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The Rediff Special / E M S Namboodiripad

'What India today needs is secular education'

Every week, E M S Namboodiripad delivers a homily on the popular television channel Asianet. The Marxist patriarch, who became the world's first democratically elected Communist head of government in 1959, is a shrewd observer of the Indian polity and we are happy to bring you his observations from time to time.

People generally say the education sector in Kerala is in a chaotic situation. There are serious differences as to how this came about and how to set it right. Most people believe the biggest problem affecting education in Kerala is politics and they feel that if elections are banned in schools and colleges everything will be alright. This ultimately means that students should not form their organisations and they should not join any political parties and what they should do is merely study.

I do not subscribe to this view, because it amounts to depriving the students of their fundamental and democratic rights. I do agree that there are several undesirable things in the elections. Instead of banning politics everybody should sit together and try to solve these problems. A consensus for this is inevitable.

There are several mistaken notions about the objective of education. One such is the belief that each state of education is a preparation for the next stage. I cannot agree that one stage is a stepping stone to the next stage. I rather feel that each stage should be complete in itself so that if one drops out at that stage he can sustain himself in the society finding some gainful employment. I therefore feel that in each stage the students should be given a general education and training for job which should be complete in themselves.

Two reports have recently some out in Kerala on the pattern of education we should follow. These reports are by the Students Federation of India in the form of an 'alternate document' and the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad-sponsored education commission headed by Ashok Mittra. Both the reports are against the present approach to the education system and they give some useful suggestions.

Most people believe that education means learning English and other languages. They tend to forget that language is only a medium of education. Study of language is entirely different. The two reports on education dwells in length on this issue and stress the need for making Malayalam the medium of instruction in all stages. This does not mean one should not learn English. English can be learnt from class V or VII.

We should give due importance to our mother tongue. In most countries the medium of instruction is their own mother tongue. In India even the medium in the pre-primary section is English. This I feel is a hangover of colonialism. It was alright as long as the Britishers ruled us. But it is unfortunate to continue the same system even after 50 years of Independence.

Another malady of today's education system is the complete dominance of the private sector. Although the Constitution lays the responsibility of education on the government, the government seems to have surrendered its role to the private sector.

The government has lost its right to decide what is to be taught and how to be taught, what fees should be collected from the students and what salary be given to the teachers. The private sector should function under the controls of the government. Unfortunately this has not been happening.

In the name of liberalisation the government has given full liberty to the private sector. The private sector has been mushrooming in Kerala in the past one decade. The United Democratic Front government in Kerala had sanctioned schools and colleges strictly on the lines of caste and religion.

What India today needs is secular education. The education system should aim at carving out good citizens, giving them good training in culture, job and education.

Kind courtesy: Asianet

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