• Change in the medium of instructions and in subjects or syllabus are incidental to the idea of national education.
• They would be subject to change as per the changing needs.
• The content of national education must be truly national.

Its object must be to create patriotic citizens who would be prepared to give their lives for the nation’s regeneration. A student is a citizen of tomorrow and, therefore, the custodians of a nation’s future dreams, of what the country ought to be in future.

1. Therefore, the direction and the content of education must not be and cannot be guided by the present needs.
2. Experts in the field of education ought to rise above the trivialities of today and think of the coming world of future generations.
3. That is why education was considered a national question.
4. National education did not consider intellectual labour superior to physical labour.

In fact, one of the purposes of institutions imparting national education was to give dignity to physical labour. It was a national programme to foster the ideals of equality and fraternity and promote genuine nationalist feelings. Our leaders wanted a system of education that would instill among the students feelings of common nationality and fraternity.

Under a uniform system of education, the new generation would become truly Indian in outlook. That was the reason why many insisted on avoiding regionalism in our educational system. We think education moulds the minds of men. Today our national situation has deteriorated to such an extent that even an educated Indian is not accustomed to thinking in terms of India.

There seems to be a common view that when everyone thinks of his own province, the sum total of Indians will be thinking of India. This is a fallacious view. If every individual thinks of himself, he does not thereby ensure social good. The overall individual interest does not add up to social welfare.

• Every individual and region has to think in terms of the nation.
• Many educationists are of the view that if every Indian is imparted the same type of education, then the horizon of the Indian educational system would broaden.
• That would also result in promoting amity among Indians States by reducing inter-State conflicts.

For this purpose, the syllabus and the medium of instruction will have to be the same throughout the country. Such a policy will accelerate our march towards equality. To achieve this, a ‘three languages formula’ was framed, but it did not work, because ultimately regionalism prevailed over nationalism.

In substance, we will have to prepare afresh a blueprint of the entire educational system. It is said that “Indian culture is agriculture.” That should be reflected everywhere, including in education. Rahul Gandhi visited a house of an agriculturist in Vidarbha. He enquired whether any of his sons would like to be agriculturist? The reply was in negative.

They told him there is no status or dignity for an agriculturist. Even a Class-IV Government servant is respected more than a farmer. The problem of suicide by the agriculturists cannot be solved alone by giving proper price to agricultural products. The more important question is respect and dignity for productive labour.

1. Today Government employees are paid city allowance, where all the facilities are available.
2. Even a teacher gets an additional income by running tuition classes or taking tuitions.
3. Now what is necessary is to pay rural allowance, so that the teachers will be encouraged to go to villages or rural areas, where though there are schools and the educational schemes, but teachers or tutors are not available.

Therefore, all these aspects have to be taken into account while planning the educational policy at the national level. These are my random thoughts relating to educational system. I hope they would provide scope for loud thinking and may be of some help in developing a swadeshi educational system.
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What are the 6 pillars of education?

What are the six pillars of education? – Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, Citizenship are the six pillars of character education. Let’s look at each one and the definitions and explanations I incorporated into the development of the S.O. What! Literacy, Life Skills, and Character Education curriculum :

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   What are the 4 functions of education?

   Learning Objectives –

   1. List the major functions of education.
   2. Explain the problems that conflict theory sees in education.
   3. Describe how symbolic interactionism understands education.

   The major sociological perspectives on education fall nicely into the functional, conflict, and symbolic interactionist approaches (Ballantine & Hammack, 2009). Table 16.1 “Theory Snapshot” summarizes what these approaches say. Table 16.1 Theory Snapshot

   Theoretical perspective	Major assumptions
   Functionalism	Education serves several functions for society. These include (a) socialization, (b) social integration, (c) social placement, and (d) social and cultural innovation. Latent functions include child care, the establishment of peer relationships, and lowering unemployment by keeping high school students out of the full-time labor force.
   Conflict theory	Education promotes social inequality through the use of tracking and standardized testing and the impact of its “hidden curriculum.” Schools differ widely in their funding and learning conditions, and this type of inequality leads to learning disparities that reinforce social inequality.
   Symbolic interactionism	This perspective focuses on social interaction in the classroom, on the playground, and in other school venues. Specific research finds that social interaction in schools affects the development of gender roles and that teachers’ expectations of pupils’ intellectual abilities affect how much pupils learn.

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   What is 10 point plan in education?

   Revisiting the 10-point Education Agenda (First of two parts) When he took the first steps in his journey to Malacañang, Benigno Aquino III presented himself to the electorate as the “education president.” His “Ten Things I Will Fix in Philippine Basic Education” campaign speech resonated so well that it is now known as the Department of Education’s “10-Point Basic Education Agenda.” It helps to have a plan, so they say, so perhaps now is as good a time as any to revisit the 10-point Basic Education Agenda and see where it has brought us so far.

   In no order of importance, the 10 points are: 12-year basic education cycle; universal preschool; madaris education as a subsystem; technical-vocational courses in high school; every child a reader by Grade 1; improvement of science and mathematics; expansion of assistance to private education; use of mother language instruction; better textbooks; and more classrooms.

   The first two items on the list are the shift to a “globally comparable” 12-year basic education cycle followed closely by universal preschool, all within five years counting from 2011. The appropriate laws have been enacted for these two measures: Republic Act No.10533 (for K-to-12) and RA 10157 (the Universal Kindergarten Law).

   • I recall that during the early discussions on the 12-year education cycle, the focus was to somehow “decongest” the curriculum so that the learner would have more time to assimilate and internalize the concepts being taught.
   • Simply put, in a 10-year basic education cycle, the learner needs to acquire about 200 concepts from five subjects in just as many school days.

   Presumably, the added two years would provide a little breathing room to the teacher, the learner and the school itself. Back then, Education Undersecretary Mike Luz commented that “to compensate for the shorter basic education cycle, our schools—both public and private elementary and high schools—are cramming into 10 years what other countries are teaching their children over 12 years.

   The result: a smorgasbord of subject matter covered with little or poor learning by our children. A 12-year basic education cycle where the same subjects can be spread out over a longer period of time would allow teachers to go more deeply into subject matter so students can learn more completely by doing more reading, writing, problem sets, exercises, oral recitation and individual and group projects.

   For example, standard math for graduating seniors in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand now goes up through introductory calculus. Here, we barely cover geometry and trigonometry.” The enactment of the Universal Kindergarten Law ensures that the learner is at least six years old when he/she enrolls in Grade 1, and that he/she has had one year of preschool.

   The Kindergarten Law and K-to-12 hoped to address the overall preparedness of the graduate to join the workforce. In a 10-year cycle with no preschool, the learner is usually 16 to 17 years old when he/she graduates high school. He/She is too young to work, emotionally, physically and legally. His/her parents therefore actually have no choice but to put him/her through at least a couple of years of college (or maybe enroll him/her in a two-year skills improvement course).

   Unfortunately, going by the results of the National Achievement Tests over the years, the average high school graduate is grossly unprepared for real higher learning—hence the necessity for “general education” subjects like English, science and math during the first two years before hitting the majors.

   • This being the case, it is actually accurate to say that we’ve always had a 12-year basic education cycle, with the last two years being the freshman and sophomore years at university.
   • Of course, the parents have to pay for the last two years, unlike in K-to-12 where public schools charge no tuition.) Today, K-to-12 is implemented as K-6-4-2.

   The last two years are now known as senior high school, where the specialization tracks come in. The intent of the framers of the new K-to-12 curriculum is that four possible exits will make themselves evident for the learner as he/she goes through senior high school.

   He/She could go for higher learning (which now has a very streamlined GE curriculum). He/She could immediately try to find work: the K-to-12 diploma should be enough to qualify him/her for certain kinds of jobs. He/She could explore the exciting world of entrepreneurship, or embark on middle skills improvement, and then get a job.

   Now look at item No.5: every child a reader by Grade 1. In an earlier commentary (dated Dec.7, 2013), I said that reading is the key to everything. All the world’s knowledge is at your beck and call, if only you could read well, first in your own mother tongue and then in a global language like English.

   (Concluded next week)Butch Hernandez () is the executive director of the Eggie Apostol Foundation and education lead for talent development at the IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines. Read Next

   Don’t miss out on the latest news and information. Subscribe to to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000. : Revisiting the 10-point Education Agenda
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   Who introduced 4 pillars of education?

   How do we design meaningful learning experiences that develop the skills and competencies most needed in the present, for the futures we want to create? From the mid-1990s perspective of a world seen as awash in change and complexity, a UNESCO commission under the leadership of Jacques Delors proposed four pillars that education could rest upon.

   • To “simultaneously provide maps of a world in constant turmoil and a compass that will enable people to find their way in it”, the Delors commission proposed learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together, and learning to be as four fundamental types of learning.
   • Each deserved equal attention.

   And together they were to form a whole that would guide education across the human lifespan. Change, complexity – also fragility, precarity and uncertainty – are very much with us 25 years later. The COVID pandemic has held up a mirror and shown us that we remain far from making our societies more just, equitable and inclusive.

   1. It is also clear that we still have much work to do to avert ecological catastrophe.
   2. But, COVID has also reinforced the conviction of many that mutual support, the cooperative sharing of resources, and collective action provide the right moral coordinates and give good reason for hope.
   3. The commons movement is one suggested strategy for leveraging mutuality, cooperation and collective action for a better world.

   Presented by David Bollier of The Next System Project as “at once a paradigm, a discourse, an ethic, and a set of social practices,” the commons has been held up as holding great promise for transforming societies. Important here is the common as what is shared, commoning as what is done together, and the common good as what is built and cared for by individuals together.

   1. No commons simply exists on its own.
   2. A commons needs to be nurtured, at times protected.
   3. And if we accept that “commoning” skills and competencies are high among those needed in the present for the futures we want to create, we might consider reorienting the Delors “four pillars” around the commons.
   4. Reworking each of these pillars in relation to building capacity for commoning actions and strengthening the common good offers a compass and map well suited for the collective challenges of our present historical juncture.

   Learning to study, inquire and co-construct together Within a commons framing, acquiring knowledge needs to be recast as not simply enabling individuals, but rather as connecting individuals to one another and interegenerationally to the common knowledge resources of humanity.

   A commoning paradigm requires attention to the collective ways knowledge is accessed, used, and created. The knowledge pillar supporting education would then need to be oriented towards learning to study, inquire and co-construct together, This revision would highlight the social dimensions of learning, as well as the diverse and networked dimensions of knowledge.

   Reworking the “learning to know” pillar in this way would point educators towards constructivist pedagogical approaches and towards viewing their students as learning communities. It would highlight the knowledge commons as an intergenerational resource and conversation that has been built and nurtured across millennia.

   Learning to collectively mobilize The Delors Commission’s discussion of “learning to do” almost exclusively narrowed to the issue of putting learning into practice in the workplace. A commons framing would recast this in terms of skills and competencies that enable collective action. The collaboration capability thus foregrounded would be valuable in the world of work and far beyond.

   The doing pillar that supports education would need to be oriented to learning to collectively mobilize, Focusing educational efforts on empowering learners to take action together surfaces the importance of deliberation, cross-cultural communication and coalition building.

   Learning to live in a common world Setting “learning to live together” as a key pillar puts education on the right track. As the COVID disruptions have unfolded, humanity has been reminded just how closely we are linked to one another biologically, politically, and socially. (Though at times this last has painfully manifested through its absence and deferral.) While “together” is a robust concept, we cannot let it only mean peaceful “living with others” co-existence.

   Tolerating and respecting the rights of others and the ways of being of others is a first step. But, the challenge for humans living on planet earth in 2021 is to make healthy, sustainable ways of co-living: with one another and with the planet. Orienting this pillar towards learning to live in a common world elevates the importance of education that engages with our common humanity and with the natural world of which we are a part.

   This change enables us to reshape common living as intertwined and a fundamentally shared experience. Learning to attend and care When the Delors Commission presented “learning to be”, it placed great emphasis on the development of one’s personality and being able to act with independence, judgment and personal responsibility.

   The role of education in supporting people in freedom of thought, critical thinking, and the realization of their own self-chosen purposes is not to be overlooked. At the same time, we have seen the insidious dangers of acquisitive individualism and diminished empathy that appear when autonomy comes entirely at the expense of an understanding of relationality.

   • Applying a commons framing to the pillar of education that emphasizes the development of the complete person, we would do well to think in terms of learning to attend and care,
   • This would entail understanding ourselves as persons who are simultaneously capable and vulnerable.
   • It would force us to reflect on how we affect and are affected by others and the world.

   It would require that educators focus their work on the rights and responsibilities that come into play in our relationships and interdependencies. A commoning paradigm would take problems of caring-about, caring-for, care-giving and care-receiving as inextricably social and moral questions that call for individuals to take action together and share responsibility.

   Considering this one of the fundamental pillars of education would put our relationships with one another and with a more-than-human world at the center of educational practice. This piece has suggested that core educational foundations can be usefully reworked to value and empower individuals as they also leverage mutuality, cooperation and collective action for a better world.

   The Delors four pillars can be updated to better support educators who are working to design meaningful learning experiences. Using a commons framework to foreground what we share together, what we do together, and what we build together helps us reimagine the skills and competencies most needed in the present for the futures we want to create.
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   What is the most important outcome that Gandhiji wanted us to get from education?

   Development values through Basic Education: – Gandhiji was a great revolutionary person. He had deeply thought over all the aspects (factors) relating to life. He has show a new path for solution of problems of entire world by placing the universal human values at social and national level.

   1. “Welfare of all (universal welfare) is our welfare.
   2. The work of a barber and lawyer should be equality appraised because the right of livelihood is equal for all.
   3. Simple and laborious life of a farmer is the real life”.2

   Gandhiji set up Phoenix Ashram (hermitage) in south-Africa to apply these doctrines in daily practice. He took up experiments of education, thus it can be said that the seeds of educational thoughts were in Gandhiji in South Africa. He conducted Educational experiment at phoenix Ashram and Tolstoy wadi (Garden) in South Africa. These include:

   • Education for character building, education thought mother-tongue.
   • Place of manual work in education and co-education.
   • Hostel residence and community life.
   • Moral education though character and good conduct.
   • Educational of soul should be imparted thought teacher’s (model) life rather than through books.
   • Health education for physical fitness and health and insistence for simple life.
   • Importance for self-help and self-reliance, education for thoroughness (strength), education for citizenship.
   • Education for self-help and self-reliance, education for personality development.
   • Education for avoiding caste and colour distinction, education for vocation useful for life.
   • Education for equality of all the religions, education based (founded) on truth, non-violence and justice”.

   Gandhiji held educational experiment at Shantiniketan, Kocharab Ashram, Sabarmati Ashram and Gujarat Vidhyapeeth after returning form South Africa, and gave a new vision (philosophy) of education to educational world by placing “Vardha educational Scheme” before the nation in 1937.

   1. The report of “Vardha Education Schme-1937 include ( covered) only the primary stage of education.
   2. But in 1945, Gandhiji put the concept of “comprehensive basic Education (Samagra Nai Talim) Training before the nation”.
   3. The five national values presented under the title of national Panchsheel included in NPE 1986 viz (1) Cleanliness (2) Truthfulness (3) Hardwork (3) equality and (5) co-operation are naturally developed in basic education.

   In basic education system it is recommended to impart education thought mother tongue and if is already so. Gnadhiji, too believed that the foundation of education should be laid through mother tongue. It helps inculcating values like love towards mother tongue and Swadeshi (native).

   Education through industry is the basic principal of basic education, Basic education, because it help developing values like respect for manual labour, sense of co-operation, feeling of being mutually helpful through manual work, development of friendship feeling, economical self-reliance, team spirit and sincerity.

   Today we have forgotten self-help (self-labour) I education. As a result children seem to be lacking behind in routine dealing skills in daily life. Present education has become examination centered. Due to this curiously enough a student, fluently uttering any principal of since, answer of questions of history or fluently reciting any of the Gujarati poems becomes nervous when the fuse of home light burns or a nail of shoe is dropped out.

   • Everybody must learn to do his/her own work by him/herself.
   • Present children seem to understand that clearing house, sweeping room, cleansing room with wet cloth, cleaning vessels; washing clothes are the foundations of work women.
   • Such mis-concept of child’s mind prevents their comprehensive development.

   Such misconnect will be removed only when self-labour will be given an important place in education. Self- labour is given an important place in basic education. Here children do as many activities as possible on their own accord. As a result, values like exertion, efforts, courage, initiation, respect for manual labour, self-confidence and self-confidence and self-dependence etc.

   1. Develop automatically in children.
   2. Basic education imparts children training of self-reliance.
   3. One of the four major resolutions formed by Vardha Parishad reads thus: “During the entire time period, the centre of education must be some type of physical and (useful) productive work, and the abilities of children should be developed and education should be imported as far as possible in co-ordination with the central major industry selected by them and keeping in view the environment of children” in this productivity is directly connected with self-reliance.

   Gandhiji has said in context of self reliance. “I would prefer to start a child’s education after teaching him some useful manual industry and enabling him for some innovative creation. Every school can be self-reliant”.7 Education should offer a child such a strength that he can be free form tension about his future (i.e.

   • What to do?) at the end of education.
   • Shastri Jayendra Dave while explaining the meaning of self-dependence says, Self-dependence means relief from economical, social, mental or any type of surjection – individual’s being self-reliant.
   • An individual should acquire three-fold independence (self-reliance) after completing education”8 that is why Gandhiji had advocated education through industry, so that the individual can stand on his legs (be -self-reliant), that is he/she can be self-dependent, self-reliant.

   Collective (inseparable) education, too, has been given place as important as industry and community life. Saint Vinobajee has said. “The learning process between teacher and student is not possible without harmony among (home) family, society, environment, and embellishment.

   If even one of them is absent, it raises a risk of failure of education exereise”19 That is way Gandhiji has show us the path of comprehensive education generated by experience through perceptible functions or industry going to the open environmental rather than the education process in a close room of four walls.

   Thus education thought comprehensive education system leads to the promotion of values. Like environmental preservation, human viewpoint, awareness of social accountability and social service. In basic education Gandhiji has given the same importance to community life as to industry as a medium of education.

   • Education thought community life develops in children the qualities like team spirit should to shoulder work that is co-operation and a sense of mutual help.
   • A Children acquires competence of social adjustment thought community life.
   • In traditional education system, only class-room teaching talks place collectively.

   There too, the education is being imparted through talking or lecture method rather than activities. As a result the development of sociability in children does not reach the expected level. While in the other hand, in Gandhiji basic education system, the education of community life is imparted through perceptible activity of daily life dealings and various activities of industry.

   • Daily activities of school and laborious, creative and productive activities of hand industry have been made a medium of community education.
   • Thus a child naturally develops sociability.
   • Ashrami (Residential) Education has been given a crucial place in basic education Present residential education has its roots in our ancient Indian culture.

   Gandhiji said, “I erect an Ashram wherever I go, as if I don’t know anything else”. This is true. This ‘Ashram’ Itself becomes the form of education. In our country there prevailed an Indian traditional of this Ashrami education in ‘Penance forest’ (ascetics dwelling) and ‘Gurukul’.

   Gandhiji comes and conducted experiment as to what Ashrami education can be suitable to modern circumstance (time and place), wherever he went. According to him, “Ashram was his laboratory of education”. In Ashrami education system, the education for comprehensive development of children isimparted through co-curricular activities like community life, mass prayer, common dinner, physical exercise, team works, games and sports, assignment (homework), cultural programmes, celebration of special days, and creative programmes.

   Ashrami (residential) education is necessary in Basic Education. Children arise in the early morning, complete their routine work and recite collective all religions prayer is recited in the evening, too, at the hostel. Collective (mass) prayer programme is inevitably implemented in school also.

   This helps cultivating values like spiritual values, non-indulgence in taste, non-stealing (not using more than one’s needs), non-violence, outlook of equality to words all religious, honestly, holiness, peace in children. During hostel residential children take up various activities in various teams or collectively.

   These include room cleaning, ground cleaning, dining hall cleaning, toilet and urinal cleaning, fetching water, cooking activities, corn cleaning, watering plants, beside there own (personal) activities like washing cloth, taking bath etc. In short, training of all the functions related to life is imparted in basic education system.

   Due to this, values like cleanliness, self-reliance, labour, team spirit, co-operation, endurance power, loyalty, good conduct, honestly, duty observance (discipline), obedience, time-keeping, Exercises, games and sport related to physical education are also organized with a view to developing health related values in children.

   In basic education, various celebrations such as national festivals, birth anniversary, death anniversary, parents (guardians) day, self-education day, environment day, world population day and such other days are celebrated. Cultural programmes are organized on such occasions.

   1. Moreover, creative programmes given by Gandhiji such as village cleaning, prevention of untouchability, communal unity, prohibition (of alcoholic drinks) Khadi activities, adult education, women uplift, health education, nursing of lepers, addiction relief, etc.
   2. Are celebrated in basic schools as well as in community and hostels.

   All these help developing moral values, spiritual values, social values, national values, cultural values and individual values naturally among children. Thus basic education is such a medium through which values useful for the life are naturally developed among children.
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   What is the impact of Gandhi’s philosophy on education?

   Relevance of Gandhian ideals in the scheme of Value Education – By P.I. Devraj & Shyamala K.* The importance of providing value education is felt necessary today because the present system of education cannot contribute much to the individual and social development. Value-oriented education does not mean preaching of mere moral sciences or propagating particular religious tenets, but it is imparting knowledge of values considered functional for both individual as well as society.

   • Gandhi’s philosophical, religious, economic and social approach and a number of contemporary Gandhian perspectives are relevant to an understanding of human values and social change today.
   • By Gandhian ideals in the education policy, we will be able to inspire the whole world by his ideas of truth, nonviolence, peace and love.

   Gandhi frequently asserted that mass illiteracy is a curse that hampers the development of a nation. He wrote: ” I am a firm believer in the principle of free and compulsory primary education for India”. Gandhi felt that education should not only increase knowledge but also develop culture in heart and hand.

   • Another of Gandhi’s interests lay in character building.
   • Education without character building was not education according to him.
   • He considered a strong character as the basic of a good citizen.
   • So the issues of character building through value-based education on the one hand and that of integrating science and technology on the other hand have to go together.

   So we, in the contemporary situation, have to draw a balanced evaluation of science because its progress has a great role to play in determining the directions of value education. In order to bring about social change we have to channelize human values through education.

   Truth and nonviolence can generate human values. Declaring the importance of nonviolence, he said: “Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my reed.” 1 He further added: “Without Ahimsa it is not possible to seek and find truth, Ahimsa and truth are so intertwined that it is practically impossible to disintegrate and separate them.

   They are like the two sides of the same coin.” 2 Development of peace and security through cooperation seems to be essential for the modern society’s progress and prosperity. This is possible because values and improvement are intertwined. Value education in the sense of gaining knowledge of values is not enough but have to be realized and loved by selecting the values which are relevant and best suited to the needs of our country.

   1. Gandhi infused in us a hope through his ideals of love, tolerance, truth, nonviolence and service of mankind which are even more relevant today than they were in his own time and they will continue to exercise a lasting influence in our society.
   2. It may be said that the foundations of an ideal civilization as conceived by Gandhi was based on Truth and Nonviolence as the integrally related means and ends.

   They are values central to any society because all human relations in the social, political as well as economic spheres are influenced by them in one way or the other. They are to be the standards and goals of our society. These can also become the foundations of a more peaceful and happy world order which is very much the need of mankind today.
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   Grady A. Lowry