New Strategy for Nai Talim
Satya Teertha1*, P. Usha Rani2 and
Dr.P. Sudhakar3
1* Research Scholar,
Acharya Nagarjuna University ,and Managing Trustee, Haritha Eco Trust, A.P.
2 Secretary, Haritha
Association for Learning from Environment (HALE),Khammam Dt., A. P.
3 Research Faculty,
Centre for Rural Development and Technology, IIT Delhi
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Abstract
Realizing the importance of education for social revolution, Mahatma Gandhi
envisioned an education system called Nai Talim or Basic Education for a new India
which emphasized education through productive activities. However this
vision has not been realized to its full potential. Productive activities,
work or work experience and uses are usually only treated as co-curricular or
extra-curricular activities for education or limited to vocational education.
Gandhian philosophy of education has much broader perspective and can be a
source for holistic education.
We present a
new strategy for achieving this potential. Our strategy is to use
productive activities as experiments or examples to teach some concepts in the existing main stream school
curriculum and thereby transforming the school from a mere
teaching(memorizing) shop to a hub for technology development ,
demonstration, dissemination and community development.
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Education
Education is the back-bone of any country. It prepares the
individual for successful living in the society. It enhances progress and
development. Education is not only a vocational or natural, spiritual necessity
but also a social necessity. Education
is the most powerful tool that can change the society. Education is a process
that transforms the personality of a child, helps in knowledge and skill
acquisition, besides inculcating the norms and values of the society and
preparing the child to be a responsible yet an awakened citizen of the country. Education is understood as key to
transformation and human evolution, not as an end in itself, but as a way to
promote a sustainable way of living.
Nai Talim
Realizing
the importance of education for social revolution, Mahatma Gandhi envisioned an
education system called Nai Talim or Basic Education for a new India which
emphasized education through productive activities.Gandhiji’s proposal
for independent India’s education came out of the All-India National
Educational Conference in Wardha in 1937, but his vision and beliefs about
education permeate all of his writings - from Hind Swaraj to articles appearing
in multiple issues of the Harijan and Young India. His idea of Nai Talim
emanated from his dissatisfaction of the British- style schooling system and
his intense desire for over all rural development.
It stressed on linking education with work as a means of social
transformation. Gandhiji wanted all education to be imparted through some
handicraft or industry (Gandhi M.K. Basic Education, Bharatam Kumarappa,
1951). He emphasized charkha and khadi through which a student would not
only garner the practical knowledge of arithmetics, about cotton and its
agricultural practices, its marketing, etc. but would also know the local
resources and the state of the native industries under colonialism. Gandhiji
believed that the students could earn through spinning while getting educated
at the same time (Integrating work and education, Vinod Raina). Thus on
the one hand Nai Talim aimed at imparting education to children and on
the other hand it also helped them acquire a skill that would ensure a means of
livelihood for their families. Further, it would make the students confidant
and useful resource for their parents and their country.
When seen in a broader perspective the ideals of Nai Talim were
meant for better communal harmony because it would be inculcating dignity of
labour, mutual respect, better participation and understanding among the people.
The basic education system primarily aimed at transforming the backward,
illiterates and the unprivileged ones into self-confident citizens (The
relevance of Mahatma Gandhi’s Education Philosophy for 21st Century,
Makrand Paranjpe, 2005). The blueprint of the educational system in the
form of Nai Talim for independent India was to be a “practical religion, the
religion of self-help” and a means for revival of the indigenous industries (The
Wardha scheme of Eduction:An exposition and examination,Varkey, C. J.,1940).
Hence it is beyond doubt that Gandhiji had a vision of a holistic education
system, structured around the learning of a craft.
In fact, the near total dependence
of local self governments of those days on excise revenues from liquor sale in
funding the schooling, medical care or community development was completely
unacceptable to Gandhiji on every scale: be it ethical or other wise. How ever,
down to earth practicality of Gandhiji together with ethical conduct challenged
him to think of an alternative to the stark reality of the prevailing expensive
schooling that is clearly beyond the reach of the local community.One of the
primary objectives was to make the cost of good education affordable to the
community by integrating productive activities (may be read as healthy income
generating) of the community into the social life of teachers and the taught in
schooling. In the process, the local community has a chance to be self reliant
and free from the diktat of the central power of the state.(young India,2-2-1921;Harijan,5:181)
80 years down the line, the dilemma
still haunts: heavy dependence on excise revenue of the liquor sales is cited
as 'practically' unavoidable by most state governments for implementing
the programmes aimed at benefiting the below poverty families. It only high
lights the severity of the challenge for Nai Talim.
Problem
Unfortunately numerous doubts are
raised about the relevance of Nai Talim in the current society. In 1960 the
committee headed by Dr.Zakir Hussain declared that the experiment of basic
education was failed in practice. In 1964 Dr.Kothari commission disclosed that
though the principles of Nai Talim are virtuous, it failed in practice because of not being able to create a suitable curriculum.(Trends and problems of Indian
Education,M.R.M.Rao,1986)
In realizing the true spirit of Nai
Talim, the institutions failed to correlate the productive activities with the
school curriculum. A school where a child learns the art of making wax candles
or handicraft items becomes expert in his respective field of the productive
activity but is unable to understand the inherent principles as may be taught
in the main stream school. Thus, he may turn out to be efficient in generating
income for himself but his curiosity to know the science behind those
activities eventually fades off and this creates lack of interest in the
students which in turn could prove to be detrimental to his intellectual
competence.
The Gandhian philosophy of education
aimed at making each individual, community and village to be self-sufficient
and self-reliant by way of imparting an economic skill like spinning, weaving
and carpentry to the students. However these skills are often mistakenly dubbed
as a vocational education system. For Gandhiji, the handicraft or any other
productive activity was a means to arouse the student’s curiosity and his
enthusiasm for learning and not just a vocation. His aim was to enroot learning
through vocation and not to limit education for only learning a skill. Unfortunately,
the vocational education system as practiced appears to have limited itself to
learning a skill for making a living and has not addressed the innate desire of
humans to scale new heights of intellectual prowess.
And even in imparting a skill, it is
no where near the traditional way of self reliant active apprenticeship in
efficiency. It would be rare if a student after completing a course in a
vocational school can ever compete in free market with those trained in the
traditional apprenticeship but for mandatory requirements of the state, whether
it be in more traditional carpentry or more modern automobile maintenance. Thus
it failed to gain social acceptance on both counts: in
scaling new heights in intellectual development or finding a job in the free
market. There is a general perception that a child in a vocational school lacks
worthwhile academic intelligence and is labeled as an intellectually disabled
child – something that no parent would want. And above all it would be a
disaster for the child because of the inferiority complex and loss of
self-confidence which would eventually destroy the child’s personality.
For any one that goes through the
humiliating scheme, it requires considerable intelligence and an inborn
spirited nature to fight of falling into the inferiority complex. But an
innocent soul with a hurt sense of natural justice, aided by an inborn fighting
spirit, would be a fertile breeding ground for criminal thoughts and actions.
Gandhiji's ideas about education
were not isolated from the larger political, social, and economic struggles of
the British rule in India. Hence, for better understanding of the Gandhian
philosophy of education, a larger framework of his ideas on
social-economic-political transformation, his vision of progress and
development, and value system needs to be understood, else there remains a threat of
limiting the Nai Talim to a mere proponent of the vocational education system
(Henry Fagg: A study of Gandhi’s Basic Education, National Book Trust, 2002).
However analyzing the present
socio-economic situation it must be emphasized that Gandhian philosophy and
Gandhiji’s ideals of education provide a solution for imparting education and
training to the rural youth, and improving the village economy through empowerment
of the rural communities. Nai Talim envisaged combining education with work, where school children would be engaged in some
productive activities that would not just impart education to them but also
enable them to acquire a skill in due course of time. It laid emphasis on
practical ways of acquiring knowledge.
A new strategy
for Nai Talim
Productive
activities as experiments or examples to teach some concepts in the existing
main stream school curriculum.
Established in 1988, Haritha Ecological Institute (Khammam
district, Andhra Pradesh), is an example that demonstrates the implementation
of Gandhian vision of Basic Education or Nai Talim and its all-round benefits
by involving the students and teachers in
productive activities that are performed as experiments to teach
concepts from the existing main-stream school curriculum. The active
participation of both the students and the teachers, in the operation of a unit
generates interest in the students making the learning process easier and
enjoyable.
The unique feature of Haritha is
that the productive activities are designed in such a way that they fall within
the framework of the school curriculum. These activities are taken up only
during school hours. Each productive activity is meticulously designed such
that one or more of the different steps within the activity become an
experiment for one or more concepts in the main stream school education in all
the subjects including the languages.
Since hands-on work of the students in the
unit becomes experiments for learning specific concepts, the quality of
education improves and learning becomes enjoyable. As the queries of a child
get answered through activity and experimentation, his interest in the learning
process remains intact. This in turn lowers the drop out rates in the school
which is one of the serious challenges faced by the Government.
This strategy followed in Haritha increases the child’s quest to
do things on his own. It encourages the child to learn and discover the
principles behind processes and activities. The child is not subjected to
forceful learning that rely mostly on rote bookish memories where a child feels
suffocated under the pressure of reproducing an answer to a question even after
repeated readings and writings. Instead, the different steps of the productive
activity get repeated time and again. This way the child is able to repeat his
experiments many times in an academic year. It eventually makes him proficient
and clears all his doubts. Further when the children are asked to write about
their experiments and their experiences and observations, the comprehension of
the students improves and this makes the students more interested in education.
Example activity unit - Bicycle Grinder
The “Bicycle Grinder” which was designed at Haritha is an
innovative grinder that grinds food as we pedal a bicycle. It illustrates how a
new technology gadget combines a productive activity with the experiments for
the students of grades 1st to 10th. Students at Haritha
use the Bicycle Grinder to make idly batter and chutney and in turn get earned
for it. For the students in standard 1st to 3rd this activity is used to teach
counting through the number of turns the pedal makes. Counting is done in
different languages - English, Hindi and Telugu. For the students of 4th
to 6th standard, the bicycle grinder provides a medium to learn the
gear ratio of turns of pedal, rear wheel and the turntable. For the 7th
and 8th class student, it is an enjoyable experiment to learn
concepts in physics such as time period of revolution, angular velocity, and
frequency of rotation. And for the students of 9th and 10th
class, it explains concepts like viscous drag and friction.
Productive activities using a renewable resource - Bamboo
The practice of learning by experimentation at Haritha lead students
to perform an innovative experiment of building a bow out of Bamboo to bear
weights. The extension of the experiments done at Haritha has led to the
ongoing research at IITD on the potential of Bamboo as a load bearing element
to be used for house construction purposes. This in turn could lead to active
involvement of the rural community, providing them a source of livelihood,
boosting their self confidence and making them empowered. It has also laid the
foundation of the dream vision of greening wasteland of our country with Bamboo
plantation.
Haritha aims to illustrate important
concepts in school curriculum through the Bamboo products. It envisages setting
up of a Bamboo nursery, and a unit for production and marketing of Bamboo
related products within the school premises. The Bamboo products planned
include raw incense sticks, Bamboo furniture, Teaching and Learning
Material(TLM) with Bamboo and Bamboo housing elements such as bow beams and
columns. The technology needed has been
mainly developed at the school itself over the past fifteen years and has
recently been validated by IIT Delhi.
The on going R&D includes bamboo
beams and columns with no or minimal steel, panels for walls and roofs and cost
effective test equipments including the hydraulic based state of the art
Universal Testing Machines(UTMs).
Productive activities in cooking and gardening:
Cooking and gardening are some of
the most versatile and simple productive activities that have abundant scope to
be used as experiments for illustrating different concepts in main stream
school teaching.
Activities in cooking can start with
estimating the different ingredients by quantity and cost in making a meal for
a given number of persons. The estimate of the nutritional content of the meal
would be an interesting study in exploring the concepts in health and nutrition
while the simple arithmetics involved could be a good exercise for primary and
high school students in understanding ratio and proportion. Maximizing the
nutrients for a given cost can be a challenging optimization exercise giving
enormous scope for exploring the beauty of traditional practices in food and
cuisine. Deciding on a common menu to the satisfaction of one and all itself would be a great experiment in understanding democratic
values and practices that can lead to a healthy respect for dissent. Cooking
itself can be a set of experiments in understanding heat transfer in physics and effects of heat
in the chemistry of cooking, including the ill effects of over cooking and
excessive frying.
Activities in gardening like wise
offer immense scope for understanding the secrets of Mother Nature while
enjoying its beauty. Importance of statistics in understanding the diversity of
even simple plants, be it of vegetables or flowers can be greatly appreciated
in many ways: the time for germination of seeds, the growth of different plants
readied and processed in apparently identical conditions, and its practice for
recording and analyzing the yields can be developed into a set of very useful
experiments. Drawing parallels with the beauty in natural diversity to social
front can lead to the understanding that a dissent is not necessarily bad and in
fact may be actually be welcome, the basic foundation of democratic life. In
yet another angle, a simple question like “What is the most optimum combination
of plants in a garden?” may baffle the mostly deterministic engineering
sciences as there is not just one but many possible solutions and any search
for the most appropriate one becomes futile and would be soon recognized as
useless. On the other hand, in social context, this may help one to appreciate
that there may not be just 'one most optimum' solution to any of the pressing
and complex problems of sustainable development for the society in general and
masses in particular. One has to necessarily explore several possible solutions
and in the process may find a way to satisfy the aspirations of one and all in
a healthy democratic manner.
School as a
hub for technology development, demonstration,dissemination and community
development
In the light of the above experiences we present a new strategy of
a school being a hub for technology demonstration, dissemination and
development belong with community involvement and development and not just a
place where in the information is fed in to the minds of the students.
Moreover, it should be a living entity which continuously interacts with
the local people around. What follows is the vision of the role of school which
can usher in rural development by harnessing the dormant local talents.
School to recognize the local talent
There is a need to have a change in the role of school. The school
should act as a platform where the creative and innovative ideas of not only
the school students but also of the local people get a firm support.Innovations
not a prerogative of high end research institutes.
The Shodh Yatra – a search
for creativity and innovations at the grass root level organized by Prof. Anil
Gupta of IIM Ahmedabad, scouted hundreds of innovations in various parts of the
country. Patents are to be applied for some of the innovations recorded at the
Shodh Yatra. Our own experience at Haritha Ecological Institute in Khamam
District, Andra Pradesh, India attests the fact that innovative ideas can be
evolved from rural school students and local people. ‘The Bicycle grinder’,
‘The Mobile Bullock cart generator’ and ‘The Bamboo Bow’ are the three
innovative gadgets which have evolved with the help of the local people and the
school students. This leads to the
conclusion that there is lot of talent dormant in the minds of the rural youth.
The scientific creativity of these school students and the local people has the
potential to address the local problems thereby improving the efficiency and
productivity of the community.
Excellence in education through technology development
A watchful and alert teacher can use the teaching problems that
may accompany the new gadgets and processes to challenge the creativity and
awaken the enormous innovative abilities dormant in every child irrespective of
their social strata. Their thinking processes would be ignited. These ignited
minds would then excel not only in their academic career but also in life. The
present education system compels them to mug up the facts and vomit them in the
exams thereby curbing the thinking process.
On the contrary when the students are a part of the team for ‘technology
development’ they land into a positive feed-back loop of ‘innovating and studying more’ and
‘studying and innovating more’ thereby autographing excellence in their
academic career. This concept of learning through productive activities
requires a serious attention from the academic researchers.
Entrepreneurship skills in the students
The ideas generated at the school through the students and the
local people would be raw. The journey of transforming an idea to commercially
viable product is very long. It is this journey which would offer challenge to
the school children.
After the gaining the expertise with the products/processes, the
students can try being entrepreneurs. If a group of students and teachers in a
rural school can run a new technology gadget/process successfully then there
would be enthusiasm for replicating it for economic gain.
Conclusion
No development is complete
without the development of the human resource. Productive activities in
education which is the key concept of Basic education or Nai Talim has not yet
been realized by educationalists and decision makers in our country. Productive activities, work or work
experience and uses are usually only treated as co-curricular or
extra-curricular activities for education or limited to vocational education. We present a new strategy. Our strategy is
to use productive activities as experiments or examples to teach some
concepts in the existing main stream
school curriculum and thereby transforming the school from a mere
teaching(memorizing) shop to a hub for technology development , demonstration,
dissemination and community development.
It would go a long way in awakening the dormant capabilities of the
students and making the entire exercise of education more enjoyable and
fruitful. On the other front, with the involvement of school students, teachers
and the local people in the operation of new products/processes, the grass-root
problems get addressed that too within the constraints of the local resources.
With this strategy, the students would be
introduced to the pleasure and excitement which one gets while
innovating and creating something, and the holistic development of the child,
the community and the entire environment would stand a better chance of
success.
* Corresponding Author:SatyaTeertha
Research Scholar, Acharya Nagarjuna
University and
