Saturday 7 January 2017

educational ideas of Dr Radhakrishnan


            Education is a special discipline and theory and practice of education deserves to receive a special attention. According to Sathya Sai Baba, “An education system in country is a bank on which the people can draw a cheque for the upliftment of the society”. The organization of such a bank needs to be suplemised and progressive. It is only the contribution of great thinkers in the field of education can guide the planners to have this organization on sound footings. We in India have an ideal educational system in ancient time. It worked well for the society of that time. In such a system there were some basic principles and postulates some ideals, rules and regulations which we have implemented in the right earnest in ideal educational situations.
            Great thinkers of contemporary India have given their verdict on the basic principles as well as needed reflections. One of the most important persons was a Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. The crucial role that be played in the formative years of our republic and his contribution to the consolidation of our political and parliamentary traditions, and especially the significant role that be played as one of the most brilliant of our philosophy, acting as cultural ambassador to the west. Except for occasional cases like Janaka, Lord Krishna and Macus Aureline, Philosophers have never been kings and kings have never been philosophers. But here is an example during our own times of a Philosopher president. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan not only a philosopher but also a writer of repute, a scholar par-excellence, an orator with gift of the gab, an original thinkers, an educationist, a spiritualists, a creative genius and briefly speaking a superman in the terminology of Aurobindo. As a philosopher he was equally an authority in Western and Eastern thought. Among the modern thinkers he is an authority of the modern world on religion, culture and philosophy.
DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN- HIS LIFE AND WORK
            Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born on September 5, 1888 Tirattani of Madras, presidency in a Telugu Brahman family. He obtained his M.A. degree in philosophy at the age of 21 in 1909. He served as a teacher in the Presidency College, Madras, from 1909 to 1917. Here he earned a very high reputation as a teacher of the most difficult problems of philosophy. After this he served for a year of the Arts College, Rajamundry and then was appointed a professor of philosophy in the University of Mysore where he remained till 1921. At Mysore be wrote his two important books – “The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore” in 1918 and the “Reign of Religion in Contemporary Philosophy” in 1920. The latter book made him famous in the world of Philosophy.
            In 1921 Sir Aushutosh Mukherjee appointed Radhakrishnan the King George V Professor of Philosophy at the Calcutta University. He held this post for about 20 years and during this period with the permission of the Calcutta University authorities he served as a professor of comparative Religion in Manchester college of Oxford, as the Vice – Chancellor of the Andra University and as Splading professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics again at Oxford. In 1923, Radhakrishnan produced the first volume of this famous ‘Indian Philosophy’. In this book are surveys the philosophy of Vedas and the Upanishads, Bhagavasgita, Realism of the Jainism, Idealism of the Buddha and Buddhistic philosophy. In 1927, he produced the second volume of this book wherein he has described the six systems of Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya Yoga, Mimansa, Vedanta, Vaishnava, Shaiva and Shakta systems of theism.
            In 1926 Radhakrishnan delivered a series of Upton Lectures on philosophy at the Manchester College of Oxford. These lectures were published under the title “The Hindu View of Life”. This book was translated into many Indian and Foreign languages. This book made Radhakrishnan very famous. In 1929 he delivered in two series of lectures which were later published with titles “East and West in Religion” and “The Ideal View of Life”. It is in the latter book that Radhakrishnan has given his original contribution to the religious thought of the present age. In 1939 Radhakrishnan accepted the Vice-Chancellorship of the Banaras Hindu University. In this year, he produced two important books under the titles “Eastern Religious and Western Thought” and “Mahatma Gandhi”. The former book explains the Upanishadic Mysticism of India and shows how this mysticism has been a continuous influence of Western thought. Radhakrishnan wrote a long introduction to “Mahatma Gandhi”, which was presented to Gandhiji on his seventieth birthday. The other books by Radhakrishnan are ‘The Religion, We Need’, ‘Kalki’ or ‘the future of civilization’, ‘The Heart of Hindustan’, and Freedom and culture. Radhakrishnan has been invited by various countries of the world to lecture on topics concerning religion, culture and philosophy.
            In the independent India he was appointed the ambassador to the U.S.S.R. He was made the Chairman of the University Commission appointed in 1948 to examine the working of the various universities in the working of suggest remedies for reforms. In 1950 he was elected to the high office of Vice –President of his country and in 1962 the nation honoured him by electing him the president of India. He held this highest office till 1967 when he retired to devote his time to philosophical pursuits. At the ripe age 06 85 years, he left this world on April 17, 1975 for his heavenly abode.
RADHAKRISHNAN’S PHILOSOPHY
            According to Dr. Radhakrishnan, Philosophy is avoiding terms that includes logic, ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy and metaphysics. Metaphysics which is concerned with the ultimate nature of things is comprised of two main fields, oncology and epistemology. Science studies the different facts of experience, while philosophy develops the meaning and explanation of experience as a whole. Philosophy has two sides to it, an explanatory and a descriptive, a metaphysical and an empirical. Philosophy studies experience in a concrete form and reveals of the order and being of experience itself. It is a sustained attempt to understand the universe as a whole, if coordinates and interprets all significant aspects of experience the reports of scientists, the intuitions of the artists and the insights of saints. Any coherent Philosophy should take into account observed data, rational reflection and intuitive and insight, since human consciousness consists of the perceptual, the logical and intuitive awareness.

RADHAKRISHNAN’S EDUCATIONAL IEAS AND AIMS OF EDUCATION
Dr. Radhakrishnan defines education as the instrument for social, economic and cultural change. For social and national integration, for increasing productively, education should be properly utilized. “The importance of education is not only in knowledge and skill, but it is to help us to live with others.”
Radhakrishnan wants that for realizing the aim of education is to bring nearer to God. In this aim one should study the various aspects of education. Through education Radhakrishnan wants to establish a classless society in order to bring equality between man and man. He wants that education should develop universal brotherhood. The most important aim of education is to help us to see the other world, the invisible and intangible world beyond space and time. Education has to give us a second birth, to help us to realize what we have already in us. “The meaning of education is to emancipate the individual and we need the education of the whole man – physical, vital, mental, intellectual and spiritual”. Education should enable one to imbibe attitude of simple living and high thinking. Radhakrishnan has attached great importance to spiritual education. He thinks that education which does not inculcate spiritual feelings in students is not true. Without a spiritual bent of mind, the physical and intellectual development of a person remains stunted. This situation is detrimental to the progress of mankind.
A satisfactory system of education aims at a balanced growth of the individual and insists on knowledge and wisdom. It should train the intellect, and furthermore, wisdom can be gained by the study of literature, philosophy and religion that interpret the higher laws of the universe. Education should develop in the minds of the students a love of sustained thinking, adherence to truth and the power of resistance to popular sentiments and mob passion.
THE NATURE OF CURRICULUM
            Radhakrishnan has defined his concept of curriculum in his university commission report published in 1949. He wants that a student should study a number of subjects such as philosophy, literature, science, ethics, politics, theology, geography, history, agriculture, natural science, economics, human science and civics. In the curriculum for women, Radhakrishnan wants to include some subjects which may be particularly useful for their specific duties in life. They should also be given education in home science, cooking, fine arts, ethics and religion. Thus Radhakrishnan wants that curriculum must be related to one’s life.
METHODS OF TEACHING
            Radhakrishnan attaches great importance to observation, experiments and the relationship of nature and society in the method of teaching. He is of the view that teaching of moral values should be through real and living examples. He wants that the student should come close to society and nature in order to understand the same. In learning industrial subjects he recommends the use of imitation method. He thinks that man through regular practice in the Yoga and Meditation may be helped in reaching his goal. He also accepts the importance of internal knowledge for experience in different subjects.   
INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION OR RADHAKRISHNAN COMMISSION (1948 -1949)
            Inter –university board of education and central advisory board of education recommended to Government of India that an All India Commission of Education should be appointed to inquire into the requirements of the higher education in India and put forward commendations for re-organization of the University Education in the light of requirements of the country and its traditions. On November 4, 1948 the Government of India appointed university education commission with Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan as chairman. Hence, it is also known as ‘Radhakrishnan Commission’. There were 10 member of the commission.
AIM OF APPOINTMENT
            The commission was appointed, to report on Indian University Education and suggest improvements and extensions that may be desirable to suit present and future requirements of the country.
TERMS OF REFERENCE
            The terms of reference of the commission were ways and means for the improvement and re-organization of the University Education, problems of the teachers, curricula, medium of instruction, religious education problem of discipline, health and residence of the students and such allied problems in the perspective of the national an international conditions.
METHOD OF STUDY
The commission made a thorough study of the problems of Higher Education in India. It toured the country extensively.
It prepared a questionnaire which was sent out to about 600 persons who mattered in the field of education. It interviewed administrators, organizations of the students and other educationist. Thus it tried to gather information in regard to almost all the aspects to university education. Its report runs into two volumes.   The first part of the report contains 18 chapters and about 747 pages. The second volume contains the statistics in regard to institutions and other educational problems and the evidence tendered by the witness examined by the commission.

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