Sunday, September 28, 2008

४ unmesh


The Director Higher Education,
Chandigarh,

Through proper channel

Subject- Suggestions invited regarding Restructuring Higher Education.[memo no. 18/342-
2007 UNP(4)dated 31-03-1008

Sir,

As a teacher of Sanskrit I wish to make some humble suggestions and comments on the whole idea and process of R.H.E [Restructuring Higher Education] from a Sanskritist angle and I also wish to understand how much rubbish I am thinking and how much and what I do not know about the whole issue.
1. The word ‘RHE’ and its idea are not only misleading but also inappropriate in the sense that we as teachers and thinkers are propounding the theory of deconstructionism to build the post corporate socio-economic world order. Restructuring means only shifting blocks of education from one place to other place and whole exercise becomes futile since it will not be able to defragment the mind, behavior, personality etc of an individual and the society in the near future. Moreover idea of RHE is the logo of the business world and this logo has been taken up as a war cry by the Politicians and IAS lobby and it is being followed by VCs and Principals of educational institutes.
2. The right word which Sanskrit suggests, is Re-integrating Higher Education [RIHE] because-
a) The core issue of all the education is human being and humanity not the job.
b) There is no interaction among the various subjects and streams of education.
c) There is no relationship among good human beings, expectations of the society and job oriented subjects and streams. The day economy slows down or recession moves in what will happen [any guess] which is sooner or later expected.
d) Integrated human personalities will integrate the society and that will create a healthy human race.
3. The process of integration in education can be initiated in the Following manner-
a) Abolish the names of streams like art, science or commerce and there will be one stream i.e. education stream. And let no subject be compulsory, not even English, Hindi Sanskrit or Punjabi.
b) Let a student choose subjects of his own choice like management and fine arts or psychology, physics and music, Artificial intelligence and India systems of logic, life sciences and study of consciousness in Indian tradition, Sanskrit and environmental science, computational Sanskrit, Maths and human rights, chemistry and history, Political science with business administration, Public administration with e-commerce or whatever and how many subjects he or she likes to study.
c) Every subject should open up with some fundamental problems of human life, society or human race etc. In other words, every subject should be an answer to some or the other problem since every subject does not provide solution to every problem of human life and mind.
d) Every subject should be redesigned in such a manner that it has an interaction with other closely related subjects, issues and problems.
e) Marks should be awarded not only for the answers but for the best questions formed by the student in a particular subject. Student should be free to appear in any number of subjects and that means he may pass exam with one subject only or with six or seven subjects, depending upon his will and capability.
If this integration happens then at least students will have some kind of opinion about the systems, happenings in the world. At least they will be able to think and question. And once a right kind of questioning starts or takes off then commerce, science, arts will fall in line by themselves. Commerce, M N Cs will not be able to dictate the priorities for any society. Present day system does not allow to question or to think i.e. why this system has failed itself. Moreover we should not as responsible human beings should not mislead students regarding the jobs as everybody can not get a job and everybody can not be rich. Even the richest of the rich are not rich enough so let education transform the minds of those who have no vision of life and human dignity so that system should become capable of taking care of those who are not willing to educate themselves.
Since man is the basic source / focus/ origin of all the subjects so all subjects should be reoriented towards the human being. This basic idea of the RIHE and if you do not find it very bizarre, irrelevant or obsolete, unacceptable etc then a detailed frame work can be chalked out.

I further want to make a humble request that Sanskrit as a subject should be redesigned in the following manner-
1. Computational Sanskrit {Artificial Intelligence and logic systems of Nyaaya and
Bauddha and Jain and grammar]
2. Elements of Psychology in Sanskrit
3. Social and political thought in Sanskrit [including concepts of good governance,
justice etc.
4. History of Ancient Sciences in Sanskrit
5. Concept of Personality development in Sanskrit
6. Basics of Management studies in Sanskrit
7. Basics concepts of art, culture and philosophy
8. Basics of Ayurveda, dietetics and yoga and physical education in Sanskrit
9. Basics concepts of literature

I shall feel highly obliged if your good self can bring in some changes in Sanskrit subject to make it relevant to modern day life.

A further discussion on this matter can be held as per your convenience.


Ashutosh Angiras, Lecturer, Department of Sanskrit, S.D.College [Lahore], Ambala Cantt.13301
M- 09896394569, Ph. 0171-2661237, E-mail- sriniket2005@yahoo.co.in


Copy to-
1. Vice-chancellor, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra.
2. Head, Department of Sanskrit, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra.
3. President/ Secretary, Haryana College Teachers’ Association.

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