Dhankar, Rohit
(2016)
I want my freedom: don’t give me a route map.
Learning Curve (25).
pp. 13-16.
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.
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)