The educational system formulated by Mahatma Gandhi Nai-Talim (New Education)
Nai-Talim (New Education) is a well-formulated wholistic
approach to education which Mahatma Gandhi would be the right scheme to ensure
the overall development of individuals and society as a whole. He has published
a detailed account of this system in his newspaper ‘Harijan’ in the year 1937.
It is a system which was systematically developed based on experiments from
1904 with the intention of creating the best opportunities within the
neighborhoods of an individual. . The Nai-Talim system of education focuses on
the development of body, mind, and spirit which can ensure the complete
development of the personality of every student. Nai-Talim is based on four
basic principles
- Education
or learning in the mother tongue along with vocational training and Work,
- Vocational
training and work should be linked with the most useful vocational needs
of the locality,
- Learning
should be linked with vocational work
- Work
should be socially useful and productive needed for living.
This approach of work-centric education with technology
accessible locally is the fundamental approach of Nai Talim. It is technically
a mass education approach because the core focus is on socially useful work,
and it was expected to be an effective model for our education system as a whole.
The principle formulation of Nai-Talim focuses on three elements
of education - learning, work, and locally available technology which are
linked by a repetitive process of Education, work, and using Technology in a
cyclic manner, which can lead to Socially Useful and Productive Work (SUPW). In
this formulation, Education is learning through working and using
technology for creating Socially useful productive systems, in which quality is
embedded due to output of work (products and services) being socially useful
and helpful which in turn results in
- raising
the productivity of all those involved in using these products and
services
- Work is
assumed to be wholesome, having routine, rest, progress, and pleasure all
integrated into working and usage of technology
- Technology
is either empowering and/or non-exploitative of people and nature,.
Technology should offer wholesome work, but should not convert a human
being into or as a part of the machine when the work is carried out,
virtually degrading the creative nature in them. It should also not
pollute or degrade the nature around.
This is the Nai or newness aspect that is involved in the
process of working, giving freedom and autonomy to the learner for choosing and
creating new processes and results associated with their work
The other vital concept of Nai Talim, is Samavaya (Sama –equal
and vaya / vyaya- expenditure) maintaining the balance of expenditure in
Learning and Social Development. Here there is an emphasis on both learning and
development to be simultaneously undergone and used as required for Socially
useful productive systems. The demands of Socially useful productive systems
makes a person capable of getting into or out of a situation using existing
resources with the use of his learning and development fitting into each other,
which intern leads to the development of higher levels of processes and
results. In this system after every cycle of operation, there is a scope for
innovation that becomes new / Nai. This can lead to, continuous striving for
excellence, which is the obligation of every Indian citizen and particularly of
teachers and students. Since Samavaya incorporates a looping process of
reforming, this model of education is embedded with continuous developing and
striving for excelling in performance.
Nai Talim is a value-based, mass-based education system that
prevents the restrictive class approach. Eventually, a class of talented
persons may get selected by their superior performance. But it does not set
limitations on anyone else and every learner and worker has an equal and open
opportunity to develop his/her innate talents.
Nai Talim is a system that ensures Life-long Learning and
development. The goal is to design and develop a system in which personal and
social performance could be enhanced by giving autonomy to the learner and his
learning which can result in wholesome work and making work creative and
innovative. This Gandhian approach in education is “learning for life, learning
from life and learning throughout life” where a strong link is created in
education with yoga, industry and cooperative working (yoga, udyoga, and
sahayoga) It is a way for learning, working, developing, transforming
continuously and rising on higher cultural and innovation levels of modernity and
post-modernity.
RABINDRANATH TAGORE’S
PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
Tagore's vision of the education system that was deemed
essential to the then population was one that aimed at promoting international
co-operation and creating people who have the ability to reach out to the
world. At the same time, it gave high importance to focus on one's own roots
and immediate surroundings but also provides avenues for connecting to various
cultures of the larger world. It also gave a lot of importance to make learning
a pleasurable experience and customizing it according to the personality of the
child. The curriculum also focused on connecting to nature with the classes
being held in natural surroundings. The schedule of the classes was also
flexible in nature to enable necessary changes in the timings according to the
weather. In the same manner, special attention was given to occurrences that
happen as a part of natural phenomena and also celebrating seasonal festivals.
Tagore established his own institution which was known as
Santiniketan in the year 1901. Santiniketan has its own identity of being the
first institution of its type in the field of modern education at the time when
the whole country had started showing interest in the European model of
education. This institution was unique in its own way because the students were
not confined to classes even though a formal learning environment was present
in the institution. According to Tagore, the great task of the institution was
to provide adequate resources to educate the mind and all the senses through
various activities.
The four fundamental principles in Tagore’s educational
philosophy are
1. Naturalism
2. Humanism
3. Internationalism
4. idealism.
According to Tagore the education becomes effective only when it
is imparted in natural surroundings. He believed that this approach can help in
developing the learner’s contact with nature and that nature can teach a person
more than any institution. It can also ensure adequate physical activity for
the learner. So he felt that every Educational institution should realize the
importance of this fact and inculcate co-curricular activities in their
curriculum to a great extent
He believed that all the children have a powerful subconscious
mind which can gather energy and knowledge from the surrounding environment. He
despised the children being catered with artificial bookish knowledge alone. He
believed that giving children freedom of expression can only help the child
develop the real and relevant knowledge which can help in the spontaneous
overflow of our deeper nature of the person and also help him to develop
spiritual insight.
According to Tagore Education should enable the mind to find out
that ultimate truth which frees a person from the bondage of materialistic
pleasures. It should help the person to understand the value of love and the
inner self. It should also help a person to overcome the value he attaches to
wealth and power. In this process, education enlightens a person about the
value of divine wealth realization of truth. The aim of education should be to
develop the perfection of human beings by dispelling ignorance by ushering in
the light of knowledge. It should enable a person to lead a complete life with
respect to all factors associated with one’s life which includes economic,
intellectual, aesthetic, social, and spiritual.
Tagore also insisted education should happen in an environment
that inspires people to be creative and it is important to promote creative
activities among students. There should be a scope for all kinds of
intellectual exploration which is constructive in nature. Teaching must be
integrated with cultural, spiritual, intellectual, aesthetic, economic, and
social factors that are relevant to the environment that a student belongs to
and at the same time provide knowledge about the wider world with regard to all
these components. True education should help a person to realize at every step
how the training and knowledge has a direct connection with a person’s
surroundings.
The aims of this institution established by Tagore:
- Self-realization:
Tagore felt that Spirituality is the source of humanism. So he believed
that the way a person manifests his personality depends upon the
self-realization and knowledge of spirituality that a person develops.
- Intellectual
Development: For Tagore intellectual development is judged by, to what
extent a person can maintain the alertness of his mind, has the ability to
think freely, Generating creative ideas, and maintaining his curiosity to
explore. He felt that real intellectual development can happen only when a
child adopts his own way of learning and feels the freedom to express
their thoughts and ideas which can lead to wholistic development.
- Physical
development: He also insisted that physical education which includes yoga,
game and sports should be an integral part of education because this can
only help the child to develop a sound and healthy physique.
- Love for
Humanity: Tagore also felt that one of the important objectives of
education should be to create a proper understanding of the universal
brotherhood beyond all the limitations and borders which may or may not be
tangent ones. He felt that an effective Education is the one that makes
people realize the concept of equality and cohesion.
- Freedom: He
believed that education is the process that actually develops a human into
what he should be. So he insisted on exploring the innate power that
exists within a human being. He also felt that the processes should not be
imposed on a person, but a process that is liberal and the one that
provides the utmost freedom for development should be adopted for
learning.
- Co-relation
of objects: He also emphasized the need for human beings to develop a
cordial relationship with nature since he believed that a peaceful world
can exist only if such a relationship is established between human beings
and nature
- Mother-tongue,
as the medium of instruction: He also insisted that the mother tongue
should be the medium of instructions because he believed that a person can
express himself freely and comfortably only when he communicates in his
mother tongue.
- Moral and
spiritual development: he also felt that real education is the one that
develops moral values. The methods he adopted for promoting moral values
were to encourage selfless acts, develop co-operation among the groups,
inspire the tendency to share, and also develop a sense of fellow-feeling
among students.
- Social
Development: Tagore also believed that the development of individuals
should be integrated with social development. The success of education can
be understood on the basis of to what extent it contributes to social
development and developing a sense of brotherhood among everyone in the
society.
Tagore also believed that one of the major objective aims of education
is to prepare the individual to serve the nation. According to him, education
represents human regeneration, cultural identity, developing harmony, and
intellectualism. The main role of Educational institutions should be to build
on the power of free thinking and imagination in an individual which can help
them to become a self-sustained building block of human society and a creative
platform for the nation as a whole
AUROBINDO’S AIMS OF EDUCATION
Shri Aurobindo opinion
about an effective educational system is that it should be in accordance with
the needs of an individual’s real modern life. He felt that Education should be
able to create dynamic nature in a person which will help him to manage
different situations that arise due to the complexity of the modern era.
Physical development and spirituality should also be an integral part of the
educational system. Physical development also includes physical purity because
without physical purity spiritual development is not possible. According to
him, spiritual development can only happen with appropriate physical
development and physical purification.
Education should also train a person to uses all his senses
hearing, speaking, listening, touching, smelling, and tasting, effectively. It
should also focus on developing memory, thinking, reasoning, imagination, and
discrimination in a child. Education should ensure that all these mental
cognitive factors are developed fully and harmoniously. The development of
morality is the other important role of education. Shri Aurobindo was of the
view that without adequate moral and emotional development if mental cognitive
development alone happens then it can lead to harmful consequences. Education
should enable a child to show extreme love, sympathy, and consideration for all
living beings.
Education also has the role of developing conscience in a
person. Conscience according to Shri Aurobindo has four levels, chitta, manas,
intelligence, and knowledge, and can be developed only with the assistance of
the right teacher. One of the important roles of education is to promote
spiritual development. Every human being according to Shri Aurobindo has
fragments of innate divinity and education should help in developing it to the
maximum extent possible.
Curriculum
According to Shri Aurobindo Curriculum should be designed in
such a way as to make a child find interesting. It should include all those
subjects which help in promoting mental and spiritual development. It should
also motivate children towards attaining knowledge of the whole world. It
should have contents that can foster creativity and constructive capacities in
an individual
Teacher-student
relationship
According to Shri Aurobindo, the basic guiding principle of true
teaching is that nothing can be taught. The Role of the teacher should function
as a helper or guide and not as an instructor or task-master. A teacher should
adopt suggestions as the method of imparting knowledge and not try to impose
their own ideas on the students. The teacher should not try to train the
pupil’s mind. Instead, they should only show the student how can use the
instruments of knowledge to perfection and help, encourage him in the process.
The role of the teacher is not to impart knowledge to the student but to shows
him the process and source of acquiring knowledge for himself. The role of the
teacher is not to unveil the knowledge that is within a student but to show him
where the knowledge is available and how it can be brought to the surface by a
systematic approach
School
According to Shri Aurobindo Education should aim at modifying
the school curriculum in such a way that it maximizes the learning modalities,
help the child to achieve his potentiality at his own pace and level, and also
devote some time to discover himself. He opposed the method of maintaining
uniformity of prescribed courses and the nature of teaching, which the
traditional schools are engaged in. The major objective of the type of
schooling visualized by Shri Aurobindo is to bridge the gap between the child’s
life at school and that at home.
Discipline
According to Shri Aurobindo, a free learning environment is
essential for children since it can only help them to gain more and more
knowledge through their own efforts. A restrained and compulsory environment
that is forced on children can stunt their growth and natural development.
Aurobindo also propagated the concept of self-discipline which he believed is
the cure for ill-defined discipline.
No comments:
Post a Comment