INTRODUCTION
Education, in India has been going through a process of rapid change in recent times. These changes have opened up opportunities for the Faith in many ways. Many recent educational policies and guidelines appear to be aligned with the principles of the Faith, pointing to the possible impact of focused engagement, a decade and half back, notably by Mr. Sherif Rushdie and Dr. Tim Rost with the NCERT, and to a lesser degree, by a few other believers through aegis of the department of External Affairs of the National Spiritual Assembly.
Presented here is an overview of recent developments in the field of education in India and my perception of opportunities that these may have opened up from a Bahá'í perspective.
National Curriculum Framework (2005)
http://www.ncert.nic.in/rightside/links/pdf/framework/english/nf2005.pdf
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), an apex resource organization set up by the Government of India to assist and advise the central and state governments on academic matters related to school education, revised and published the latest National Curriculum Framework (NCF) in the year 2005.
This outstanding document, while objectively identifying major problems that currently beset India’s school education system, offers appropriate solutions to each. It shares insights into issues such as improving the quality of school education, incorporating innovative student-centric pedagogies based on the principles of Constructivism in classrooms, nurturing appropriate classroom environment, teachers’ roles, and subject related teaching. The following two focus areas of the NCF 2005 are of particular interest from a Bahá’í perspective:
(Note: I have separately included references from the documents mentioned here to give an idea of the current thinking of the government and its agencies on the issues described.)
1. Excessive Competition:
This is a theme that finds mentions throughout the document. The NCERT acknowledges that excessive competition is responsible for reducing education to an instrument of material success. It also laments the fact that too much competition in schools is responsible for children learning the wrong values. (One quote from the document separately mentioned.)
Cooperative Learning:
The
NCERT advocates the introduction of cooperative learning as an element of
classroom pedagogy. Understandably so,
since cooperative learning is an integral part of constructive learning, apart
from its usefulness in helping children develop pro-social behavior, and
ability to counter the harmful effects of excessive competition. (Two quotes
from the document separately mentioned.)
2. Emphasis on Education for Values and Ethics:
The NCF 2005 lays strong emphasis on ‘Education for Values’, and more specifically on ‘Peace Education’. The NCF makes a strong case for introducing structured programs of value education, and sees them as an integral part of the overall educational process. (Two quotes from the document separately mentioned.)
Peace
Education:
The NCF 2005 strongly advocates developing constitutional
and democratic values among students. However, as a formal educational intervention
in schools, it favors programs that promote peace education with the rationale
that without peace developing any set of values becomes a challenge. The
document devotes an entire section on ‘Education for Peace’ (p. 61-64)
delineating the need, nature, rationale and strategies for implementation. In
fact reference to peace education can be found throughout the document.
The NCF 2005 laments the fact that important
curricular areas have been relegated to “the peculiar orbit of the
‘extra-curricular’”. It mentions peace education among these, which also
include arts, work, health and physical education. It goes on to state that
these “have a fundamental significance for economic, social and personal
development. Schools have a major role to play in ensuring that children are
socialized into a culture of self-reliance, resourcefulness, peace-oriented
values and health.” (p. 35)
The NCERT followed up its emphasis on peace
education in NCF 2005 by publishing, in September 2006, a position paper by a national
focus group on ‘Education for Peace’. http://www.ncert.nic.in/new_ncert/ncert/rightside/links/pdf/focus_group/education_for_peace.pdf
(Three quotes from the document separately
mentioned.)
Appreciation of Beauty:
The NCF talks about appreciation of beauty as a
value that children should be helped to imbibe, and links it to the very
purpose and aims of education. (One quote from the document separately
mentioned.)
Inclusive
Education:
Inclusive education is a theme that has received
much attention in the NCF. It is also a theme incorporated into a recent
legislation making education a right for children between ages of 6-14 years
(mentioned further below).
(Two quotes from the document separately
mentioned.)
Junior
Youth:
A unique feature of the NCF 2005 is that it
recognizes adolescents as a distinct learning group within the school education
system. It acknowledges that special measures need to be adopted while working
with this age group of learners. (Two quotes from the document separately
mentioned.)
The NCF 2005 has
taken long finding application. Its provisions are only now beginning to be applied,
but only in the area of curriculum and textbook design for government schools.
Long drawn textual content is gradually being transformed into content that
includes activities designed for peer learning, and which support higher order
thinking. New curricula and textbooks also draw upon the NCF’s recommendation
favoring an integrated approach to curriculum development.
The
challenge, however, is to train thousands of teachers in the use of the new and
innovative content now being developed. The government’s ground-level system
for in-service teacher training is currently in a state of disarray and
incapable of meeting this challenge effectively.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (2009)
http://ssa.nic.in/rte-docs/free%20and%20compulsory.pdf
The Right of Children to
Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to
Education Act (RTE), is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted on 4
August 2009, which describes the modalities of the importance of free and
compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21A
of the Indian Constitution. Formulated under the United Nation’s Millennium
Development Goals, India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental
right of every child when the act came into force on 1 April 2010.
The Act covers a wide range of issues related to
elementary education of children: availability of neighborhood schools, school
infrastructure, teacher training, early childhood care and education,
recognition and management of schools, curriculum completion, teacher-student
ratio, school fee structures, funding for implementation of the Act, and others.
The Act stresses the need for inclusive education,
going as far as mandating that all schools reserve 25% of their seats for
weaker sections and disadvantaged groups from the neighborhoods. Other child-specific
provisions of the Act include the following:
1. No examinations
till completion of elementary education.
2. Physical punishment
and harassment of children is now banned by law.
3. Making children free
of fear, trauma and anxiety, and helping them express views freely.
4.
Legal provisions for protection of child rights with
oversight of an independent Commission provided for.
National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (2010)
http://www.azimpremjifoundation.org/pdf/NCFTE-2010.pdf
This is a document prepared by the National Council for Teacher Education, prescribing a curriculum and related methodologies and support structure for professional training of teachers based on the recommendations of NCF 2005. It is only now that certain universities are beginning to implement, albeit partially, the provisions of this framework.
Education for Values in Schools–A
Framework (2012)
The Department of Educational Psychology and
Foundation of Education at the NCERT published this document, responding to the
need for articulating “a comprehensive and pragmatic approach to value
education in schools.”
This is the first such document published at the
highest level of educational policy-making in India, and is an indication of
the importance with which value education is currently being regarded. The
framework notes that ‘the whole enterprise of education is extricably linked
with the development of values,’ and that ‘devoid of the potential to nurture
values, education loses its heart and soul’.
This framework includes ‘vision, expectations,
strategies and benchmarks for implementation and assessment of value education
in schools’, and is deemed by the NCERT as ‘suggestive and not prescriptive to
allow scope to customize the same suited to the varied needs, contexts and
resource of the schools’.
1. Choice of Values:
The
framework leaves the choice of deciding about the final set of values to be included
in programs of value education with schools themselves. However, it has
suggesting a set of values that it feels should receive greater attention.
These are: truthfulness, honesty, loyalty, love, peace, responsibility,
trustworthiness and respect. It goes on to emphasize the importance of
including values expressed in the Indian Constitution, noting that in its
Preamble itself the Constitution lays down four universal values: justice,
liberty, equality and fraternity.
The
framework notes that, “Values are complex mix of understanding, attitudes,
beliefs, behaviours and skills,” and that, “There are cluster of attitudes and
beliefs associated with a particular value. For example, loyalty includes
truth, peace is linked to commitment and justice.” (p. 39)
The
framework recommends particular focus on the following core-values in programs
of value education in schools:
1.
Health and Hygiene:
2.
Responsibility: (a) Towards self-development; (b)
Responsibility towards one’s work/duty; (c) Social responsibility
3.
Love, care and compassion.
4.
Critical and creative thinking.
5.
Appreciation for beauty and aesthetics.
2. A Whole School
Approach:
The
framework prescribes a ‘whole-school-approach’ to education for values where
curricular content, pedagogy, school ethos, policies and practices are aligned
with the schools’ set of core values. This also includes developing the
abilities of teachers to relate their subject teaching to those values.
The
framework emphasizes students’ autonomy and their participation in making and
implementing rules. It also stresses creating “caring and cooperative school
climate”, and freeing classrooms from excessive competition, threat and
ridicule. The document notes that, “Excessive competition is detrimental to
peace and harmony.” This theme finds reference in several places throughout the
document.
3. Religion and Value
Education:
The document emphasizes allowing children to learn about
different religions and faiths as part of an effective program of education for
values. For a country that tenaciously upholds its secular credentials, this
development is nothing short of miraculous! (Two quotes from the
document separately mentioned.)
OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACTION
Recent
developments in the field of education in India provide a host of opportunities
particularly for Bahá’í inspired agencies to actively support and be seen
supporting national policies on education aligned with the principles of the
Faith, based on available learning and experience.
The
Indian Bahá’í community has a lot to offer in a situation where the government,
its agencies and developmental organizations active in this field are still grappling
with the issue of translating policy into action.
Mentioned below are a few action-areas where Bahá’í
inspired agencies and individual believers can assume a leading role:
1.
Helping Structure Value
Education in Schools:
The
new government at the centre has expressed its commitment to promoting value
education in schools and has been working on different fronts to address this
issue. It has identified value education as a key concern area in its new
National Education Policy currently under preparation. The government is also
exploring the possibility of making value education compulsory in schools for
grades 1-10. In a recent development, the Supreme Court of India has sought the
central government’s response on this matter.
Schools
in India are still far from adopting a whole-school approach to value education
as envisaged by the NCERT. But there is growing awareness among them about the
importance of value education, and they are more receptive than ever before to
receiving help with structuring meaningful and effective programs of value
education.
Working
in the field of school-based value education can be seen as the next natural
step for Bahia’s to get actively involved in school-based programs of value
education, given the experience, learning and credibility acquired through
years of focused action on similar community-based programs.
2. Peace Education:
Promoting
a cluster of values that support peace education is clearly a priority with the
NCERT. However, no meaningful program of peace education currently exists in
India other than the one developed by late Dr. Tim Rost. The NCERT, which Dr.
Rost kept in the loop during the development and testing of his program has
viewed it favorably. This gives us the opportunity of taking the lead in
promoting peace education among schools in India.
3.
Cooperative
Learning
Cooperative
learning can be a potent response to excessive competition in the Indian schools.
Universities that have recently revised their curricula for under-graduate
teacher education courses have included cooperative learning in a big way,
although they do not currently have access to the appropriate content for teaching
the prescribed syllabus.
Another
recent development is that Spencer Kegan, a globally well known and successful
promoter of cooperative learning is setting up shop in India.
Clearly,
cooperative learning is the way forward in India’s school education, also being
an integral part of constructivist student-centric pedagogy.
Fortunately,
a fair amount of knowledge and experience with cooperative learning is
available in pockets within the Indian Bahá’í community. Cooperative learning
has been part of the core-curriculum of NEDI/NETTC for many years now. Also,
Dr. Rost has incorporated it into his peace education curriculum. An army of
NEDI/NETTC graduates, and individuals who have worked with Dr. Rost and were
trained by him can be harnessed for promoting cooperative learning in schools in
India. While on the subject, it is important to note that majority of students who
have passed out of NETTC are denied the opportunity of utilizing their special
capabilities, as schools require them to only focus on teaching assigned
academic subjects.
4.
Junior Youth
Spiritual Empowerment Program:
NCERT’s
acknowledgement that adolescents constitute a distinct and special learning
group opens up the opportunity of promoting the JYSEP in Indian schools. Some
experience and learning in this area is already available. For example, as part
of her individual efforts, a member of the Bahá’í community of Pune has been
working with junior youth groups in two local schools for years. In addition to
impacting a large number of students of these schools, this initiative has
brought many parents in contact with the Faith. The leadership of both these
schools have overtime also developed into admirers and supporters of the
Faith.
5.
Teacher Training:
The
innovative approaches currently unfolding in India’s school education system
are not being received as well as one would expect. This explains why
implementation of recent government policies has been so slow. The RTE, a law
framed by the Indian Parliament, was opposed by private schools en-block,
involving years of litigation.
This
points to the opportunity, and the need for working with schools and teachers
along programs designed to help change attitudes and mindsets. We currently
have access to some of the most effective tools for this. The Ruhi and FUNDAEC
courses, and insights into the discourse on science and religion can be very
effective in helping teachers develop better understanding of human reality and
the purpose of education. Helping teachers to see children as noble beings, and
themselves as agents responsible for bringing out their innate nobility is one
of the greatest services that can be rendered in the present context.
6.
Social Action:
Working with schools for promoting government
policies aligned with the principles of the Faith offers communities a new
dimension for social action involving active participation of Baha’is and
seekers alike.
SUGGESTED LINES OF ACTION
The
following lines of action are suggested for taking advantage of the above-described
opportunities for actions:
1. Setting up and
supporting Bahá’í-inspired NGOs, or existing ones augmenting their program to
include working with schools.
2. Initially working
to develop a critical mass of schools to achieve sufficient learning, credibility
and visibility for a gradual gain in momentum of action. It does makes sense to
first start working with Bahá’í-inspired schools, unifying them in common and
coherent lines of action.
3. Pooling human
resources with relevant capabilities and utilizing their expertise. It could be
something as simple as collaborating with a few animators for establishing and
working with junior youth groups in a few local schools, or something as complex
as such as networking with and mobilizing NETTC graduates from different parts
of the country.
4. It is perhaps time to
adopt a new level of ‘outward looking orientation’, to strive to become more
familiar with current policies and priorities of the government, and look in
them for opportunities for concerted action that can lead to service as well as
recognition.
A case in point is NETTC’s decision to discontinue
peace education training of its students a few years back. Perhaps it would not
have done so with the knowledge that the NCERT regards peace education with so
much importance.
REFERENCES FROM GOVERNMENT
POLICY DOCUMENTS QUOTED ABOVE
National Curriculum Framework (2005)
1. Excessive
Competition:
Individual aspirations in a competitive economy
tend to reduce education to being an instrument of material success. The
perception, which places the individual in exclusively competitive
relationships, puts unreasonable stress on children, and thus distorts values.
It also makes learning from each other a matter of little consequence.
Education must be able to promote values that foster peace, humaneness and
tolerance in a multicultural society. (p. 2)
2. Cooperative Learning:
. .
. there is a social aspect in the construction process in the sense that
knowledge needed for a complex task can reside in a group situation. In this
context, collaborative learning provides room for negotiation of meaning,
sharing of multiple views and changing the internal representation of the
external reality. (p. 17)
In
the company of others, one has opportunities of participating in larger tasks
where one may find a niche to contribute to, thus achieving something above
one’s own potential, and one may be able to try out what one does not fully
know. Group learning tasks, taking responsibility, and contributing to a task
at hand are all important facets of not only acquiring knowledge but also in
the learning of arts and crafts. (p. 20)
3. Emphasis on Education for Values and Ethics:
The development of self-esteem and ethics, and
the need to cultivate children’s creativity, must receive primacy. In the
context of a fast-changing world and a competitive global context, it is
imperative that we respect children’s native wisdom and imagination. (p. 5)
Ethics is
concerned with all human values, and with the rules, principles, standards and
ideals which give them expression. In relation to action and choice, therefore,
ethics must be conceded primacy over each of the forms of understanding.
Ethical understanding involves understanding reasons for judgements—for what
makes some things and some acts right and others wrong—regardless of the
authority of the persons involved. Furthermore, such reasons will be reasons
for anyone; reason, equality and personal autonomy are therefore very
intimately connected concepts. (p. 61)
4. Peace Education:
Building a culture of peace is an incontestable
goal of education. Education to be meaningful should empower individuals to
choose peace as a way of life and enable them to become managers rather than
passive spectators of conflict. Peace as an integrative perspective of the
school curriculum has the potential of becoming an enterprise for healing and
revitalising the nation. (p. 6-7)
A clear orientation towards values associated
with peace and harmonious coexistence is called for. Quality in education
includes a concern for quality of life in all its dimensions. This is why a
concern for peace, protection of the environment and a predisposition towards
social change must be viewed as core components of quality, not merely as value
premises. (p. 9)
The space for peace
education within the framework of National School Curriculum document is
compellingly clear in the light of the escalating trends of, and taste for,
violence globally, nationally and locally. Education is a significant dimension
of the long-term process of building up peace–tolerance, justice, intercultural
understanding and civic responsibility. However, education as practiced in
schools often promotes forms of violence, both real and symbolic. Under these
circumstances, the need to reorient education and therefore the school
curriculum takes priority. As a value, it cuts across all other curricular
areas, and coincides with and complements the values emphasized therein. It is,
therefore, a concern cutting across the curriculum and is the concern of all
teachers. (p. 61)
5. Appreciation of
Beauty:
Education must provide the means and
opportunities to enhance the child’s creative expression and the capacity for
aesthetic appreciation. Education for aesthetic appreciation and creativity is
even more important today when aesthetic gullibility allows for opinion and
taste to be manufactured and manipulated by market forces. The effort should be
to enable the learner to appreciate beauty in its several forms. (p. 11)
6. Inclusive Education:
. . . disadvantages in education arising from
inequalities of gender, caste, language, culture, religion or disabilities need
to be addressed directly, not only through policies and schemes but also
through the design and selection of learning tasks and pedagogic practices,
right from the period of early childhood. (p 5)
As public spaces, schools must be marked by the
values of equality, social justice and respect for diversity, as well as of the
dignity and rights of children. These values must be consciously made part of
the perspective of the school and form the foundation of school practice. An
enabling learning environment is one where children feel secure, where there is
absence of fear, and which is governed by relationships of equality and equity.
Often this does not require any special effort on the part of the teacher,
except to practice equality and not discriminate among children. (p. 81-82)
7. Junior Youth:
Adolescence is a critical period for the
development of self-identity. The process of acquiring a sense of self is
linked to physiological changes, and also learning to negotiate the social and
psychological demands of being young adults. Responsible handling of issues like
independence, intimacy, and peer group dependence are concerns that need to be
recognised, and appropriate support be given to cope with them. The physical
space of the outside world, one’s access to it, and free movement influence
construction of the self. This is of special significance in the case of girls,
who are often constrained by social conventions to stay indoors. These very
conventions promote the opposite stereotype for boys, which associates them
with the outdoors and physical process. These stereotypes get especially
heightened as a result of biological maturational changes during adolescence .
. .
It is a time when the given and internalised
norms and ideas are questioned, while at the same time the opinions of the peer
group become very important. It is important to recognise that adolescents need
social and emotional support that may require reinforcement of norms of
positive behaviour, acquisition of skills essential to cope with the risky
situations that they encounter in their lives, manage peer pressure and deal
with gender stereotypes. The absence of such support can lead to confusion and
misunderstanding about these changes, and affect their academic and
extracurricular activities. (p. 16)
As children grow
older, their reasoning capabilities develop. However, they are still not mature
enough to question assumptions and norms. Inspired by the need to impress
others and validate their self-image as strong and capable individuals, they
tend to violate rules. At this stage, facilitating reflection on the basis of
rules and norms, restrictions, constraints, duties and obligations, etc.,
through discussion and dialogue, produces insights into the linkage between the
collective good, the value of restraint, sacrifice, compassion, etc., which constitute
the moral ways of being. (p. 63)
Education for Values in Schools–A
Framework (2012)
1. Religion and Value
Education:
The
study of religious stories highlighting the essentials of all religions would
be rewarding as a step towards harmony among religions as basic teachings of
all great religions of the world are the same. A lot of ingenuity, however, is
required to present the themes relating to unity of faith. In the literature of
every religion, stories and parables figure, highlighting ethical values. The
narration of such stories by parents and teachers can be most effective
particularly in the junior classes. At the post elementary stage, it is
essential that students are given time to study the lives of great religious
and spiritual leaders of all important faiths. (p. 58)
Although
we take a great deal of pride in a multi-cultural society, our knowledge about
other social groups is pathetic. It can come about if students know enough
about others’ beliefs, norms, each others’ culture and religion. At the root of
education for values should be the value of integration. This is possible only
by providing opportunities in schools, by knowing, discovering, studying and
celebrating each others’ culture and religion through active engagement. Some schools
organize inter-faith communication programmes which help in looking into
and understanding each others’ faith thereby providing opportunities for
reducing or eliminating prejudices and biases. (p. 74)
