Education for New India
The lesson “Education for
New India” is a speech given by Chakkaravarthy Rajagoopalachari to the
university students. He envisages a new and free India with great leaders and
thinkers.
Freedom has given us a new status and new opportunities.
It implies that we should discard selfishness, laziness and narrowness of
outlook. It suggests that we create new values. It insists on our being so
disciplined as to discharge our new responsibilities satisfactorily. Humble and
unceasing work should be our watch word. Work is wealth and service is
happiness. The greatest crime in India today is idleness which is the root for
all our difficulties. Honest work is the fundamental law of progress.
The habit of respecting other people’s feelings is the
next virtue stressed by Rajaji. Our society has different religious faiths,
occupations and attainments that may make us live in peace and amity. Our
departed leader stresses the law of love as a practical code of life. Greed and
fear of defeat in economic competition may create communal illness. To maintain
communal amity is the prime work to be done.
Trained leadership is necessary to manage the affairs of
states. According to Rajaji, university education is nothing but a training for
leadership. Many are denied this privilege. He adds that the students should
remember their obligation of leadership. They should know how to think, speak
and to act. They are the moral and cultural army of India. Everyone has to
shoulder new responsibility in the field of national activity.
Regarding the system of examination, he says that less
importance should be laid on examinations. The examination is the bitterest
form of compulsion. It creates an incurable tendency towards superficiality. He
stresses the need for better facilities for study and research than present
system of examination.
There are two problems which cause great worry to our
educationists, the problem of religious and moral instruction in a land of many
faiths and the problem of variety of languages. We should train our children to
love one another and to be helpful to all. They should learn to show tenderness
to the lowest animals and think aright. We should evolve a suitable technique
and method for sewing the spiritual needs of school children. We should promote
mutual respect and helpful co-operation among the different communities in our
society.
As for the languages, mother-tongue should be the medium
of instruction for young pupils. Children should learn the language through
subjects rather than subjects through the language. The drawback in using a
foreign medium are obvious and many. He instructs the students to be patient
and kind always. He insists on showing trust in others and having faith that
love will prevail.
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