Education in guise of secularism is robbing students of values: Smriti Irani must step up

The Union HRD minister has hinted at a new education policy to take shape soon. This is more urgent and pressing than digitalising India. The current education system has miserably failed not just in ensuring holistic growth, but also in its limited purpose of increasing employability. About 23 lakh, including PhD holders, vying for 368 posts of peon in Uttar Pradesh is what we have come to.

Smriti Irani has acknowledged the pitfalls and promised to reconnect education with employability. Irani has said she would request Indian institutions to revamp their curriculum and include technology taught in foreign countries. Her idea is that Indians are not forced to go abroad to study out of lack of options at home.

But more than importing foreign technologies, what our education policy must focus on is finding an inclusive, secular, progressive and pragmatic way of integrating the ancient Indian wisdom. It’s time to go back to the basics.

Coincidently around the time Irani was sharing her vision for education in Lucknow, renowned spiritual guru and founder of the Art of Living Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, while addressing a conference of educationists in Goa, shared the distressing statistics of how the percentage of educated inmates in Indian prisons has risen to 73 per cent from 30 per cent in recent times.

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He attributed it to erosion of value-oriented education in the country. And this is what Irani needs to address urgently, if she is serious about making education relevant to nation building.

Beyond employability, education has a role in what type of citizens we prepare. It must be a vehicle to produce peace-loving, law-abiding, tax-paying, patriotic citizens. Encouragingly, HRD minister has promised to address the issue of what education means in the life of a man. But be warned nothing much is going to change on this front by importing technologies from abroad.

The point is we need to teach values, if not before then at least along with technology. The current system of education has failed to reinforce the rich value system of the country. The focus on cognitive intelligence — IQ scores and grades - is undermining the development of non-cognitive intelligence which deals with the dimensions of the mind that lead to good character, happiness and long-term fulfillment.

“Every parent envisions that their child grow up to be a well educated and happy human being with good values. The current education system has failed to fulfill its true goal of making one happy,” says Sri Sri. “Only a human values oriented and holistic education can impart true intelligence.”

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In the guise of being secular, we have denied our younger generations from tapping into indigenous knowledge which is full of time-tested techniques for improving non-cognitive intelligence.

It’s a tragedy that our education system doesn’t teach our children yoga, meditation, mantras and the like. Yoga brings skill in action is known in this country from time immemorial, yet we don’t teach it to our children. Instead, we keep harping on skill development. “One who has imbibed the values of yoga, will remain happy in life even if he or she fails to become a doctor or engineer in life,” says Sri Sri.

Meditation makes one mindful, focused and more productive is globally recognized and people are flocking to India for it. Yet we don’t make it mandatory for our children. Independent scientific studies have shown that meditation improves attention and sensory processing and results in better emotional regulation and an improved capacity for compassion and empathy. It means that we gave the world the formula to realise the real potential of education, but we don’t think it worthy enough for our children to learn. We allow our younger generation to succumb to burn-out, stress, frustration and depression.    

We have the deepest prayers that call out for righteousness, truth, eternal light, immortality, happiness and wellness of all beings, yet we don’t invoke them in our schools. 

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The HRD minister has her task cut out. The new education policy must have elements to introduce and sustains the indigenous value-based education that imbibes the human values of compassion, caring and sharing. It must ensure that our education system is holistic enough to prevent fanaticism in young minds.

It’s not a tall order at all. She just needs to find non-controversial ways of spiritualising Indian education. The need of the hour is to shift the national discourse from saffronisation to spiritualisation and come up with a policy that will integrate the ancient treasures for which generations of people from all over the world have been coming to India.

Our current education system doesn’t create role models. I am yet to find an answer to a question Sri Sri asked at the Goa conclave. How come not many children grow up wanting to become saints or artists in this holy land? It’s just a big wonder.