Reimagining Schools, Higher Education & Research

50% of Indian population is under the age group of 25. That is a whopping 67 crore! Can we imagine the revolution this has a potential to bring if we can design a right model of education?

But, we continue to follow an education system, barring minor reforms, that was aimed at creating clerks and a class of people who would be Indian in looks and appearances, but English in their outlook. It fails to promote original and creative thinking on the one hand and on the other develops self-hate, self-criticism and an inferiority complex for our own culture!

It was not always so. The national education system followed by schools and universities in India today is a poor reflection of what it was in 18th century India. In his book The Beautiful Tree, the late great Gandhian thinker, historian and political philosopher Dharampal, mentions that Indian education in the mid 17th to 18th century was so robust and effective, that the British borrowed many of its methods and introduced them in Britain from the year 1800 onwards.

Can the philosophies of the great Indian Gurukul system and educationists like Gandhi, Tagore, Vivekananda,  J Krishnamurthy and Sri Aurobindo be integrated with the best systems in the world to formulate a new educational model? Is it possible to re-imagine a shift in school, higher education as well as in research from an inductive to an experiential/ first person enquiry? What would it take to educate the ‘whole person,’ keeping in mind his / her innate talents, gifts and capabilities? 

Join the conversation as we actively pursue these and other issues with leading educators and formulators of pedagogy across India and the world.