Nai Talim – Nai means ‘New’ and Talim, which is an Urdu word, means ‘Education’. The Nai Talim concept of Education can be better explained in the words of Swami Vivekananda, who has given a remarkable definition of education.
He says, ‘Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.’ He stated that all knowledge, spiritual and secular, is stored in the human mind, just as a huge banyan tree lies within a tiny seed. The function of the teacher is only to help that seed sprout and grow by offering suggestions. Gandhiji emphasises the role of the teacher in the learning process. The child’s relationship with the teacher is significant. Further, the distinction between teacher and the student gets blurred during the teaching-learning process since both pick up knowledge through practice.
The Nai Talim is, for all purposes, dead. It has been observed that even Gandhian institutions in the country are not following the Nai Talim in letter and spirit. Far from being self-sufficient, education has either become state supported, with debatable quality, or commercialised and exclusive, out of the reach of common citizens.
Gandhiji’s concept of Nai Talim or basic education is a grand idea and was in keeping with the time he was alive. Indeed, after independence there was great gusto in India about taking up basic education in right earnest. Many primary schools were opened and other institutes established. However, such schools have become defunct today with a few exceptions. This points out to the fact that the concept of Nai Talim has to be modified with the changing times to keep it viable.
The teacher helps the taught to prepare him/herself for a superior life. The methodology of Nai Talim lays special enunciation on the relationship between the teacher and the taught. There should be a perfect understanding and mutual empathy between the teacher and the taught. This is possible only when they live together and participate in the learning process. Besides, obtaining faith, sympathy and mutual respect between the learner and the teacher is important in all Nai Talim institutions.
The endeavour of Nai Talim is to achieve a harmonious development of head, heart, and hand, based on sound moral principles. In his experiments, Gandhiji was very clear that he would work for an education that would not make the person, a servant. Perhaps, he becomes a servant of livelihood, which is a very small part of his entire life. This is not education. True education should give a practical knowledge. One of the core ideas of Nai Talim is that, education is child-centric, inter-related to the swabhava of the child, particularly the Basic and Primary education.
The child is not burdened with the idea of learning and education. Gandhiji was experimenting and designing an education process to make masters, not servants! Gandhiji’s model is timeless and is not past, present and future bound. In his pattern of learning systems, there is a correlation with the environment and that is how knowledge connectivity will be more organic.
In the present scenario of volatile changes, rural areas need to be brought under the preview of the basic education or what we call it as Nai Talim. For strengthening the institutional capability in rural areas and social cohesiveness, Government of India is already busy in training the teachers at different capacities. To bring about a social transformation in rural India, Government of India has set up National Council for Rural Institutes to train the teachers and develop among them skills and competence. The education at par with the Gandhian principles is of dire need to transform India.
The National Council of Rural Institutes (NCRI) is already swerving to accord financial aid to the rural Institutions offering education in compatible with the Gandhian Philosophy of Peace and non-violence. The collaboration is being sought by the council from NGOs and educational Institutions to go for a scrupulous study.
In the Nai Talim pattern of education, schools should not be a burden on the State. The role of the State will be that of a catalyst, to create a pool of expertise in the field of education to act as a guide and reference. The recurring expenses of the school should be met from the work and produce of the school. Provision for capital expenditure has to be made by the State. Every Nai Talim school should cook and serve mid-day meals in the school premises. The work of cooking and cleaning should be assigned to the students under the regulation of teachers and the meal should be shared by them. Wherever possible, residential schools can also be planned.
A minimum of three to four hours physical labour and rendezvous in productive occupations by the students and teachers together should be a must.
Ironically, the schemes are limited only to the capital cities having no purpose and the slogans remain in dictionaries only. The Basic Education mission needs to be popularised in the state like of Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat and other chaos turn areas where the need is strongly being felt. NCRI and other agencies should come up with big schemes to groom the persona of rural kids so that they may not become prey of vile designs.
The Institutional collaboration has to be sought at an earliest so as to achieve the objective of Gandhian concept of Nai Talim.