Author: M V Kamath
Publication: Organiser
Date: October 13, 2002
It is shocking and painful to watch
the extent to which secularists would go to defame the Government on every
conceivable occasion. Recently, opponents and critics of the Bharatiya
Janata Party decided to oppose the new Government policy on secondary education
as propounded by the National Council of Educational Research and Training
(NCERT) and took it to the Supreme Court. The charge was that the NCERT
was attempting to "saffronise" education whatever that meant. The charge
was so baseless that the Supreme Court had no difficulty in dismissing
it. What the Court said was that (a) Article 28 (1) of the Constitution
does not prohibit the study of religions in the State-funded educational
institutions and (b) non-consultation with the Central Advisory Board for
Education (CABE) cannot be held as a ground for setting aside the national
curriculum. It is plain from the stand taken by the secularists that none
of them really had studied the curriculum in any detail. What does the
curriculum say? It makes the following points:
* What is required today is not
religious education but education about religions, their basics, the values
inherent therein. Students have to be given the awareness that the essence
of every religion is common, only the practices differ. The student should
also be led to believe that differences of opinion in certain areas are
also to be respected.
* Education about religion must
be handled with extreme care. All steps must be taken in advance to ensure
that no personal prejudice or narrow-minded perceptions are allowed to
distort the real purpose of this venture and no rituals, dogmas, and superstitions
are propagated in the name of education about religions.
* India is a multi-cultural, multilingual
arid multi-religious society. Every region and State has its unique identity.
The pluralistic nature of Indian society needs to be reflected...
* The need for strengthening national
identity is being felt now much more than ever before. As such there is
a strong plea for promoting national integration.
* There is a need to reaffirm the
following Constitutional obligations: India's common cultural heritage,
egalitarianism, democracy and secularism, equality of sexes, protection
of the environment removal of social barriers, observance of the small
family norm and inculcation of scientific temper.
* The school curriculum must inculcate
and n a sense of pride in being an Indian through a conscious understanding
of the growth of Indian civilisation and also contributions of India to
the world civilisation and vice versa in thoughts and deeds.
* In order to make education a meaningful
experience, it has to be related to the Indian context. India cannot flourish
merely by importing or borrowing what is happening abroad.... While our
children know about Newton, they do not know about Aryabhatta, they do
know about computers, but do not know about the advent of the concept of
zero or the decimal system....
* Mention must also be made of Yoga
and Yogic practices as well as the Indian systems of medicine like the
Ayurvedic and Unani systems which are now being recognised and practised
all over the world.
* Evaluation needs to be as realistic
as possible. It has to be done in a cooperative spirit. The fear of external
examinations, settled in the minds of children from a tender age, needs
to be removed. Teachers will have to shoulder full responsibility of evaluating
the progress of their children under their charge...
* In order to make education a meaningful
experience, it has to be related to the Indian context. India cannot flourish
merely by importing or what is, happening abroad.
* School curriculum has to help
generate and promote (a) language abilities of listening, speaking, reading,
writing and thinking and communication skills (b) mathematical abilities
to develop a logical mind (c) scientific temper characterised by the spirit
of inquiry, problem-solving, courage to question, leading to elimination
of obscurantism, superstition and fatalism and (d) understanding of the
diversity in lands and people living in different parts of the country
and the country's composite cultural heritage.
* It is extremely important to provide
for and encourage the study of Sanskrit It may be introduced as part of
a composite course of Hindi and the regional languages at a suitable point
of the primary or the upper primary stage. At the secondary stage Sanskrit
may be made available as an additional option and at the higher secondary
stage, suitable elective courses in Sanskrit may be made available to all
the students who wish to study it. Sanskrit has been internationally accepted
as the most scientifically structured language and is being increasingly
acknowledged as the best suited language for computer use.
One would like to ask our secularists:
is there anything in the curriculum that can be condemned? Is teaching
children to be patriotic something to be condemned? Is teaching children
to have a scientific temper wrong? Shouldn't children know about their
ancient heritage to make them proud of their past?
Nowhere does the curriculum say
that non-Hindu religions must be condemned; on the other hand there is
emphasis on secularism. It was Indian genius that discovered 'zero' (shunya)
and the decimal system. Yoga is fashionable everywhere in the world as
is Ayurveda. And what, pray, is "saffronisation" in insisting that "in
order to make education a meaningful experience it has to be related to
the Indian context"? Should Indian education be in the British or American
context?
With our secularists, running down
their country, laughing at its heritage, downgrading Sanskrit has become
a habit. To be patriotic is something to be ashamed. It is the growing
anti-nationalism of our secularists that the BJP Government has been fighting.
The Supreme Court did the right thing in dismissing the complaint of the
secularists. With great dignity and legal rigour the Supreme Court has
exposed the secularists' pretensions. And it is about time it did. The
national curriculum framework is the product of a long, participatory and
democratic process of wide ranging deliberations and discussions. To dismiss
it as "saffronisation" merely shows a state of mind devoid of all powers
of reasoning.
