From a detailed analysis of the Right to Education Act (RTE) and its legal and social ramifications to the need for a strong backbone of good primary education, to formulating a wide framework for empowering education and discussing the new methodology of education in the digital age, the book is a must for those engaged in the education of the young.
Since India will soon be one of the youngest countries in the world, the book critically analyses and appraises the shortfalls of Government schools, especially in rural areas, and private institutions that do not provide quality education.
Globalization further skews the balance in this information age in favour of the rich and the powerful, who have the means to access advanced technologies, bringing in its train all the problems that arise with widespread use of the internet. Technology not only becomes a medium of education but also a medium that attracts the young to the use of unwanted information and abusive technologies, resulting in early exposure to what is undesirable.
If India is to reap the demographic dividend, it has to make quality education accessible to all, if not all its young. While skills development and employable students are important to nation building, moral values and the all round education of body, mind and heart are key to producing good citizens in the 21st century.
The all round erosion of moral values has also affected education which is why the five I`s of Ian Gough - industrialization, interests, institutions, ideas and the international environment are developed in one of the articles and their practical application to the situation.
Education prepares the young to acquire life skills, to become accountable and contributing citizens to the social transformation of society. It firstly requires individual transformation. It is education that prepares the young for this enormous task. The emphasis on scoring marks shifts to developing creativity and social skills in communication and prepares the young to take on responsibilities in later life.
Parental training and training of other stakeholders in education, such as the government servants, teachers and trainers are all key. The search for identity by adolescents is discussed in the book and the changing relationships between parents and adolescents, along with giving them proper sexual orientations which will bring them to maturity, enabling them to face the world and find a place in it.
Education is a learning process to acquire wisdom. The book provides guidelines for promoting the wisdom way of knowing by endorsing the young as ``subjects`` of knowing, encouraging them to use all their human capacities, helping them to learn from their lives, encouraging participation and giving them access to traditions, engaging their souls, promoting a community of conversation and encouraging relational ways of knowing.
The practice of critical thinking is encouraged as against rote learning, which is quite common in India and a deep passion for truth and justice are ways of promoting the wisdom way of knowing.
Education in the multicultural and pluralistic society of India with so many different castes, creeds, religions, cultures, languages and ethnic diversities also requires a dynamic interpretation of primordial experience. The young should be mentored and trained in universal values such as discipline, interconnectedness and the ability to relate to realities different from their own.
A personal account of a Salesian priest working in Africa, educated first in India and then abroad, is useful in understanding how outsiders who are really `insiders` perceive the Indian education system and the way for instance, that mathematics and science are taught today in India.
An enlightening contribution by Maria Charles Antonysamy, head of education for the Salesians in South Asia, on the use of digital technologies - their positive and negative features and the need for media literacy that will enable the young to access the internet critically, is timely.
The book ends with a chapter on the education of parents to help eradicate delinquency. It evaluates the rise of juvenile delinquency and the kind of correction needed to rehabilitate the young who stray into socially unacceptable forms of behavior.
All in all, the book challenges us to look at education in a comprehensive way by not mistaking the trees for the wood and looking at the whole problem in a dynamic and an inclusive way.
Published by Don Bosco Youth Animation - South Asia, 283 Pages
