Education for livelihood
All-round education at the conceptual level and academic exam-oriented education at the practical level is the way most schools think about education today. According to JP, spiritual education is the prime component of all-round education. It is concerned with the ultimate objective of education. The physical, emotional, intellectual and social development is necessary for achieving the intermediate objective. But foremost, even before the immediate social objective, is the immediate individual objective of education for livelihood.
JP feels that in rural areas, it is more important to give technical education to those who are unsuccessful in academics instead of branding them as drop-outs. Technical education makes one financially self–reliant more quickly. But this is not enough. JP feels that technical education should not be given only as a means of gaining employment. Employment based on technical skills depends on the demand-supply ratio which changes from time to time. Getting employed somewhere is a compromise. JP feels that entrepreneurship education is the need of the hour because that can promote self-employment. JP has tried this experiment in its technical training centre at Khed-Shivapur (Dist. Pune) for the last 25 years. The school caters mainly to academic drop-outs. Many of them have now become bread-winners in their families. At least 50 out of 1500 alumni of the technical training centre are self-employed small-scale entrepreneurs.
There are many qualities which are necessary for entrepreneurship. Some of them may be listed as ——— initiative, taking and making opportunities, perseverence, seeking information, excellence, keeping commitments, efficiency, planning, trouble-shooting, self confidence, confronting others, pursuasion, paying attention to details, taking care of colleagues and risk-taking. These qualities have to be developed along with handicrafts, technical skills and intellectual skills so that one can become self-employed. In rural areas technical training and entrepreneurship training is basic to personality development. This training will help urban students also to develop in them both dignity of physical labour and self-confidence. This is applicable to both, boys and girls.
The experiments in how to impart education for livelihood are still on-going in JP. The rural schools at Salumbre (Dist. Pune) and Harali (Dist. Osmanabad) along with the technical training centre at Shivapur are working on this aspect. The most important concern at all these places is how to make the students realize the importance of agriculture and the necessity of working in traditional occupations for economi prosperity. Technical training and training in basics of animal husbandry are supplemented with training in plant nursery, beekeeping, horticulture and vermi-composting at these rural schools. The need to migrate to big towns or cities for livelihood
must be reduced. For urban students, their are better amenities, but the crisis of values is becoming acute.
Education for inculcating values
Upasana i.e. prayer and meditation for the individual, reformed sacraments for the family, and social and educational movements for the society are the mainstays of JP’s perspective of man-making education. Manifestation of perfection means realizing the potentials of the body, mind and intellect. The do’s and don’ts for the manifestation of perfection constitute what are called as moral or ethical values. Inculcation of these values is not a separate activity to be done in a period set aside for it. It is JP’s view that the sum total of all educational activities should be an object lesson for understanding ethics and imbibing values.
These values spring from the axiom that an individual’s wellbeing and happiness is a part of the society’s well-being and happiness. Inculcation of values can be observed through change in speech, deed and expression of emotions. The traditional values from the time of the Upanishads are “g˧ dX' (speak the truth),"Y_ª Ma'(Practise righteousness), "ñdmÜmmV² _m à_X…' (Do not neglect self-study) "_mV¥-{nV¥-AmMm© Xodmo ^d’ (Venerate your mother, father and teacher as God). These are necessary even today.
Summarizing Swami Vivekananda’s exhortation to youth, has added one more value to the traditional ones, viz. “amï´>Xodmo ^d’
(Venerate your nation as God).
If the students have to imbibe these values, they need their teachers who live by these values as role-models before them. Man is imperfect and liable to err. Abiding totally to these values is a difficult task even for teachers. So the teachers have to be transparent. The Upanishads say – “m{Z AZdÚm{Z H$_m©{U Vm{Z Ëdm go{dVìm{Z Zmo BVam{U Ÿ&m{Z Añ_mH§$ gwM[aVm{Z Vm{Z Ëdmonmñm{Z Zmo BVam{U &’ Here the teachers tell the students, “Please imitate our good deeds and spotless charter only. Do not imitate our limitations and mistakes.’ Teachers have to show such frankness. Value education is transmission of internalized values from teachers to students who in turn internalize them.
Such value education builds character. Taking oath of ‘No-copy in Exams’ can be a beginning of this character building process. It cannot be a small part of education. Formal school education is only one part of total education, but value education takes place at every instant in the educational process whether it is for intellectual, physical and vital education or for emotional and social education and education for building the national spirit. JP has tried to implement this total educational programme.