I want my freedom: don’t give me a route map

Dhankar, Rohit (2016) I want my freedom: don’t give me a route map. Learning Curve (25). pp. 13-16.

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Abstract

Often one hears a challenge disguised as a query: what use is a National Curriculum Framework (NCF)? The challenges that emerge in the further dialogue depend on how reasonable, concerned or radical the challenger wants to pose himself/ herself to be. Some of them are: Our country is so vast and varied in cultural and natural environment that no single scheme of education can ever hope to be suitable for all. A supposed to be fundamental principle is often quoted in this regard is ‘one size does not fit all’. Or, that the curriculum binds the teacher and the learner both; their interests are ignored, their creativity stifled and their curiosity killed; the child should be left free. Or, that NCFs are so idealistic that they have no use in the practical business of education, everyone completely ignores them. These people often sound to me like a sailor declaring ‘I want my freedom, please don’t foist a route map on me’. The sailor will, of course, be lost in his long sea voyage without a map and so are these innovative people in the choppy sea of education. To properly respond to these challenges let us have a brief look at the uses and abuses of NCFs.However, the ideal of national education is much older than that. There was a nationwide debate in the first two decades of the last century in which many people noted the ill effects of colonial education on the national consciousness of Indians and wanted to replace it with the national system of education. Aurobindo wanted education to be rooted in the Indian—largely based on Sankhya and Yoga—understanding of human mind 1 . Lala Har Dayal criticized colonial education with fervent nationalism and advocated a national system based on Indian culture and love for the nation 2 . Tagore argued that a university fit for a country could emerge only from the national cultural resources 3 ; this argument for the university for him held for school education as well.

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Articles in APF Magazines

Authors:

Dhankar, Rohit

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