TRUE EDUCATION by Mr. BHAMY SHENOY
A Proposal by IFHD(www.ifhd.org) , CATALYST(www.afhd.org) and PRAGATHI(www.pragathi.info)
Abstract : This is a case study already implemented by Dr Bhamy Shenoy in some parts of Karnataka, India where he experienced great change in the thinking of students after this ‘TRUE EDUCATION’
Case Study
Seminar series on True Education
Purpose of the seminar: At the end of the seminar series the students should learn the art of asking the right questions. They should feel the urge to learn new things.
Methodology: After college classes, one hour class will be held. After a short introduction by the speaker, most of the time will be allocated for questions and answers. It is left to the initiative of the students to study on the next day’s topic. It is useful, but not needed. Every participant is expected to ask questions or make comments. Out of the following 20 topics, 15 will be chosen by the students. The seminar series will last for 5 weeks with three classes per week.
Most of the topics will be handled by Dr. Bhamy Venkatramana Shenoy. Where speakers with expertise are available they will be invited to participate in the seminar.
Every participant will be given a certificate at the end of the seminar. If students are willing, duration of the class can be increased to one and a half hour with a ten minute break.
Selection of students: Any one who has cleared PUC can submit their applications with one page essay on why they want to take part and what do they hope to get from their participation. If there are more than 25 students, a selection committee of three lecturers will make the selection to have a cross section of students (town vs. rural, boys vs. girls, kannada medium vs. English medium, etc).
Fees: Every participant is expected to pay a nominal fee of Rs. 100. Any one who is selected cannot afford to pay, fee will be waived. Money so collected will be given as awards to three students in the form of books. (In Italics I have given brief note of the discussion that took place)
1. World history and Indian History
What can we learn from the world history?
What can we learn from Indian history?
Should we even study history?
Why studying history in the school is considered as boring?
How can teaching of history be made interesting?
What is meant by the words "those who do not learn from history?
are condemned to repeat the same mistakes"
Discussion was mostly on Clash of Civilization. Many felt that Bush was worse than
Osama Bin Laden. Many still continued to think that studying history is
not useful. Because history deals mostly with war, some expressed the
opinion they are not interested to read.
2 What can we learn from world's different leaders?
Abraham Lincoln
Winston Churchill
Napoleon
Hitler
Mussolini
Stalin
Gandhi
Nelson Mandela
Mao
Some commented why only leaders associated with war have been included?
Why there is less mention of Indian leaders? Why only European leaders have been
included? Many voted for Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Lincoln as their top three
choices. Some while selecting Gandhi mentioned that they were not fully for him and they have some reservations. It was sad to learn that not one has read any book on Gandhi.
They did not agree with some of his policies. Every leader was selected at least
by one student. Several mentioned Indian leaders like Mother Teresa, Subash
Chandra Bose, Indira Gandhi, Abdul Kalam, etc. The discussion lacked much
of depth. While commenting why they picked their choice many were simply
narrating some events in their lives and not their attributes.
3 Science, superstition and modern gurus
Does literacy help to overcome superstition?
Are we Indians more superstitious than westerners?
How to get over the superstition?
All expressed the opinion that they were convinced that modern gurus cheat
by showing so called miracles and they would argue with their parents that such
gurus should not be worshipped or respected. No one could answer why students do not
have scientific temperament today. Some expressed interest to take part in two
days training session to learn more about miracles so that they in turn can convince others not to be duped. During the valedictory some commented that this session( Just before the session Dr. Narendra Nayak the president of Rationalist Association had demonstrated the scientific basis behind the so called miracles of modern gurus) has made the greatest impression.
4 Capitalism, socialism and communism
Why did Russian communism fail?
Is Chinese communism succeeding?
Why has Indian socialism failing when it has succeeded in Scandinavia and some other western countries?
Has capitalism succeeded based on the US and UK example?
What can we learn from European countries?
Students asked for an explanation of these terms. They were not familiar with them . In the beginning all selected either communism or socialism as their first choice. Even after some discussion, only two changed their opinions in favour of capitalism. Most were liking socialism because wealth is equally distributed and they also thought that there was greater security while dealing with public sector banks. All agreed that privatization of sectors like telecom, or liberalization of auto sector has helped them. Still they voted for socialism.
5 World's religions
What can we learn from different religions?
What is common to all of them?
Why there is so much hatred in the name of religions?
Why so many killings are taking place in the name of religions?
Philosophy and religions. What is the difference?
Students when asked to estimate how many have been killed on account of religions
the estimates ranged from 100 millions to as low as one million.
Most were simply throwing some random numbers. This helped them to explore the pros and cons of religions. At the end one student even suggested she is anti religious if all
can be convinced to be so. There was discussion on how religious affiliations
help people to derive monetary benefits. One of the teacher coordinators made
the comment that how touchy this topic is and how she has been criticized
for having invited one of the speakers who denied the existence of GOD.
Some students readily admitted how their parents were traditional and superstitious.
6 Modern management techniques?
What is modern management and why there is a great demand for MBAs?
How did Raghuram Prabhu succeed in building a large company providing employment to laks?
Do we need management in operating our college? Our University?
What is the difference between administration, management and leadership?
Why our government and society in general fails to adapt modern management?
Students were given a brief description of what modern management can do by giving
the examples of micro financing company started by Vikram Akula and IT giant by Infosys. They were also given a brief history of management as a separate subject.
Most of the discussions took place on evaluation of the different schools students
have attended and assessing their management capabilities. During these discussions
several interesting topics emerged: how schools started by religious institutions hire their own people even when they are not qualified. As a result of this discussion students were fully convinced the critical importance to hire the right people to head the institutions. During the discussion students were given the examples of how the government has failed to name the heads of such important issues like CSIR, ONGC to impress upon them the need of good management.
7 NGO movement in India.
What is the status of NGO movement in India?
Who are some of the great NGO leaders in India?
Why has India failed to develop large NGOs like the west?
Why and how NGOs led by swamijis more successful than by social activists?
After the session, few students went to find out the conditions at the government school in the town where student strength has fallen from 250 ten years back to 35 today and also at government hospital. Knowledge of the students on NGO movement was practically nil. This topic was discussed during the second session. It became obvious that most students do not read news papers and have no idea about the importance of NGO movement. At the end of the valedictory function, the group has agreed to take up the agitation to improve the local government hospital which is poorly managed.
8 Even after 60 years of independence why is India poor?
What is the poverty level in India? Do we have a good statistic on it?
What is the poverty level in our town and in surrounding area?
What can be done to remove grinding poverty?
What can be done to improve standard of living?
Students responded to the question of who they consider as poor. Most suggested
an income level of between Rs 3000 to 5000 per month per family. When asked to suggest the main cause for poverty, various factors like lack of education, corruption, poor leadership and government, population, selfish attitude of the people, lack of importance given to agriculture, lack of industrialization, lack of development of technology, etc were put forth by the students. Most guessed that only about 2 to 5% were below the poverty line in our town whereas for the whole of India it was thought to be between 20 to 40%.
9 Do we have energy crisis in India?
Dimensions of Energy crisis
Energy security of India
Alternate energy sources
Eternal power crisis of India and Karnataka. What can be done?
Global warming and energy use
More than 40% of the student families are dependent on PDS kerosene. Two were complaining bitterly about the problems they face and the corruption. One student observed that to improve energy security it is necessary to diversify sources. One suggested that farmers should be made to conserve electricity. All were unanimous that we should use less energy, but they were not in agreement to use pricing as a tool. When explained the need, some got convinced the need to use pricing. Some even suggested controlling of energy use without realizing how it will create black marketing. Towards the end every one was convinced that India faces energy crisis and some action needs
to be taken.
10 Status of education in India.
What is the actual literacy in India?
What is the difference between literate and educated?
What can be done to improve educational standards in India?
What can be done to improve educational standards in our college?
Semester system, encouragement for creative thinking, students holding seminars and teachers acting as facilitators, introduction of moral science, having English medium in all schools, not giving importance only to professional colleges, not transferring teachers, infrequent change of teaching system, were some of the suggestions made. Most thought that it is 40 to 45% of Indians are literate. There was a distinction made between literate and educated class of people. With the exception of three students most did not think they got good education.
11 Politics and corruption
Are we more corrupt than the rest of the world?
Present political scenario in India.
Why are we corrupt? Is this a new phenomenon?
What can be done to reduce corruption?
Every student was asked to talk to his/her parents and find out about the situations when they had to pay bribes. All excepting two had interesting examples to give. We developed the talk then to discuss the responsibility to get involved in politics to reduce corruption and there was also discussion on how corruption arises as a result of deliberate way of built up system faults by the politicians. We discussed how cement price control created black marketing and when the price controls were removed how prices fell and supplies improved. There was also discussion on how subsidies on LPG is giving rise to wide corruption and how corruption can be eliminated by removing subsidies which are helping only those who can easily afford. With the exception of one all agreed
that it is better to eliminate subsidies. All stated that every politician is corrupt, but
no one came forward to contest in forthcoming panchayat election.
12 What are the five critical areas where India should work on for development and how?
Water
Power
Education
Health
Governance
Industry
Poverty
Caste problems
Agriculture
Transportation
The above table represents the priorities attached by the group to ten critical factors. Education gets the overwhelming vote. During the discussion many were admitting again that they did not get the right kind of education. Many suggested that once people are properly educated many other problems could be solved. Those who had given higher priority to governance argued that once we have the right kind of government, they would be in a better shape to take care of other issues. They had been asked to develop the priorities themselves so that there is no herd mentality or influence by a ‘leader’. Through this the group got a practical example how Delphic technique could be used to elicit the opinion of members of the group and develop an informed consensus.
13 Should we have reservation ? Why?
What has reservation achieved?
Should we have quota for higher education and why?
How long should we continue reservation?
Without any exception all students were against the reservation. Every one was
interested to give an example of how some family they knew was misusing the
reservation system. Only one student expressed some mixed feelings. But even she
was against the reservation. Most were in favour of reservation based on economic
criterion, but not caste. No one had participated in any agitation against reservation system. None had heard of Youth For Equality, a well known NGO spearheading the agitation against the OBC quota system. Since every one was against the reservation, facilitator though being totally against the quota system played the role of devil’s advocate. For some time students really thought that he was for reservation.
14 How can we hold a mirror to our society and what do we see there?
Untouchability?
Gender bias
Child labour
distress migration
Refugees driven out of their land
Falling sex ratio
Treatment of minority
Dowry system
All excepting three stated that dowry system or gender bias were the ones troubling
them the most. For one person it was distress migration. Two talked about female foeticide and falling female to male ratio. But it was the opinion of all that casteism is the most significant factor affecting India's development the most. Though most opposed dowry system, three of them stated that they do not have the courage to refuse the dowry demanding groom because of the potential parental pressure. Some of them were very vehement in stating that under no circumstances they would agree to such a proposal. Child labour issue was discussed by only one girl. Untouchability also did not get the attention it should have. Many gave examples of caste problems like society refusing to visit the houses which have accommodated dalits, the local temple having a separate arrangements for sitting different classes of brahmin etc. Minority treatment issue was not discussed at all. There was tremendous interest on the part of the participants in the discussion. One student has agreed to take part in the election as a candidate.
During the valedictory function, it became clear that the discussion of this topic might have had lasting impact. One girl stated she would fight against the scourge of untouchability and many pledged to fight against dowry system. Some commented that how they have become conscious of many of these social problems and they would react to them. They gave the example of when they saw a child serving food, how they inquired about him and raised the issue. Earlier they would have kept quiet even without noticing it. Many declared that they are so courageous now as a result of their participation, they would stand up and demand answers whenever they see some wrong thing being committed.
15 Jiddu Krishnamurthy's philosophy
What is the essence of Jiddu's philosophy?
How does it differ from others?
What can we learn from Jiddu's philosophy?
Some had been to the library to prepare for the session. Some stated that they will not attempt to read Jiddu since they may not understand what he discusses. Few expressed interest to read more. There was good discussion on Jiddu's philosophy. During the valedictory, it was apparent that Jiddu had some influence on some.
16 Music, Arts, Drama and other fine arts.
Different kinds of music: Western and Indian.
Different forms of arts
Different kinds of dramas.
Why should we learn about fine arts?
Because of lack of time, this topic was dropped.
17 Major world Conflicts
Iraq war
Afghanistan and Taliban and Al-qaeda
Korean and Iranian nuclear armament
Darfur
Kashmir
Fight for natural resources like energy, water, etc
Most voted for Iraq war as the worst world conflict blaming the US. Three thought that Kashmir could be the worst one because of nuclear armed opponents. One suggested that the underlying theme for most of these conflicts was oil. Not many had heard of Darfur before the session. Even about the other conflicts including Kashmir, understanding of them was little to nothing. It was simply amazing that despite that handicap, students were able to assess the severity of different world conflicts and commented boldly what they thought. The facilitator had introduced all these conflicts in 15 minutes. This was the first time since starting this experiment, students started to rain questions on the resource person. Every one was requested to put at least one question. But many put as many as three. This was a big success. When we started they would not put any question at all. Students were asking questions like what can be done to stop terrorism, Jihad, unnecessary killing in the name of religions etc and I did not have any good answer. I tried to escape by suggesting that we need to adopt and implement Gandhi’s principles of truth and non-violence without elaborating how it can be done.
18 Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG)
What is liberalization in Indian context?
Pros and cons of Privatization.
Is globalization good or bad for India?
Is globalization inevitable and if so how can we face it?
Most were opposed to globalization and also against MNCs. They thought that
they would take wealth from India. They were told that it may result in higher prices and shoddy goods because of less competition. Example of old Ambassador car was given to demonstrate that principle. Every expressed the opinion that they would not like to pay higher prices. But not many did not change their original opinion on MNCs and globalization. With the exception of one all wanted to work for private sector despite
not having safety of employment. All opposed the public sector agitating against
privatization. Globalization was also opposed by several. But not many were familiar with this topic either. Most despite being arts and commerce students were not familiar with LPG concept.
19 Environment, Energy and Development.
What are some of the early signs of environmental problems in SK?
Do we need to compromise environment against development?
How can we meet our energy needs in SK?
What can we do at individual level to protect the environment?
Not one student had heard of Nagarjuna's coal thermal power plant which is proposed for their district. This is one of the most controversial projects in the district and there has been much agitation against it by the environmentalists of the district. Because of the limitation of time there was not much discussion on this topic.
20 How to become a responsible citizen?
Duties of living in a democratic set up.
Why one should vote?
Role of press freedom.
Need to fight corruption
Responsibility of joining an NGO
Supporting a civic cause
With the exception of few stated that they would vote during the elections. Even those who declined to vote would change their mind if they find good candidates to vote for. Every one came forward to take up at least one civic issue like fighting against dowry, removing gender bias, fighting against corruption, fighting against the child abuse, protecting environment, eradicating plastic, improving local hospital, planting trees, implementing water harvesting projects, fighting untouchability, removal of superstition, etc. This being the final session, students were showing unusual interest in asking questions and making comments. The session lasted for more than 2 hours.
A STUDENT’S RESPONSE AFTER THE PROGRAM
I am Swathi Somayaji from Sri. Venkataramana Swamy College, Bantwal, studying in II B.Com. Bantwal is a small town in Dakshina Kannada District in Karnataka, India which is about 25 kms away from Mangalore. I am here before you today, to speak something on a series of Seminars on “True Education”, held in our college recently. The concept of True Education is a dream child of Dr. B.Venkatramana Shenoy of Bantwal town, presently residing in U.S.A He is also one of the trustees of our college.
In the present education system, students are not encouraged to think critically on any subject and offer solutions to the problems. The parents, as well as teachers are interested in their children exclusively devoting their time and energy to score highest marks in examinations and nothing else; with the only intention to get highly paid job. To bring about some changes in this kind of rigid and unfriendly learining environment and to make a student an asset, really an asset to the society, Dr. Shenoy has come up with this new concept of “True Education”
It is his dream that every student has to be educated to meet the challenges of day to day life. It is Dr.Shenoy’s idea that every student has to be brought up in such a way that he will be really an asset to his family, society, nation and to the world as well. With these ideas, Shenoy Sir has introduced this concept of True Education in our college this year.
The seminar on “True Education” consisted of 20 sessions of 90 minutes each with a group of 30 students drawn from Arts, Commerce and science streams. The programmme was designed by Dr.Shenoy himself and he spent about 15minutes at the beginning of each session introducing the topic. The remaining 75 minutes were spent for questioning by every student. According to Dr. Shenoy, the very purpose of these sessions was to develop courage among students to ask questions think critically on the matters and to learn more on new things. The topics selected for the purpose of seminar were 20 in number, extracted from various disciplines.
1) Status of Education in India.
2) Politics and Corruption.
3) Effects of Liberalization, Privatization, Globalisation.
4) Science Superstition and Modern Gurus.
5) Should we have reservation policy? If so why?
6) Capitalism, Socialism and Communism.
7) World religions.
8) Energy Crisis and Environment.
9) How to become a responsible citizen
10) Why India is still poor even after 60 yrs of independence and so on.The topics were selected with a view to know about what is happening around us and in our surroundings and how we can overcome and change our surrounding and how we can become a responsible citizen. In the sessions, participants were limited to 30 students so as to give personal attention to everybody and provide enough time to each participant to involve in the discussions.
Some of the guidelines of “True Education” seminars are:-
1) The facilitator should not speak for more than 15 minutes. He is not supposed to fill in information but initaiate discussions.
2) Every student should actively participate.
3) Any question asked should not be considered as silly or wrong. According to him there is nothing like right or wrong questions, it depends upon how we think or consider a matter under discussion and come up with the answer.
So, this is a small introduction of True Education, a series of seminar conducted by Dr. Shenoy in our college. I have attended all the seminars. According to me it was “The best”. It is well known that “knowledge is power, knowledge is supreme”. In the seminar all the topics chosen were good and interesting, which provided us knowledge on these subjects, which are not found in our academic syllabi.
I want to tell you how I happened to join this unique programme “True Education”. One fine day my friends phoned me up and told me that some programme on “True Education” was being arranged for some students. At that time I was not at all interested. It was to start in the middle of summer vacations and I had to sacrifice my precious holidays. However, then I thought I will give a try and found it to be so good.
We should always interact with each other, talk on current topics, think and ask questions on it. And I learnt this, after I attended these sessions. Most of my friends and even myself did not have the habit of reading new papers. But now we have cultivated the habit of reading newspapers and general books.
There is a statement,’ If you give hungry man bread one day, he will starve the next day. But if you teach him how to get bread he will never go hungry’. And that is what True Education has done to us. By true education I learnt the way of learning. I thank Dr. Shenoy for his valuable gift for a better life. Even my friends have expressed their heartfelt thanks to him.
Some of my friends, who were not at all daring, who never shared their view who were not confident, who were shy have changed so much that they gave a good talk on the valedictory day. Many of my friends said that after attending these classes they are fully confident and do not hesitate to speak or express their views. Ours was the first batch of True Education, now the second batch has started with remarkable response from the students. It is houseful now.
I feel that every college should include this type of programme. Having bookish knowledge is not sufficient in the present competitive world. But the courage to ask questions, think and express our own view, and knowledge to invent new things is equally important. It the students are provided with these programmes along with their regular classes I feel they will be truly educated.
Finally I am thankful to all the members present over here and hearing my speech. I am highly indebted to Dr. Padmini for giving me an opportunity to share my view with you on True Education programme and the university authorities for allowing me to attend this national seminar.
Question(By Pragathi) and Answers (Answered by Bhamy)
1. Can it be one of the periods in the class room ( we are thinking to implement at high school level - 9 th and 10th class)
Yes if the school management allows and teacher is capable of handling. Since already there are not enough hours are not available, I would suggest to have it outside the class hours. Also there is the practical problem. Usually in any class there are more than 25 students and “True Education” class should be limited to less than 25. Given this restriction, there would be a need to have it after the class hours.
2. Intermediate and B.Pharmacy colleges in Narasaraopet where my cousin is having partnership - can we plan any curriculum and how to provide the valuable resources for this ? Still there is less usage of internet in those colleges because of no good awareness of it.
As mentioned above you can adapt the topics I suggested with few changes unlike in the case of 9th and 10th graders. There you have to change some of the topics at least. They may not be able to appreciate Jiddu Krishnamurthy unless the teacher can handle it at an elementary level.
3. Can we plan something to implement at 3rd to 8th class levels also ? We have some good support from elementary and high school level teacher community in our Mandal.
At 3rd to 8th standards format needs to be different. There in the class rooms itself (assuming it is small), teacher should not emphasize scoring high marks, should not emphasize rote learning, should make it mandatory to read ten library books and write about them, should organize field trips etc. In other words, teachers should encourage creativity among students and cultivate the habits of asking questions. In short they need to bring about cultural changes in the class as suggested by Jiddu. Education should not be viewed as putting mere information in the brains of the children like we fill memory cells of a computer. This is often repeated as mantra, but never attempted excepting perhaps in some montessory and Krishnamurthy schools.
4. We have some good support from our MLA who had attended Pre APDC meeting at ANU in Guntur who has asked me to focus on the education sector.
We need to “educate” our political leaders, civil servants, bureaucrats etc above “True Education”. As you know only 25% of our graduates from even professional colleges can be employed today. It is worse in the case of other colleges. Our education system has failed and the sad fact is that we do not that. Just because we are doing some “coolie” work of programming and BPO work, we think we have reached the knowledge economy and our institutions are producing knowledge workers in increasing numbers. Unfortunately this is not true. I am sure if you convince of these naked truth, your MLA friend may appreciate and work with you.
Once we take this forward at our village and Mandal Level and couple of colleges of interest, we would plan it across the constituency of Sattenapalle in Guntur District with the help of our MLA. Requesting your direction to us and to all NGOs. We are also planning to set up R&D center related to education, technology and rural development.
Only way to promote this is by actual doing it. Before starting I had no idea it will work. But results were spectacular. I have attached a presentation made during a national seminar at Mysore University by a student participant. Her words will convey better the problems of current education system. What we need is action and less criticism and some more ideas. I am not giving any new suggestion. It is just that we need to give greater scope to students to open their mouths. There is nothing new in this.
The Proposal : The case study can be replicated to implement the same with necessary changes for various levels like Elementary, High School, College and University.
Article in the Catalyst Magazine: (http://www.afhd.org/issues/catalyst-issue7.pdf) on TRUE EDUCATION by Mr.Bhamy Shenoy