am putting down a few thoughts on education in India as one who began his adult

life as a school teacher and as one who has been engaged, in a small way over the last 47 years, in

the task of educating workers, peasants and other sections of the people of India in the great strug-

gle to break their chains and to change this society from top to bottom. I have not graduated from

any academic university, but I have taken some lessons from the University of toiler’s struggles. In

Muhamma, in Alleppey District, where I had to spend some weeks in enforced idleness recovering

from my recent serious illness, I had the pleasant experience of reading the SFI’s new resolution-ON

F R O M

MASS EDUCATION A R C H I V E S

FOR THE PEOPLE

A. K. Gopalan

28

We are publishing below, a few observations
made by Comrade A.K.Gopalan on the edu-
cation system in our country and the SFI’s
resolution On Education. Student Struggle
has been fortunate to retrieve these notes that
Com. AKG had jotted down sometime dur-
ing the latter part of 1974. This has not been
published earlier.
Com. A.K.Gopalan was one of the foremost
leaders of the people’s struggle against all
forms of exploitation actively participating in
the national movement, he is considered as
one of the founders of the Communist move-
ment in the country. He was elected to the
Lok Sabha uninterruptedly from 1952 until
his death in 1975. He was the leader of the
opposition in the Parliament and was the
voice of the toiling people particularly during
the early days of the Emergency. This article
was written almost a decade ago still holds
relevance today. Some of the observations made here are more relevant today. Readers must bear in
mind that the statistics given pertain to the early period of the ‘70s. At the time of his death Com. AKG
was a Polit Bureau Member of the CPI (M), President of the All India Kisan Sabha and leader of the
opposition in the Lok Sabha.

I

Student Struggle | June - July 2019