“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.
- You may
have read reports like The Birla Ambani Report on education. We know why
they want government to withdraw from education ‘market’
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
Twitter:@satish_jha
Twitter:@satish_jha
+1 301 841 7422
Sent from my iPhone5
1 comment:
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
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