Concept of Education
Sri Aurobindo Ghosh was deadly against the prevalent education of his times. He has admitted that after the attainment of independence, changes have occurred in our system of education, but it is not in conformity with the mental and spiritual needs of children and demands of the nation. According to him, our education should be in accordance with the needs of our-real modern life. In other words, education should create dynamic citizens so that they are able to meet the real needs of modern complex life. Sri Aurobindo, thus, writes, "Education to be true must not be a machine made fabric, but a true building or living evocation of the powers of the mind and spirit of human being."
Brief Life Sketch
Died: 5 December 1950, Puducherry
Literary
works: The Life
Divine, The Synthesis
of Yoga, Savitri
Basic Principles of Sri Aurobindo’s Ghosh
The basic principles of Sri
Aurobindo's educational philosophy are as follows:
i. Education
should be imparted through the medium of mother tongue.
ii. Education should be child centered.
iii. Education
should be according to the mental aptitudes and psychological needs of the
child.
iv. Education
should develop to the full the latent powers of the child.
v. Education
should achieve the physical purification of the child.
vi. Education
should develop consciousness.
vii. Education
should train the senses of child
viii. Education
should develop the soul substance of an individual.
ix. Brahmacharya
should be the basic foundation of education.
x. Subjects
of education should be interesting.
xi. Education
should develop all the faculties of child to make him a complete man.
xii. There should be religious tinge in education otherwise it will spread corruption.
Sri Aurobindo believed that the highest truths, the truth contained of science and religion were already contained in Vedas. The Gita and the Upanishads are nothing but a logical continuation of the Vedas.
Aurobindo’s Aims of Education
Shri Aurobindo emphasized that
a. Education should be in accordance with the needs of our real modern life. In other words, education should create dynamic citizen so that they are able to meet the needs of modern complex life.
b. According to him, physical development and holiness are the chief aims of education. As such, he not only emphasized mere physical development, but physical purity also without which no spiritual development is possible. In this sense physical development and purification are the two bases on which the spiritual development is built.
c. To train all the senses hearing, speaking, listening, touching, smelling and tasting. According to him these senses can be fully trained when nerve, chitta and manas are pure. Hence, through education purity of senses is to be achieved before any development is possible.
d. To achieve mental development of the child. This mental development means the enhancement of all mental faculties ‟ namely memory, thinking, reasoning, imagination, and discrimination etc. education should develop them fully and harmoniously.
e. He also has emphasized that without moral and emotional development only, mental development becomes harmful to human process. Heart of a child should be so developed as to show extreme love, sympathy and consideration for all living beings. This is real moral development.
Thus, the teacher should be a role model to his children that mere imitation can enable them to reach higher and higher stages of development. Development of conscience is another important aim of education that needs to develop by the help of teacher. Conscience has four level chitta, manas, intelligence, and knowledge. Aurobindo emphasized that the main aim of education is to promote spiritual development. According to him every human being has some fragment of divine existence within himself and education can scan it from each individual with its full extent.
Curriculum
Sri Aurobindo stresses integrated
curriculum for the students which includes activities, subjects and spiritual
experiences all in a unifying whole. Sri Aurobindo also suggested such subjects
which could be helpful in all round development of the individual. He wished to
infuse a new life and spirit into each subject and activity through which the
development of super human being could become possible. According to Aurobindo
the Curriculum should be as follow-
i. Curriculum should be interesting.
ii. It should include all those subjects which promote
mental I and spiritual development.
iii. Subjects of Curriculum should be able to motivate
children.
iv. Curriculum items should involve creativity of life and constructive capacities.
v. Curriculum should motivate children towards the attainment of knowledge of the whole world. vi. Aurobindo has prescribed the following subjects in the Curriculum for the different stages of education:
a. Primary Stage: Mother tongue, English, French, literature, national history, art, painting, general science, social studies and arithmetic.
b. Secondary Stage: Mother tongue, English, French, arithmetic, art, chemistry, Physics, botany, physiology, health education, social studies.
c. University Stage: Indian and western philosophy, history of civilization, English literature, French literature, sociology, psychology, history of science, chemistry, physics, botany, International relations and integration.
d. Vocational Education: arts, painting, photography, sewing, sculptural drawing, type, shorthand, cottage industries, carpentry, mechanical and electrical engineering, nursing, Indian and European music, dramatization and dancing.
Methods of Teaching
Sri Aurobindo suggested
i. Activity method,
ii. Observation method,
iii. Self discovery method,
iv. Discussion method ,
v. Learning by doing,
vi. Learning by self experience during teaching learning process.
Role of Teacher
Sri Aurobindo has given a very respectable and very a responsible job for the teacher because in his system, activity more on the part of the people was needed. So the teacher should be careful enough to observe the working of the student minutely so that he could guide those students who were going on wrong track. Sri Aurobindo suggested the he should not teach but suggest, organize their work and show them the direction to responsibility, and to help them to find out inner guidance. Sri Aurobindo discarded the punishment and the stimulation of fear.
Place of Teacher
Aurobindo has assigned a very important place to the teacher. The central place, as in the Western systems of education, has been occupied by the educand. His philosophy of education, therefore, is paid centric. However, the teacher remains the philosopher and the guide. His aims at turning the disciple's eye towards the beacon light of his own Godhead. In fact, the real teacher is within the educand. He is the God. He is the ultimate guide and yet the teacher plays an important role in arousing the educand towards God within. He has not to impose his opinions or demand passive surrender from the educand. He has to create an atmosphere so that the educand may grow freely.
Relevance of the Modern System of Education
Although Sri Aurobindo had given
his theory in 1910 and 1937 respectively, yet his theory is relevant to the
modern system of education. Sri Aurobindo’s theory is relevant in respect of
all round development of the child, compulsory education at least up to the age
of 6-14 years, lifelong and continuing education, vocational education,
creativity, study of science and technology, literature etc. Sri Aurobindo’s
main contribution in future education that is to prepare for future life. Sri
Aurobindo also gave preference to national integration, international
integration, value education and non formal programs for rural and unorganized
sectors.
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