EDUCATION-adopted at its second All India
Conference. I went through this resolution with
much attention. I found in it, a new seriousness
about education, an understanding more mature
than before, worthy of resolute young fighters for
new education, a new culture, and a new society.
Hence, my desire to highlight some of the issues
and concrete demands you have raised, and to
put these in the perspective of a revolutionary
struggle for people’s democracy and socialism.
The Situation Today
The disease of our educational system is to use
the words of Lenin; “the rift between books and
practical life”. Today, almost everyone reproaches
our schools and colleges; accuses them of failure
and impotence. Education Commissions and
Committees have gone into the problem labori-
ously; found much in it that is unsatisfactory, and
made their recommendations and proposals in
bulky volumes containing innumerable appen-
dices. In many States and regions, despair with
the present state of education has reached a stage
when the elementary ground-rules of the system
have begun to break down. No sensitive student
or youth can conceal his indignation at the easily
observable fact that the masses of the people of
India are robbed on such a vast scale of educa-
tion, light, and knowledge. India leads the world
in the total number of literates. There are more il-
literates in this country today than the total pop-
ulation on the eve of independence. This number
is growing from day to day. More deplorable than
all the other aspect is the picture of cynicism, hy-
pocrisy, humiliation and suppression that emerg-
es from a system of education that to use Lenin’s
words once again, “derides youth and jeers at the
people’s thirst for knowledge.”
There is the problem of dropping out of primary
schools and of irregular attendance, which calls
for concrete and immediate measures to enable
the pupils to attend. What is to be done about
this? There is the problem of our many-sided
training of the student, including the teaching
of physical education in the interest of lifelong
physical and sports activities and wholesome
habits. Has any advance been made in this field?
These students are to form correct study habits;
these teachers are to be guided on the aptitude of
students, on the objectives sought to be achieved
by the studies, and on the elimination of sense-
less cramming. Has any serious attention been
paid to this? There is the problem of Promot-
ing scientific and technological education, re-
search and experimentation, and of developing
a capacity for criticism that makes it possible for
students to have a vision of modern processes of
production and a trained mind. What concrete
steps are proposed in this regard? There are thou-
sands of students in schools and colleges needing
financial assistance to buy textbooks, to eat and
live in hostels. Are educational authorities and
the Government ever bothered by this? There is
the problem of examinations reduced to a farce.
What is the solution? Here is the education sys-
tem breaking down and depriving thousands of
young men and women of the opportunity to
learn. What has the Congress Government done
about this, beyond giving more police support
to the Congress gangster elements who forcibly
close down the schools and colleges?29There is the problem
of dropping out of
primary schools
and of irregular
attendance,which
calls for concrete
and immediate
measures to enable
the pupils to attend.
What is to be done
about this?
Student Struggle | June - July 2019