Ancient Education VS Modern Education
Swami Vivekananda once said, “Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man while divinity is the manifestation of religion already in man”.
The essence of our culture is education and education of young minds is always our primary goal. The Indian System of school and education started in the late bronze age with the advent of the four vedas-:
- Rigveda
- Samveda
- Yajurveda
- Atharveda
They were written in Sanskrit and thus were difficult to decipher. So in order to reach the general people through the medium of these books The Puranas & The Upanishads were incorporated. The teachings of these books are based on the thoughts of “to sit near the feet of” , as mentioned in The Upanishads which means to be instructed by someone. Thus from the early vedic times the philosophy of Guru and Shishya bond is prevailed. Further Ramayana and Mahabharata were also incorporated by Tulsidas and Ved Vyas to educate the general mass about the honesty and to stand for what is right.
With the advent of culture and traditions a new ambience of education was developed. Arthashastra by Kautilya was written during the Mauryan Empire, which gives us a account on state,politics and the economics.
There were also significant advancement made in the fields of maths and science during the Gupta Period. Aryabhatta discovered Trignometry and was the first one to calculate the distance between the earth and the sun. He has also written Aryabhattia while Brahmagupta discovered zero. Charak and Sushruta wrote Charak Samhita and Sushruta Samhita respectively and mentioned the detailed account of medicine, surgery and human anatomy in their works.
With the fall of the Hindu Rulers, Mughal Emperors began their rule in India by 1500 and the Education System shifted from the Sanskrit Literature to the Persian and Arabic Literature and the studies of the ancient times perished.
During the rule of British in India many reforms in Education were undertaken under the leadership of Raja Rammohan Roy who was one of the greatest Indian academician who brought back the study of maths and science in India for common masses.
The current education system is the study of maths, science, economics and english but is devoid of the study during the bronze age. It indulges teachers and students in a healthy environment but does not emphasize on the overall growth of a child physically, morally, socially and emotionally. It focuses on curative and innovative skills of a child but lacks the empathy.
Albert Einstein once said , “Modern Education is competitive, nationalistic and separative. It has trained the child to regard material values as of utmost importance.”
One of the greatest tragedies of Modern Education is that most people are not taught to think critically. It is vital that when educating children’s brains we do not need to neglect to educate their hearts which is a key element for nurturing their compassionate nature and rejuvenate their minds.
