Pedagogy for Citizenship
Dr.G.Balamohanan Thampi
Former Vice Chancellor, University of Kerala
gbmt@rediffmail.com
There have been confident declarations about India emerging as a leading power in the world, along with China. This hope is confirmed by reliable by US think thanks. If the central government. promptly implements the recommendations of the knowledge commission within a few years the number of universities in the country will increase five-fold. Let us presume that along with it the middle level education will be effectively universal. Even supposing that these targets would be at least partiallly fulfilled, we have to rethink the role of our educational system in strengthening the democratic foundations of our polity. This requires a citizenry fully aware of their rights and responsibilities in the political process of decision-making and implementation.
Unfortunately the neo-liberal approaches adopted by the government have resulted in a massive retreat of the state from its educational and cultural commitments. Instead of educational institutions producing the “human capital”, the scientific and technical personnel to serve the challenging tasks of industry, education itself has been for most part commercialized, debased and devalued. It is the safest investment with no risk and unlimited profit.
In order to implement development programmes successfully our citizens have to be educated to respect values like secularism, pluralism and tolerance. Unless there values are imbibed at the school level we cannot build a strong nation with cohesion and integrity. We need a common school system which will not aggravate the present stratification. The majority of private schools, particularly those catering to the elite, bring up a student community in an atmosphere of apolitical careerism and unhealthy competition
The ruling elite wants a generation of students who will uncritically assimilate their value system and accept the present social system with its inequality, injustice and prejudices.
At the dawn of independence Nehru had pointed out that we were taking a jump to full political democracy without educating the people. Sixty years after independence we are still comforted with the problem of making our people worthy of an enlightened democracy. The elected are not going to be much better than the electors. If people do not exercise their electoral choice judiciously, they would be governed by unscrupulous and unprincipled polititions. We can reverse our old motto Yatha raja tatha praja and say yatha praja tatha raja. People get the kind of government they deserve.
Educationalists have been aware of the problem of value education since independence. Dr. Radhakrishnan recommended the inclusion of philosophy for inculcating a sense of values in the student community. Some years break an attempt was made to smuggle in reactionary traditional religious ideas in the grab of value education.
Teachers and students assimilate the value system which will strengthen the ideological hegemony of the ruling elite . Great thinkers like Tolstoy, Gandhi, Tagore, Russell, Freire, Illich, Krishnamorthy and others were aware of the serious inadequacies of the educational system they saw. They experienced with new pedagogical methods which unfortunately did not succeed.
But we have to realize that values cannot be taught from scriptures alone. Preaching of abstract values will be futile when the exploitative society in practice encourages competition, agreed, fanaticism and violence. Dishonesty, hypocrisy and deception seem to be the real driving forces our economic and political system.
Therefore, if pedagogy for democratic citizenship has to succeed, our teachers, students and leaders have to find a strategy to coordinate popular struggles for establishing a genuinely democratic polity. Desensitizing our political culture should go hand in hand with reforming our pedagogy.
The governments controlled by the left hesitate to take any decisive initiative in radicalizing the educational system in conformity with their ideological commitments. Bold educational innovations may hurt the reactionary vested interests who are capable of unleashing forces difficult to control. Hence the watchword of the rulers is: caution, compromise and appeasement
Dr.G.Balamohanan Thampi
Former Vice Chancellor, University of Kerala
gbmt@rediffmail.com
There have been confident declarations about India emerging as a leading power in the world, along with China. This hope is confirmed by reliable by US think thanks. If the central government. promptly implements the recommendations of the knowledge commission within a few years the number of universities in the country will increase five-fold. Let us presume that along with it the middle level education will be effectively universal. Even supposing that these targets would be at least partiallly fulfilled, we have to rethink the role of our educational system in strengthening the democratic foundations of our polity. This requires a citizenry fully aware of their rights and responsibilities in the political process of decision-making and implementation.
Unfortunately the neo-liberal approaches adopted by the government have resulted in a massive retreat of the state from its educational and cultural commitments. Instead of educational institutions producing the “human capital”, the scientific and technical personnel to serve the challenging tasks of industry, education itself has been for most part commercialized, debased and devalued. It is the safest investment with no risk and unlimited profit.
In order to implement development programmes successfully our citizens have to be educated to respect values like secularism, pluralism and tolerance. Unless there values are imbibed at the school level we cannot build a strong nation with cohesion and integrity. We need a common school system which will not aggravate the present stratification. The majority of private schools, particularly those catering to the elite, bring up a student community in an atmosphere of apolitical careerism and unhealthy competition
The ruling elite wants a generation of students who will uncritically assimilate their value system and accept the present social system with its inequality, injustice and prejudices.
At the dawn of independence Nehru had pointed out that we were taking a jump to full political democracy without educating the people. Sixty years after independence we are still comforted with the problem of making our people worthy of an enlightened democracy. The elected are not going to be much better than the electors. If people do not exercise their electoral choice judiciously, they would be governed by unscrupulous and unprincipled polititions. We can reverse our old motto Yatha raja tatha praja and say yatha praja tatha raja. People get the kind of government they deserve.
Educationalists have been aware of the problem of value education since independence. Dr. Radhakrishnan recommended the inclusion of philosophy for inculcating a sense of values in the student community. Some years break an attempt was made to smuggle in reactionary traditional religious ideas in the grab of value education.
Teachers and students assimilate the value system which will strengthen the ideological hegemony of the ruling elite . Great thinkers like Tolstoy, Gandhi, Tagore, Russell, Freire, Illich, Krishnamorthy and others were aware of the serious inadequacies of the educational system they saw. They experienced with new pedagogical methods which unfortunately did not succeed.
But we have to realize that values cannot be taught from scriptures alone. Preaching of abstract values will be futile when the exploitative society in practice encourages competition, agreed, fanaticism and violence. Dishonesty, hypocrisy and deception seem to be the real driving forces our economic and political system.
Therefore, if pedagogy for democratic citizenship has to succeed, our teachers, students and leaders have to find a strategy to coordinate popular struggles for establishing a genuinely democratic polity. Desensitizing our political culture should go hand in hand with reforming our pedagogy.
The governments controlled by the left hesitate to take any decisive initiative in radicalizing the educational system in conformity with their ideological commitments. Bold educational innovations may hurt the reactionary vested interests who are capable of unleashing forces difficult to control. Hence the watchword of the rulers is: caution, compromise and appeasement
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