Sahana vavatu sahana bhunaktu saha viryam karvavahe …: “Let us live together, let us eat together, let us do deeds of valour together.” These lines from the Katha Upanishad, uttered in the context of students gathered together to learn, remind us that the physical realities and necessities of life and the intangibles are inextricably linked. They are particularly apposite for educators in the present scenario, both world-wide and in our country. Education has become the last bastion of quality, integrity, justice, compassion, values. Even when these are crumbling everywhere else, it is expected that educational institutions should enshrine these virtues, should live by these principles.
It is a heavy responsibility that we shoulder, especially when we think of those for whom education is a longed-for but distant dream. The grant-in-aid system certainly makes it possible to make education more broad-based, but it carries its own challenges – overflowing classrooms, overworked teachers, admission policies dictated by the state, government and university influence brought to bear on admissions as well as evaluation processes, and many more. How does one continue to impart quality education, continue to ensure that education is more than rote-learning, is indeed empowerment? The new National Education Policy has outlined a road map towards excellence, but there are a number of aspects of it that are a cause for concern. These will need serious attention if our educational institutions are to survive and continue to provide the kind of dedicated service that has been our hallmark. Nor is this all: for all those who are involved in tertiary education as a service, this is increasingly a challenge, since we are faced with a rapidly morphing world. We need to take a number of elements into account in considering this.
Sr Ananda Amritmahal RSCJ
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