Feature

This deviation from ethics and morality hasn't occurred overnight. If we skim through history, we well see that imposition of colonial education system in the subcontinent actually began the era of decaying ethics and morality. The British Raj introduced its education system in the subcontinent for its own interest not for the interest of the native Indians. On the part of the British regime, the major driving force to introduce a newly formulated education system in India was to establish its hegemony and extend its rule. The comment in this regard of the founder of the English education system in the subcontinent, Lord Macaulay, appears relevant. Macaulay, in the context of framing colonial education policy, stated, 'In India, English is the language spoken by the ruling class. Those Indians of the high class, who are in the government, also speak it… We must do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, a class of persons Indians in blood, but English in taste, in opinions, words and intellects.' A similar view was expressed by Sir Trevelyan, a major policymaker of British colonial education: 'There is only one way to turn the thoughts of Indian nation in another direction. And that is to create Western thoughts among them [by introducing our education system].' In 1857, Trevelyan told the British parliament, 'After such an education, a political revolution in this country will be unlikely and we will be able to rule over our Empire for long… By increasing education and by giving jobs to more and more Indians, the British rule can be made permanent.' So, the major objective of implementing colonial education system was to create a privileged class who would collaborate with the British regime. Perhaps the dangerous implication of the British colonial education system is the orientation of education towards jobs. The concept of 'Lekha pora kore je, gari ghora chore she (those who study, ride carts and horses)' has been instilled into the psyche of the common people in the 19th century, after the introduction of the colonial education policy in undivided India. The colonial education policy encourages us just to mimic the Western education system without assessing our own context. For this reason, we just import education/technology from the developed world but fail to assimilate these assessing our socioeconomic needs. For the same reason, we neglect many of our indigenous knowledge which could have been used for our development in different fields.

There is a misconception that incorporation of colonial education policy has initiated the era of renaissance and civilisation in India. In fact, this is merely a propaganda originating from the British Raj which, in turn, has submerged most of the educated people of the subcontinent in a sort of inferiority complex. Litterateur Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838-94) was the first Bengali who graduated from the Calcutta University.

In fact, the education system prevailing in India before the advent of the British regime was of a high standard intermingled with secular, religious and moral education. During those periods, education addressed the following domains: a) religious and moral education, b) education relating to skills, crafts and agriculture, c) education relating to philosophy, science and technology, and mathematics, d) education relating to arts, e) education relating to politics and military arts, f) medical education.

The level of knowledge was higher, at least definitely not lower than that prevalent in Europe. In this context, Naresh Kumar, a contemporary researcher of Lucknow University, argues, 'Definitely this education encompassed all aspects of life. It could have been strengthened and developed into a modern education system.' During the pre-British India, education was not considered merely a job oriented mechanism. Rather, people thrived for knowledge to enlighten themselves. Every branch of knowledge during that period had special ethics to follow with a view to promoting morality and honesty of the learner.

Mediaeval India witnessed a very strong, progressive and pro-people movement, popularly known as Bhakti/Sufi (800-1700) movement. A salient feature of this movement was to prepare the context of a new education. The main principles of Bhakti movement were : (1) God is one, (2) To worship God man should serve humanity, (3) All men are equal, (4) Worshipping God with devotion is better than performing religious ceremonies and going on pilgrimages, and (5) Caste distinctions and superstitious practices are to be given up. This movement had tremendous impact on both the formal and informal education. The Bhaktibad/Sufies stressed on universal education explicitly stating that education should not be limited to the Brahmin class only. Intermingled with the principles of Bhakti/Sufi, educated people at that time preserved honesty, morality and sense of social responsibility.

In Bangladesh, we are still following the colonial legacy of education. Though after independence, in 1974 a commission headed by Dr Kudrat-e-Khuda chalked out a scientific and pro-people education policy, unfortunately it never got implemented due to the resistance of the reactionary groups. Our present education system is nothing but jargons lacking specific objectives, vision and mission. The so-called free market economy has further contaminated our educations systems. While coping with the with the free market economy, education has become a commodity. Today, acquiring knowledge is not a passion; rather, its materialistic value has become the priority. For this reason, students select their subjects of higher studies assessing its market orientation and demand. For the same reason, university teachers do not take interest in research unless it offers materialistic gains. If a survey could have been carried out, it would have been revealed that a number of faculty members of the Dhaka University, the apex and the oldest university of the country, take interest in research only until they have fulfilled the required number of publications for the post of professorship.
Our education system has lost it vision and leads most of the educated people towards corruption. Due to low literacy, society puts the educated people in a privileged category and many of these 'educated' persons do not hesitate to exploit the 'uneducated' poor class for their materialistic gain.

In conclusion, it may be stated that if we want to minimise the corruption in society, we must set our education in the right direction. For this, we must reformulate our education policy. This new education policy should be pro-people in the context of this soil so that it encourages ethics and morality blended with modern scientific and secular outlook. Of course, the new education policy will emphasise on the materialistic development of both individuals and society but it should not be the sole objective.

Md Anwarul Kabir teaches computer science at AIUB. He can be reached at kabir@aiub.edu

They will stand by you, no matter what....!!!

Here's an example:

Friends of Women:

A wife was not at home for a whole night. So she tells her husband the very
next morning, that she stayed at her (girl) friend's apartment overnight.
So the husband calls 10 of her best (girl) friends and none of them
confirmed that she was with them.

Friends of Men:
A husband was not at home for a whole night. So he tells his wife the very
next morning, that he stayed at his friend's apartment over night. So the
wife calls 10 of his best friends and 5 of them confirmed that he stayed at
their apartments that night and another 5 claimed that he is still with
them!!