evolution of learning in India

Gurukula was the ancient way of learning in India. It is interesting to know that this style of learning was known for the commitment of the teacher and the student and the unique environment of Gurukula. Here the student used to leave his parents and join the school of the teacher to master his learning. Ramayana and Mahabharata give us a detailed account of that school of learning.

The nineteenth and twentieth century in India's history has been the worst period in which maximum poverty, impoverishment, malnutrition, blind religious beliefs, Cholera, Malaria, Plague, prominence to English and the British exploitation of Indians, pushed India a lot backwards.

India was, is and will be a very complex country with a billion people, having various religions, sub religions, caste, creed, multiple languages, dialects, multiple traditions, over and above the import of English and its cultural impact. So it was a nightmare for the government to take up the challenge of educating the India masses.

Post Independence, various researches has been done in the field of education and new concepts have been tried out, to bring in 100% Literacy. Basic education for communication (Language) and basic skills (for living), and basic social enlightenment for better quality living. In India this has been the focus till last 60years. This progress has been very interesting in the fact that; Basic communication was the first focus (saksharatha andolan) - end result=people should read write and understand in their language, complemented with the effort of giving skill based training to people like tailoring, printing, typing, etc. The typing skill (typewriter) was a rage till 1995 in India, later on Computer training DTP, data entry; multimedia, etc took the center stage for next 10 years and is still popular. The social enlightenment like, health conscious (Polio drops, family planning), cleanliness (keep premises clean, anti malarial measures, AIDS education etc have changed the quality of life people live.

I am detailing these because the effort required by the Government in doing this is enormous and very difficult. The Government never had any earlier empirical data on mass education/teaching, to refer for any other culturally complex country, to implement easily. It had to find its own way out and today India has its success in doing this mass education program, by its own unique way of using cultural tools, help of religious institutions and above all using the Television and Radio media.

The television made a remarkable impact on India masses and also the Radio. The 60 years of post independence period has been dominated by them. Thanks to Indian INSAT satellites by ISRO, this has made a crucial indirect contribution in educating Indian masses.

The progress of this education and learning has borne many a fruits, especially in understanding our country better and now much more united. Because of multiple cultures, traditions and moorings we tend to be more open in learning, knowing others especially more interested in social learning and networking. We have evolved and are unique bestowed with the various cultural influences and at the same able to identify ourselves with our own culture/tradition in this complex environment.

Was just wondering the way the learning and its environment has evolved over the years. After the invention of ship, trade between countries, travellers coming from various countries, great conquests, cultural invasion,...the learning dimensions, scope, environment has changed dramatically. The gurukula teaching progressed to classroom teaching and today to digital learning.

Learning to me always has been one's way of accessing and assimilating the information sensed and applying the knowledge for his needs. Knowledge has been one's ability to build on the learning by deeply studying the subject by expanding his learning network. Finally the knowledge gets evaluated in the education system by awarding credits. Historically the same concept has been there in terms of learning (by self or teacher), knowledge (by knowing better), and evaluation (by teacher or system).

Today this torch of educating and enlightening the masses has been carried out by the Mobile and Internet technology. The tools like SMS, email, chat, blogs, you tube, LMS and the IP telephony has changed the way we live assimilate, communicate, learn, and enhance our knowledge horizon, above all the quality of life.

A guru has been replaced with multiple gurus; his learning environment has been replaced with multiple environments, multiple skills, multiple tools and also by multiple way of evaluation. We are going to see an unprecedented revolution in learning in coming years. Our children will start learning in virtual universities from virtual teachers with simulated laboratories and experiments from their computers.

It’s very unfortunate to know that they are few researches happening on these new tools of learning and its impact by Indian academic institutions. Government should start recognizing this potential and should start promoting and spending on these new technology tools of teachings and ease the way we learn, reduce the cost of learning and also significantly improve the quality of learning thus impacting our quality of living.

As individuals we should start thinking of how we can start using these latest internet and mobile technologies, tools and techniques for enhancement of our knowledge and our children. Summarising we should adopt elearning in a big way and use it for quality education at least cost from the best of the institutes in the world.