Education and the overwhelming question

As the principal of the college to which Rahul Gandhi referred, while expressing his unhappiness about higher education, I decided to interact with him to get a clear idea of what he said and what he did not mean.

As the principal of the college to which Rahul Gandhi referred, while expressing his unhappiness about higher education, I decided to interact with him to get a clear idea of what he said and what he did not mean. I did not teach Rahul while he was in St. Stephen8217;s, but I remember him as a well-behaved young man reading history in college. The degree of encouragement he found for asking questions is an issue that I cannot comment on either way with clinching certitude. But what I now know, having discussed the matter with him, is that what the media reported is not exactly what he meant. 8220;Between the intention and the effect,8221; as Eliot says, 8220;falls the shadow8221;.

But the issue he has raised goes way beyond St. Stephen8217;s. I feel encouraged that Rahul has paved the way for a national debate on the culture of Indian higher education. The question of raising questions concerns the very purpose of education itself. What sort of products do we envisage through the education in vogue today? Why is it that a majority of students even in higher education are disallowed the luxury of asking questions to widen their cognitive horizon? Even more basically, why are millions of children not even enabled to enter the portals of education? What emerged was his concern that education of the kind pursued today promotes intellectual passivity. The vast intellectual energies of this country remain frozen for want of nurturing a culture of intellectual curiosity marked by the dynamics of asking and seeking.

Regrettably, Rahul8217;s passing reference to St. Stephen8217;s has not gone down well with certain alumni. Ironically, by objecting, they only prove him right! The willingness to welcome well-meaning criticism is basic to the culture of wholesome curiosity. A capacity for self-criticism is the hallmark of a living tradition and healthy institution. I feel disappointed when St. Stephen8217;s 8212; or any institution of excellence 8212; is turned into an idol, as though it has arrived for ever. An idolised institution remains preoccupied with two priorities: a marketing its brand-value and b maintaining the status quo so that its brand value is not diminished. The casualties in this process are: a gradual erosion of the capacity for self-criticism, the decline of the spirit of humour and the will to respond to emerging challenges, which is the secret of growth.

Let us return to the concern that Rahul has raised. There exists, according to him, a dissonance between the purpose of education and its process. The purpose is to produce thinking, innovative, excellence-seeking individuals who relate creatively to their context and contribute to the common good. A student stands in the twilight zone between the 8216;given8217; and the 8216;not-yet8217;. By asking questions she moves, step by step, towards the zone of light. 8220;From darkness to light8221; is a fair description of the purpose of education. What is not interrogated and debated is hardly understood. It stays anchored in the twilight zone. What is vaguely understood hardly inspires a person to seek any further than livelihood and career. The end-product of this process could well be a skilled parasite who is adept at taking as much as possible from the society, without putting anything back into it. The culture of intellectual curiosity that the academia promotes or suppresses is, in the end, inseparable from the work-culture that it produces.

Education must contribute to personal fulfillment. For that to happen, education 8212; especially higher education 8212; must remain harnessed to growth, rather than greed. Greed too generates its own genre of questions. But questions of greed cannot cater to personal happiness simply because they do not facilitate the full unfolding of a person.

It is not an accident that Eliot8217;s Prufrock cannot bring himself to asking the overwhelming question. The questions we ask reveal best who we are. What are the questions that we, as a people, raise or suppress? A teacher cannot overlook the continuity between the classroom and the life-world of the young people she teaches. She has to be, hence, not only mindful of the need to create room for questions in the pedagogic space but also remain attentive to the questions they are scared or unwilling to ask. The time has come to wonder seriously how we can make classroom learning 8212; to borrow the useful expression of Erich Fromm 8212; an 8216;activating8217; rather than 8216;passivating8217; experience.

The writer is the Principal of St. Stephen8217;s College and Member, National Integration Council