Skilling for life and livelihood through the basic level of Education: Old approach in need of revival
email: khyati.khush@gmail.com
Education in
India has always been a symbol of pride and heritage. Delivery of quality
education to all has been prolonged effort post independence. Presently, India
is one of the world’s fastest growing economies in terms of GDP share (PPP),
only behind China and US (World Bank Report 2011). The ‘Global Economic
Prospects’ report published by World Bank in January’2015 forecasted that by
2017 India will out-pace China in terms of GDP growth rate.[1]
The country sits on a most advantageous situation with 65% of its population
being under the age of 35 and approximately 12 million individuals on an
average are expected to join the workforce every year. With these demographics,
it happens to be world’s youngest nation with median age of 27years.
However, the
ability of the nation to reap maximum benefits out of this better-off is
doubted when the quality of our education system is bothering. Annual Status of
Education Report (ASER) 2014 mentions though the enrolment levels in Indian
schools are 96% or higher for the 6-14 age group but 25% children in Std-VIII
and 50% in Std-V cannot read Std-II level textbooks and 19.5% children in
Std-II cannot recognize numbers.[2]
National University of Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA) also
mentions concern over the quality of learning in its document titled ‘India:
Education for all- towards quality and equity’ published in August’2014.[3]
And so does National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2014 conducted by NCERT[4].
With this huge
grey area in terms of quality of education in the Indian Education System we
cannot expect our generations to have a future of vast opportunities. This
definitely paves way for poor employability, and subsequently social
degradation. Quoting in this regards further, the India Skills Report 2015
released by CII with PeopleStrong and Wheebox that finds only 39.36% (18-21
yrs), 34.13% (22-25 yrs) and 30.48% (26-29 yrs) graduate/under-graduate
candidates employable out of 300,000 tested all across India,[5]
and most lacked basic employability skills of communication and
numerical/logical ability. These statistics certainly threaten the aspirations
of comprehensive development and maximizing the demographic dividend in India.
Elementary Education-
the founding level
Elementary
education (EE) in India is the only compulsory level of education extended as a
right to all children in the age group 6-14 years. The concern starts from this
level itself, when after so many years of independence there has been focus on
Universalizing Elementary Education, and more than a decade of Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan, education was given as a right to children just few years ago.
Moreover, since 28years we have not had any National Policy for Education. Even
so, there have been continuous reports on poor basic learning standards in our
schools. Children, who struggle to even read, write and comprehend general
concepts during basic education level and somehow get through to higher levels
of education, shall definitely have poor skills for life as well as livelihood
subsequently.
There is a
serious need to look at education as a breakthrough in the vicious circle of
poverty. Education is the index of nation’s sustainable development apparently.
Just as GDP reflects prosperity of the nation at a point of time, the level of
education in a country reflects its ability to sustain development over time.
Developing nations should not devalue the importance of education. It empowers
the population of the country and strengthens the society. The theories of
education and contribution of education philosophers of India, relevantly
emphasizes providing universal and compulsory education to all children
alongwith imparting skills for life and livelihood through basic education.
Philosophical
perspectives
Primarily, as
common man understands, education aims at imparting knowledge. It is this
knowledge that requires a global outlook and a synthesis of various types of
information and experiences. This relates to the philosophical aspect of
education that forms of the base of any education system across the globe. As
Plato defines, “True education, whatever that may be, will have the greatest
tendency to civilize and humanize in their relation to another’, which is
still the most widely accepted theory of education based on humanism[6].
The Indian
education system ever since the Vedic age was propounded on same humanist
principles essentially, extending it to the path of salvation. Historian
Altekar has rightly remarked in this context that in Indian education has been
‘regarded as a source of illumination and power that transforms and ennobles
our nature by progressive and harmonious development of our physical, mental,
intellectual and spiritual powers[7].’
The contemporary Indian philosophers of education have also furthered the same
essence of education. Their theories seem to be based on the ancient Upanisadic
thought, extending to Neo-Vedanta philosophy. Whether it was Sri
Aurobindo, Vivekanada, Tagore or Gandhi, ‘all these philosophers with minor
differences among them have maintained what can be called Integral Humanism,
which is the philosophy of our age.’ (G.R Sharma, 2003).
The doctrine was
advocated by educationist Pt Madan Mohan Malviya. In his view, ‘education must
be given to all as he believed that poverty lies in the ignorance of people. He
realized the importance of education for social and economic development.’ He
advocated compulsory primary education in India and universal elementary
education for overall development. He linked importance of elementary education
with agriculture and industrial education, mentioning that it provides the base
for technical and specialized education. Malviya’s philosophy of education
based on Integral Humanism emphasized education to be a tool for overall
development of personality.[8]
The Gandhian
exposition on aim of education is remarkable here. It mentions that ‘education
is ought to be a kind of insurance against unemployment’[9].
In his words, "The child at the age of 14, that is, after finishing
7years course should be discharged as an earning unit. … Even so the State
takes charge of the child at age-7, and returns it to the family as an earning
unit. You impart education and simultaneously cut at the root of unemployment.”
The ‘Wardha Scheme of Basic Education’ postulated by Gandhi reflecting the
same ideals contained education through handicraft for skilling children in
order to make them self-reliant later in life, establishing direct relationship
of knowledge and life. It advocated mother-tongue of the child to be the medium
of instruction, and child to be the centre of education system while teachers
to be the main pillars of the entire system. It was focused on overall
development of the child--his body, mind and soul. It provided for systematic
and organized knowledge delivery to the child. It adequately provided for
teachers’ training as well[10].
The Indian
Philosophy of Education looks at education as a path towards salvation,
primarily based on Integral Humanism, which is further based on the attributes
of life-- body, mind, intellect and soul, related to kama, artha, dharma
and moksha, respectively. And since, elementary education--the founding
level of education is the only compulsory channel of education in India, it is
relevant to emphasize ‘skills for life and livelihood’ through this basic level
of education. This in turn is the key to sustainable development of the country
withal.
Complex system
and missing links
The skill
component emphasized here, for Elementary education can be broadly categorized
as Basic Employability skills, which includes basic numeracy,
arithmetic, language skills, general awareness, cognitive ability, career
planning skills, etc and Life skills, which includes self awareness,
problem solving, decision making, creative aptitude, social skills, emotional
skills, etc. The existing education framework mostly contains it all through
National Curriculum framework or Minimum Learning levels framework, etc. The
problem is where these policies don’t find effective practice in light of
obsolete, non-responsive and poor governance mechanisms. The focus of policy
interventions has been more on providing the ‘essentials of education’ with more
quantitative approach, and less on the ‘governance part’ indicating lesser
importance given to the qualitative approach. The competition and monitoring is
seen to be based more on providing quantity of infrastructure than on quality
infrastructure, in most of the States. Moreover, when implementation of
policies wrt to School Education largely depends on the State(s), there are no
links to ensure uniformity in basic indicators of quality. Neither the system
is induced through competition to bring the states at par on certain basic parameters.
Then, till now
there was no concrete mechanism and effort to address the challenges in
implementing the RTE Act. Several clauses of the Act have created confusion and
worsened the learning systems at the grassroot levels. Non-detention policy
(NDP) is the most evident example of this, which was brought to retain children
and control drop-outs, but resulted in motivating absenteeism and caused
disinterest in studies on the part of most of the children and their parents
(Geeta Bhukkal Committee Report). The ‘Language Disadvantage’ in our classrooms
that deters learning (Mohanty et.al. 2009) has found no profound
consideration in our policy framework yet. With regards to Teachers
availability and training, the system has been most inconsistent. The sick
states in terms of learning are those where availability of trained teachers
has been a consistent issue. The recent NSDC report on Skill gaps (Vol.8, 2015)
has even put a question on the skills of existing trained teachers, and even on
the training methods of the DIETs. %age
of professionally trained regular teachers is 80.06 in 2013-14 (78.58 in
2012-13), while that of contractual
teachers is 55.55 in 2013-14 (54.01 in 2012-13).[11]
These are the some of the contemporary concerns and issues in the existing
framework which deter delivery of these essential skills through the compulsory
level of education in India.
Finding a way
forward for sustainable development
The new
government formed under NDA in 2014 was voted to power for development, which
is ofcourse not possible with poorly skilled people. In order to meet the
aspirations of the people and to sustain it over time, there is a strong need
to revive the old approaches dying at the hands of the complex system and to bridge
the missing links in the existing system rigorously. The NDA government seems
to have caught this nerve and is seen to be committed towards the same
gradually. For instance, when the country didn’t have any National Policy for
Education since last 28years, the new government has called for a participatory
and comprehensive process to formulate the new National Policy for Education.[12]
The consultative
new education policy formulation process, in its most comprehensive form is
covering from 2.5lac Gram Panchayats to the State Governments and includes
other relevant stakeholders too, reflecting the approach of finding the missing
links from the grassroots, assimilating the practical challenges and then carving
the way forward. The 13 themes designed for School Education and 20 themes for
Higher Education for consultation in this context comprehensively cover all
aspects. It can be expected that the new education policy will provide concrete
measures to bridge the existing disconnect in policy and practice, gives way to
contemporary and innovative approaches for quality education, and revives the
Indian philosophy of Education of skilling for life and livelihood through the
basic level of education. After all, children are the future of the country.
Education system providing these basic skills prepares them for life and makes
way for sustainable development of the country as such kind of education
transcends poverty and underdevelopment.
[1] GEP Report,
World Bank 2015 available at http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/global-economic-prospects/summary-table
[2] ASER 2014
press release: http://img.asercentre.org/docs/Publications/ASER%20Reports/ASER%202014/pressreleaseeng.pdf
[5] India Skills
Report 2015: https://wheebox.com/logo/India%20Skills%20Report2015.pdf
[6] Sharma, G.R. ‘Trends in Contemporary
Indian Philosophy of Education- A Critical Evaluation’. 2003.
[7] Altekar, A.S. ‘Education
in Ancient India’. 1934.
[8] Tiwari,
Jyotsna. ‘Madan Mohan Malaviya: Statesman, Parliamentarian and
Educationist.’ 2013. (Bundelkhand
University)
[9] Gandhi, M.K, ‘Harijan’.
1937.
[10] Pathak, R.P. ‘Education
in Emerging India.’ 2007.
[11] Education for
All (EFA) report 2014, available at http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/EFA-Review-Report-final.pdf
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