The All India Education Conference held at Wardha (now in Maharashtra) in October 1937 under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi represented a sort of culmination of the nation-wide debate going on as part of the freedom movement on “conceptual clarification” of the alternative educational paradigm that ought to shape the national system of education for independent India. Apart from the educationists and workers then engaged in this endeavour, the Conference was also attended by the Ministers of Education of seven out of nine newly elected provincial governments. The Conference deliberated upon Gandhiji’s proposal of Basic Education (Buniyadi Shiksha) which would make productive work the pedagogic basis of learning in schools. Learning in a co-operative mode by viewing schools as communities engaged in production and making schools self-reliant through the income of productive work were amongst the other key features of the original proposal that was viewed as a means of social transformation. Gandhiji’s holistic concept, called Nai Talim, aimed at restructuring and rejuvenating the rural economy through self-reliant villages and, thereby, move towards a new social order. We are, however, concerned here mainly with the pedagogic vision of this holistic philosophy of education. While addressing the Wardha Conference, Mahatma Gandhi stated:
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“What I am going to place before you today is not about a vocation that is going to be imparted alongside education. Now, I wish to say that whatever is taught to children, all of it should be
taught necessarily through the medium of a trade or a handicraft. You may argue that, during
the middle age, children were taught only trades (crafts) in our country. While I agree with this contention, but the proposition of imparting the whole of education through the medium of trades (crafts) was not considered in those days. A trade (craft) was taught only from the standpoint of a trade (craft). We aim at developing the intellect also with the aid of a trade or a
handicraft. . . Therefore, it is my submission that, instead of merely teaching a trade or a
handicraft, we may as well educate the children entirely through them. Look at takli (spindle) itself, for instance. The lesson of this takli will be the first lesson of our students through which they would be able to learn a substantial part of the history of cotton, Lancashire and the British empire. . . How does this takli work? What is its utility? And what are the strengths that lie within it? Thus the child learns all this in the midst of play. Through this he also acquires some knowledge of mathematics. When he is asked to count the number of cotton threads on takli and he is asked to report how many did he spin, it becomes possible to acquaint him step by step with good deal of mathematical knowledge through this process. And the beauty is that none of this becomes even a slight burden on his mind. The learner does not even become aware that he is learning. While playing around and singing, he keeps on turning his takli and from this itself he learns a great deal.” [emphasis added]
- Excerpted from the address by Mahatma Gandhi at the Wardha Education Conference, 22 October 1937
[Translated from Hindi, Hindustani Talimi Sangh, 1957, pp. vii-viii]
The Wardha Conference constituted a committee under the chairpersonship of Dr. Zakir Husain to evolve a curriculum of Basic Education on the basis of the principle of placing productive work in the form of a trade or craft at the centre of the educational process, the latter being selected keeping in mind the socio-cultural milieu of the children (Report of the Zakir Husain Committee, 1938; Hindustani Talimi Sangh, 1957). While accepting the Zakir Husain Committeee Report (1938), the Indian National Congress, at its meeting held at Haripura (Gujarat) the same year, resolved to build up a national system of education which will, among others, aim at providing education “through the medium of some productive trade or handicraft
and, to the extent possible, all other activities be built around this central craft, the latter being chosen in accordance with the conditions in which the child is placed.” The Congress further
resolved to constitute a body called Hindustani Talimi Sangh to promote this national system and to prepare a concrete programme of such education under the overall guidance of Mahatma Gandhi.
The seven Congress-led provincial governments, whose Ministers of Education had attended the Wardha Conference, soon initiated the programme of establishing Basic Education schools (Buniyadi Vidyalayas) and the related teacher training institutes to translate Gandhiji’s idea into reality. Bihar was the pioneer among them. In 1938 itself, the then Government of Bihar established 50 Buniyadi Vidyalayas in the area of West Champaran, the place which had been the theatre of Gandhiji’s movement against the indigo farmers. The number of these schools expanded gradually until it reached the figure of 520 (only 391 of these currently remain in Bihar after the formation of Jharkhand). At a national conference organized in 1945 to review the progress made in Buniyadi Shiksha, Bihar’s contribution in terms of both its rich experience and lessons for future direction was far ahead of other states.
In 1949, an Act was passed to establish the Basic Education Board with the responsibility, among others, to –
1) Undertake activities for improvements in and progress of basic education institutions; 2) Undertake work relating to the training of the teachers in these schools and the evaluation
of their work;
3) Evaluate the extent to which these institutions were becoming self-reliant, and to supervise them; and
4) Operate schemes of scholarships awarded to students in these institutions.
According to Mahatama Gandhi’s perception, the Buniyadi Vidyalayas had two prime functions:
a) to link knowledge with work for an integrated and wholesome development of the minds of the students; and
b) to make the schools self-reliant through the income of productive work and, thereby, also build the capacity of the students to lead a life with dignity in a self-reliant mode. In 1944, the Report of the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE), which came to be known as the Sargent Report after the name of its then secretary John Sargent, commended the first objective of the Gandhian programme i.e. to impart learning through work and recommended its introduction in the Indian education system. However, the report concluded that the second objective of making the school self-reliant through such work-based education, was not a practical proposition. However, there was hardly any concrete follow-up on the first recommendation in the Sargent Committee Report. The first three Five-Year Plans repeatedly declared their commitment to implement the Gandhian programme in education but there was not much evidence of plans to create structures and processes that will translate this rhetoric into a national system of education. As years passed by even this rhetoric dried out.
It must be realized that no idea, howsoever powerful or rational it might be, can survive only as an isolated experiment in a handful of schools or institutions while the mainstream education system supported by the government continues to move in the opposite direction. Time and again, history has been witness to this phenomenon – be it the case of Tagore’s lofty educational experiment at Sriniketan (the creative school for rural children) or the Shantiniketan university of international acclaim or of Gandhi’s Nai Talim school at Sewagram, Wardha that dared to challenge the colonial paradigm. Several other bold initiatives in the post-independence period too provide further evidence in support of this historical lesson that must guide any future planning for educational transformation.
Bihar’s more than 500 Buniyadi Vidyalayas, though carrying a groundswell of support from local communities who donated their lands, labour and money to establish them, also could not defy this logic. Through the 1950s, they, too, got increasingly isolated from the mainstream of education and started losing both their original vision and dynamism. In 1968, the Government of Bihar took a decision, on the basis of the recommendations of the Syeddin Committee, to merge the basic education schools with the general school education system and oblige the former to follow the syllabus of the latter. From the 16th March 1972, the integrated
syllabus of Class I-VIII was prescribed for all Buniyadi Vidyalayas which came under the direct control and supervision of the government. There was no meeting of the Basic Education Board after 07.03.79 until 01.11.91, when a meeting was held under the chairmanship of the then Education Minister. There is no indication that another meeting of the Board has been held since then.
11.2 The Present Status
The most abundant asset at the disposal of these Vidyalayas is land. Before the partition of Bihar, there were 518 Buniyadi Vidyalayas sharing almost 2,500 acres of land. This comes to about 4.82 acres of land per school on an average. The other assets are large number of rooms and residential quarters already built and ponds, trees and agricultural tools and implements.
The Buniyadi Vidyalayas are now running virtually as ordinary elementary schools. Their basic education characteristic of making these institutions or their students economically self- reliant, has disappeared. Engagement in work such as farming, horticulture, animal husbandry and imparting training in skills like handicrafts, have come to a standstill. The control and supervision of these institutions has been taken over by the government and the Basic Education Board has virtually ceased to function. There were gradual reductions in the allocation of funds to the Board until they dried up altogether. The officers and staff of the Board have been sent on deputation to other offices of the government. Thus, though there has been no formal order disbanding the Board, it has virtually ceased to exist.
The State Government, nevertheless, has from time to time shown its concern with the plight of these institutions. This is reflected in the various committees set up to look into their affairs. Between 1999 and 2004, two committees were set up to examine whether the Basic Education Board should be abolished or re-organised with enhanced powers. Unfortunately, none of these two committees could complete their work and submit any report. We understand that though the enquiry committees were set up, no financial allotment was made to enable them to function.
11.3 The Buniyadi Vidyalaya at Kataiya, Madhepura
The Government Buniyadi Vidyalaya in Kataiya, visited by the Commission, is running Class I-VIII and has in its possession about 5 acres of land. The school is better off in some
respects as compared to the average government schools. Out of the sanctioned strength of 11, ten teachers were in place. Four of these were women. The vacant post was that of the headmaster. In addition, there were two Shiksha Mitras posted to the school. Apart from the Shiksha Mitras, all the teachers were trained. The attendance ranged between 70-90% in Classes I to VIII. This compares favourably with the average attendance of 40-45% that we noticed in other schools visited by us. As in other government schools, in this school too, there was no library worth the name and laboratory or any other similar facility for conducting experiments in science was non-existent. Advantage had been taken of the large space available to the school and as many as 19 rooms and 4 toilets, including two exclusively for girls, had been built.