Community Education In National Perspective - Book Summary

Here's a comprehensive summary of the provided Jain text, "Community Education in National Perspective" by Mrs. Kailash Mehta:

The book emphasizes the crucial role of community education in enhancing the quality of life and driving socio-economic transformation. In a rapidly changing world, communities must embrace education to keep pace with progress. Mass education is presented as the fundamental method for societal advancement, aiming to enlighten the nation's human potential and optimize resource utilization. The author draws a parallel with the French Revolution, which fostered intellectualism and reduced socio-economic imbalances by creating a dynamic link between intellectuals and the common populace.

Key Concepts and Objectives:

Community: Defined as a group of people living in a region with shared ways of thinking and acting, fostering a collective identity.
Family: Identified as the primary educational agency, responsible for shaping fundamental attitudes, habits, and values.
Education: Encompasses the broader process of preserving and improving group life, a vital social activity for community continuity. Organized knowledge is seen as the greatest resource for individual and community growth, needing to be functionally linked to solving life's problems.
Objectives of Community Education: Beyond literacy, it aims to create awareness about societal issues. Ideally, it equips individuals to speak, read, and write in their mother tongue, with basic arithmetic skills, and a general aesthetic sense. Culturally, it promotes enlightened behavior within a democratic society. Economically, it should impart knowledge of workmanship, occupational information, and home economics. The overarching goal is to preserve, promote, and refine the society's way of life.

Background and Challenges in India:

The text highlights the twin problems of poverty and illiteracy in India. The poor are largely passive observers of development. The author advocates linking literacy programs with national planning and intensive area planning, emphasizing rural development and work-cum-action groups to revitalize national life. Despite a significant number of educational institutions and teachers, a substantial portion of the Indian population remains deprived of basic education. This is a serious concern, especially given that 40% of the world's poor reside in India. The prevailing low hierarchical patterns and resistance to change pose significant constraints, necessitating a breakthrough.

Approach to Community Education:

Indian society, with its diverse character, is inherently interdependent and interactive. Community education is seen as a process that creates a self-operating evolutionary cycle, accelerating progress, reducing tensions, and generating creative energy. The growing demand for skills due to technological advancements makes education increasingly vital. The approach should foster youth participation in community affairs and help them adjust to the adult world by learning cooperative problem-solving.

The text acknowledges that community influence varies among its youth due to differing environmental conditions. Therefore, a positive effort is needed to integrate traditional and contemporary elements with both formal and non-formal education. Community service and participation in socially useful work should be integral to national educational programs at all levels to promote self-reliance and dignity of labor. Moral education should be woven into curricular and co-curricular activities, with teachers and institutions bearing the responsibility.

Policy and Program Recommendations:

Policy: An ideal educational policy should empower individuals to reach their full physical and intellectual potential, fostering awareness of social and human values to create a dynamic equilibrium within national life. The curriculum needs adaptation to changing times, shifting emphasis from teaching to learning, and recognizing the crucial role of the teacher. The system should aim to bridge the gap between educated classes and the masses, eliminating feelings of superiority and inferiority. Students should have choices in their courses and learning times.
- Priority: Free education for all up to the age of fourteen, as per the Constitution, is paramount. This elementary education should focus on the holistic development of an individual's personality.
- Content: Alongside formal subjects, the curriculum should include community service, agriculture/horticulture, vocational activities, and disseminate information on family planning, health, nutrition, and child/mother care.
- Secondary Education: This level is identified as a central link, connecting elementary and college education. It needs to equip students with knowledge and skills for broader career choices and mobility. A shift towards creative learning is essential at all levels.
Program: Non-formal education includes initiatives like National Adult Education, Farmers' Functional Literacy, and Social Education. A vital curriculum is needed to foster a realistic attitude towards work and adult responsibility.
- National Adult Education Programme: The book mentions a significant program launched by the Janata Government in 1977 and expanded in 1978, aiming to create adult education centers as hubs for reform, training, earning, and learning. This program, phased from 1978-79 to 1983-84, targeted 100 million people aged 15-35, with a special focus on farmers, women, scheduled castes, and scheduled tribes.
- Implementation Agencies: Existing school teachers, voluntary organizations, local self-government bodies, youth and women's organizations, trade and industry, and developmental social service departments are identified as key implementers.
- Community Involvement: Associating local communities with schools through local committees is crucial for efficient functioning. Religious, economic, and political institutions are encouraged to support education. Service societies, craft unions, and farmer groups can act as catalysts. "Krishi Vigyan Kendras" (Farm Science Centers) should be nuclei for educating rural youth to boost production, with stipends and scholarships for deserving candidates. Innovations in agriculture should be made accessible to villages.

Drawbacks and Crisis:

The heterogeneity of Indian society, with its diverse social, religious, linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds, is identified as a major drawback, leading to narrow identities that hinder progress. The immediate concern for survival over education in a poverty-stricken country also limits access. The infiltration of industrial and technological processes is making rural life impersonal, creating differences in value systems and life goals between rural and urban areas, leading to a "crisis of dilemma." The author quotes Karl Marx, suggesting that modern education under capitalism can lead to dehumanization and erode noble cultural instincts.

Conclusions:

The core of the problem is social change. Education's primary concern is guiding youth towards constructive citizenship. The emergence of local leadership is vital for community betterment, fostering a continuous feedback loop for ongoing improvement. Community education is expected to initiate and accelerate a self-operating evolutionary process, restoring peace, harmony, and creative energy. Intellectual growth is deemed relevant to all forms of expansion. The book concludes by echoing Dr. M.S. Swaminathan's call to end the dichotomy between education and development, emphasizing the need for organic linkages between education, development, and employment to enable people to shape their own destinies.