THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION
On this Teacher’s Day which is attributed to the birthday of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, let us recall
what this extraordinary teacher thought about the purpose of education.
He was born on 5th September 1888 at Tiruttani,
then in Madras Presidency, had his secondary education at Tirupati and Vellore,
college education at Voorhees College, Vellore and Madras Christian College.
He distinguished himself as one of the greatest Professors of Philosophy all
over the world.
He was elected President of India in 1962. The Government of India had conferred upon him
its highest civilian award of Bharat Ratna in 1954.
His state visits to a number of countries lasted from 1949 to
1965.
He passed away in Madras (now Chennai) on 16 April 1975.
In his address at Moscow University on 18th June
1956 he declared that buildings do not make a university. It is the teachers
and the pupils and their pursuit of knowledge which make the soul of a university.
The university is the sanctuary of the intellectual life of a country. The
healthy roots of a national life are to be found in the people. They are the
well-springs of national awakening. They are the spirit behind revolutionary
movement of society.
When we give education, we start a ferment of debate and
discussion of first principles. The educated youth will voice their thoughts
and find fault with things as they are. Human development is not to be confused
with the acquisition of mechanical skills or intellectual information. It is
the development of the spirit in man.
Earlier in his address at the Free
University of Brussels on 4th June 1956 he had said man is not a biological animal or
economic being. He is a spiritual person. He is not satisfied with temporal
possessions. The great teachers of mankind, Hindu and Buddhist, Jewish and
Christian, Muslim and Sikh speak to us of peace on earth.
He quoted an 1888 statement of Louis
Pasteur of France in which he had said: ”Two opposing laws seem me to me now in
contest. The one, a law of blood and death, opening out each day new modes of
destruction, forces nations to be always ready for battle. The other, a law of
peace, work and health, whose only aim is to deliver man from the calamities
that beset him…which of these laws will prevail, God alone knows. But of this
we may be sure, that science is obeying the law of humanity, will always labour
to enlarge the frontiers of life.”
Dr. Radhakrishnan rightly believes that
if education cannot change our minds, it cannot change anything. We cannot
ignore the influence of ideas and beliefs on human minds and actions. Ideas
have a life of their own, get developed and distorted when they enter the
whirlpool of accidents and personalities. Even those who do not belong to our
race or religion are also human beings. They are like ourselves, not much
different from us. W have to train our youth in the consciousness of a common
purpose for mankind, in the brotherhood of man.
The greatest men of the world are great because of their
humanity, fellow-feeling, for their love of the ideals of knowledge, love and
beauty. They are the sculptors of men. In universities, we glorify men who
benefited humanity and not indulged in violence and bloodshed, men like the
Buddha, Socrates and Jesus, who asked us to love our enemies.
Finally, his views about science and
scholarship. These, says he, belong to the world, not to any particular age of
humanity. They overlap the boundaries of nations. All those who are consecrated
to the service of learning are brethren. They belong to the one republic of
letters.
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5th
September 2020
G.R.Kanwal
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