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Monday, January 11, 2016

“Lack of education lead to lack of wisdom,

“Lack of education lead to lack of wisdom,
Which leads to lack of morals,
Which leads to lack of progress,
Which leads to lack of money,
Which leads to the oppression of the lower classes,
See what state of the society one lack of education can cause!”
•Jyotiba Phule


[1] This was in response to a mail by Dr. Satish Jha. [2] This is at an idea level. I will write the full & proper article later. Right now this just for sharing the idea.


Private  & Public schools
Government schools DO NOT offer education…”
Dear Satish,
I have been following the debate very closely and reading all the postings.

I believe there  are two kinds of members at this forum- one who thinks government school are not performing, hence private players must enter and provide so called ‘quality education’. And the 2nd kind of members are those who think government school must perform. Hence stop trade in education.

Your posting Government schools DO NOT offer education. Anyone who even thinks education happens there needs to take time off to rethink what education is or should be in the times we live in.” dated March 18th at Arkitect India- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arkitectindia/message/15939 clearly give indication that you are one of those who think the government schools don’t perform.  Many people like you have given end number of examples to support government withdrawal from the school and offering it to Education Business Houses. And I am sure you may have ‘solid’ facts and figure to support it.  I sincerely believe that the following may be the reasons behind your thoughts. [Note: when I  say you or your, I am addressing the whole group of people who believe that the government schools are not-performing, hence private players are the only solution. So the ‘you’  is not a personal to one person. It is just because I am responding to your mail. ]. Probably one or two of the following points may be the basis of your arguments.  
  1. You may have read reports like The Birla Ambani Report on education. We know why they want government to withdraw from education ‘market’
  2.  You may have information about ‘non-performing’  schools (including govt. schools) but not able to develop these information  into a knowledge. Information to Knowledge to  Wisdom. It is a long debate. I  am not expecting wisdom but I do expect right knowledge- that is why these schools are not performing.     
  3. or you may have only read the last line or last paragraph of a report which says govt schools are not performing and missed the whole body of report which says why some government schools are performing well and some government schools are not performing well or not performing at all.
  4. or

In villages (I belong to Kataila village, Ghazipur, Eastern UP) it is said that neem hakeem, khatre jaan” (half knowledge is always dangerous).  Like some people are quoting “government schools are not performing” without understanding the whole context and politics of trade in education, I was also often quoting “religion is opium of masses”. I heard this from some friends in JNU and I got convinced without questioning or probing it.

Many years I only knew Marx’ this sentence “ Religion is the opium of masses”. I would always quote this phrase to defend my childish/ amateur thinking about religious criticism- be it Islam, Christian, Hinduism or any religious believe. But I thank to JNU  culture of Post Dinner Talk in which I was corrected and told to read some articles (probably in 1990 or 1991). In the next post dinner talk a student gave me a xerox copy of an article .  I read that article several times.

  It was there I realized that I was reading the last sentence of a paragraph. It gives different meaning if we read along with the paragraph and different meaning if it is read separately.      According to Marx, religion is an expression of material realities and economic injustice. Thus, problems in religion are ultimately problems in society. Religion is not the disease, but merely a symptom. It is used by oppressors to make people feel better about the distress they experience due to being poor and exploited. This is the origin of his comment that religion is the “opium of the masses” — but as shall see, his thoughts are much more complex than commonly portrayed. The full quoate is “Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”


This is a long debate and I will leave it here to proceed with the original issue- the government schools are non-performing institutions, hence go for private school.

The purpose of above argument is to make the point clear that many of us are picking of the last sentence of the thesis/ article which says that the government schools are not performing. We have to read the whole issue in proper context- the thesis in support of trade in education so that selected few can get “quality education” and the rest…

The government schools (read institutions, because the next target is other organs of the govt.) are not This is 100 % wrong statement and understanding. People who support private players in education  or trade in education points two things-
[1] They don’t understand the dynamics degrading government institutions or
[2] They


What is the vision of education?
 



The full quote from Karl Marx is: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people".

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people."

The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man – state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion.

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.

Many years I only knew Marx this sentence “ Religion is the opium of masses”. I would always quote this phrase to defend my childish/ amateur thinking about religious criticism- be it Islam, Christian, Hinduism or Sanati any religious believe. But I thank to JNU’s culture of post dinner talk in which I was corrected and told to read some articles.  It was there I realized that I was reading the last sentence of a paragraph. It gives different meaning if we read along with the paragraph and different meaning if it is read separately.      According to Marx, religion is an expression of material realities and economic injustice. Thus, problems in religion are ultimately problems in society. Religion is not the disease, but merely a symptom. It is used by oppressors to make people feel better about the distress they experience due to being poor and exploited. This is the origin of his comment that religion is the “opium of the masses” — but as shall see, his thoughts are much more complex than commonly portrayed.

This is a long debate and I will leave it here to proceed with the original issue- the government schools are non-performing institutions, hence go for private school.

The purpose of above argument is to make the point clear that many of us are picking of the last sentence of the thesis/ article which says that the government schools are not performing. We have to read the whole issue in proper context- the thesis in support of trade in education so that selected few can get “quality education” and the rest…

The government schools (read institutions, because the next target is other organs of the govt.) are not This is 100 % wrong statement and understanding. People who support private players in education  or trade in education points two things-
[1] They don’t understand the dynamics degrading government institutions or
[2] They


What is the vision of education?

========++++++=======
Satish Jha

Government schools DO NOT offer education. Anyone who even thinks education happens there needs to take time off to rethink what education is or should be in the times we live in. Only those who went to government schools and ended up getting a government job may think it works.

Imagine this: even the government sets 33% as a bare minimum pass mark. How many children going to government schools end up knowing how to write correctly in their own mother tongue even after a B degree like a BA etc?

Did you not see the results that less than 1 percent teachers with a B Ed degree could pass the governments test in Delhi?

EI has found a niche for itself that is good while being a century out of date. But india is growing a century behind if you take the weighted average of its collective knowledge anyway!

Twitter:@satish_jha
+1 301 841 7422

Sent from my iPhone5

1 comment:

Education said...

I am using this content/ theme to work on a full fledged article in support of government schools and institutions. Education should not be commodity to be sold in the market but a tool for social change