RETHINKING EDUCATION

MEGA TRENDS & GLOBAL EVIDENCE

Aditi Bhutoria
Email: abhutoria@iimcal.ac.in
Twitter: @AditiBhutoria
LinkedIn: Aditi K. Bhutoria

Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

Term IV 2020
Group Exercise
Exercise on Global Mega Trends and linkages with Education

1. Session 3 à Course Material à Class Exercise

2. 9 Breakout Rooms (BR) of 4-5 people each;

3. 15 mins exercise;

4. Choose a moderator – approx. 5 mins per trend

Group Exercise
Discuss each of the 3 MEGA TRENDS

For each trend, identify and discuss 2-3 way in which the mega-trend/sub-
trends are related to the education sector (Remember: Trend à Education
and Education à Trend)

Suggest ways in which Indian education policy and practice can be

changed/updated to help to address/alleviate issues related to these
trends or enhance the benefits of the same (Example: These could be
supply/government-focused education initiatives like government building
infrastructure or demand/consumer-focused initiatives like education
changing consumption habits)
And Education?
MEGA TREND 1:Connecting education and globalisation
And Education?
Connecting education and globalisation

•Building capacity to understand multiple •Providing targeted training for recent arrivals
perspectives •Adapting instruction and assessment
•Fostering skills to take action for collective methods to reflect cultural diversity
well-being in changing environments •Recognising prior learning and qualifications
•Sustainable Development
Global Mobility
competence

The
knowledge Inequality
•Attracting top researchers economy
•Supporting partnerships for innovation (R&D) •Providing high quality early childhood
education and care for all
•Developing
activities/rewards/structures for •Building human capital;
young scientists and innovators addressing issues of brain drain
•Integration with technology
And Education?
MEGA TREND 2: Connecting education and security
And Education?
Connecting education and security

What are some of the ways security trends interact with education, and how can education affect these trends?

•Building health literacy for all ages •Developing digital skills

•Ensuring safety standards in schools •Better use of technology in teaching &
and play spaces learning
•Building partnerships with industry
•Fostering tolerance, trust and resilience leaders, law enforcement and responsible
hackers
through curricula and pedagogy
Protecting Safe-
mind and guarding
body cyberspace

Preserving Securing
the financial
environ- well-being
•Fostering “green” fields of study ment •Strengthening financial literacy
•Promoting eco-friendly institutions •Providing effective skills development for
lifelong learning
•Supporting R&D in innovative green •Supporting apprenticeship models with
technology diverse types of employers (including
•Supporting open debates and dialogue digital skills)

Source: OECD (2019),Trends Shaping Education 2019, https://doi.org/10.1787/trends_edu-2019-en

And Education?
MEGA TREND 3: Connecting education and modern cultures
And Education?
Connecting education and modern cultures

•Preparing students to become •Upholding respect among students

entrepreneurs •Promoting trust between parents,
teachers and administrators
•Teaching creativity •Developing zero tolerance for
•Using collaborative problem-solving in discrimination in educational settings
and beyond the classroom Creativity
and Values and
entrepre- attitudes
neurship

Digital Diverse
divide families
•Fostering positive attitudes to ICT, esp. for •Welcoming all families in schools
female and disadvantaged students
•Strengthening digital skills •Providing teachers with the tools to
•Integrating pedagogical and digital teach diverse classrooms
knowledge of teachers •Helping schools communicate with
all households

Source: OECD (2019),Trends Shaping Education 2019, https://doi.org/10.1787/trends_edu-2019-en

Education is inter-linked with multiple sectors

Data and Evidence is extremely important

Large-Scale Data can be used to understand

where we are in terms of educational
achievement

Exercise from the OECD Education Database

RETHINKING EDUCATION
ANCIENT INDIAN EDUCATION
Aditi Bhutoria
Email: abhutoria@iimcal.ac.in
Twitter: @AditiBhutoria
LinkedIn: Aditi K. Bhutoria

Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

Term IV 2020
Brown Bag Session
Aditi Bhutoria (IIM-C)
Economics of Education and Economic History Perspectives

Mayank Shekhar (School of Historical Studies, Nalanda

University)
Cultural History of Early India, Indian Philosophical
Traditions, and Sanskrit Classical Literature

Compulsory reading: Crozet 2014: Core tenets of education

in ancient India
What were the tenets of education in ancient India?
Broad components of Educational History
• Indian education system can be broadly divided into the
following times based on changes that were brought to its
constituents.

1. Vedic era
2. Buddhist/Jain era
3. Islamic/Mughal Era
4. British era
5. Post-independence era
Basics…
• Utilitarian view (western philosophy) ~ educating someone is just transfer
of information/worldly knowledge from older generation to the younger
generation for survival of species.

• In ancient India, there was darśana – to see, to realise

• Included the Subject (Knower); Object (to be known); Process of Knowing

• Man-centric à Cosmos-centric (Radhakrishnan, 1999)

• Apart from cognitive development, focused on : formation of character,

the development of personality, the fostering of self-confidence, self-
restraint for more freedom, discrimination and judgement, and social
efficiency.
Today: Ancient Indian Education

1. Inception of Branches of Learning

2. Systematisation of Traditional Learning

3. From Gurukuls to Mahaviharas (Ancient Universities) to

Modern Day Educational Institutions
Stories around the Indian Philosophy…
Story of Satyakāma Jābālā in the Chāndogya Upanishad illustrates the foundation of education.

One day a young boy came to the ashrama of Sage Haridrumata Gautama and said, “Revered Sir, I
desire to live under you as a Brahmacharin. Please accept me as your student.”

The sage asked, “Dear boy, of what gotra or lineage you are?” Please tell me first then I will admit
you in my hermitage.

The boy replied, “Sir, I do not know about what gotra I am.

The sage said to him. Go and ask to your mother about your gotra.

Satyakama then went to his mother and asked about his gotra. His mother Jabālā replied “I got you
after many years of prayer. You are born to a widow and without a father.”

However, I am Jabala by name and you are Satyakama’. So, your name is Satyakama Jabala.
Next morning, Satyakama went to hermitage again and recounted the whole story that he heard
from his mother about his gotra.

On hearing it, the Rishi Haridrumata Gautama smiled and said, “No one who is not a Brahmin can
speak the truth.

O Satyakama! I shall initiate you as a Brahmacharin, for you have not deviated from truth.”
Inception of the Branches of Learning or Vidyā
• India does not mention a harmonious division of branches of learning
and this kept changing over time

• Sometimes tradition {Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad (I.4-5)} refers to two classes,

namely:

• Parā Vidyā (higher knowledge) à supreme reality

• Aparā Vidyā (lower knowledge)

• Parā Vidyā or the Science of Brahman is substratum of all other vidyās.

“dve vidye veditavye iti ha sma yadbrahmavido vadanti parā ca aparā ca |

tatra aparā ṛgvedo yajurvedo sāmavedo atharvavedo śikṣā kalpo vyākaraṇaṁ nirukta
chando jyotiṣa iti | atha parā yayā tad akṣaram adhigamyate || “
Branches of Learning or Vidyā
• Sometimes Indian texts refer to three vidyās, Rāmāyaṇa II.100.68
vidyā tiśraśca rāghava |

• Mahabharata refers to four vidyās (trayī, vārtā, daṇḍanīti and ānvīkṣikī,).

Arthaśāstra I.2, Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapter 59. 33/ and Chapter
318.35,47.

trayī cānvīkṣikī caiva vārtā bharatarṣabha |

daṇḍanītiśca vipulā vidyāstatra nidarśitaḥ ||
Enumeration of Vidyas in the Nārada - Sanat
Kumar dialogue: an episode from the Chāndogya
Upaniṣad (800 BCE)

Ṛigveda Vākovākyam (Science of Logic)

Yajurveda Ekāyanam (Science of Ethics)
Sāmaveda Deva Vidyā (Science of Philology)
Atharvaveda Brahma Vidyā (Vedic Science)
Itihāsa-Purāṇa (the fifth Veda) Bhūta Vidyā (Physical Sciences)
Veda (Grammar) Kṣatra Vidyā (Science of Archery)
Pitrya (Śrāddha Śāstra) Nakṣatra Vidyā (Science of Astrology)
Rāśi (Gaṇita) Sarpa Vidyā (Science of Snakes)
Daiva (Science of Portent) Devajana Vidyā (Science of Celestial
Nidhi Śāstra (Science of Treasures) people)
 Seminal Work across Vedic, Buddhist, and Jain…
• Sruti (Veda):Ṛgveda, Yajurveda, Sāmaveda, Atharvaveda

• Brahmana Texts: Aitareya, Śatapatha, Taittirīya etc.

• 2000-800 BCE Vedic lit
• Āraṇyaka Texts: Aitareya, Bṛhadāraṇyaka, etc.

• Upaniṣad Texts: Íśopaniṣad, Kenopaniṣad, Kaṭhopaniṣad etc.

• Vedāṅga Texts: Śikṣā, Kalpa, Nirukta, Chanda, Jyotiṣa, Vyākaraṇa 800-600 BCE

• Classical Epics : Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata 600 BCE

• Tripitaka (Buddhism) 600-200 BCE

• Jain literature 600 BCE-500 CE

• Purāṇas: Agni Purāṇa, Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Matsya Purāṇa, Brahma Purāṇa, Śiva Purāṇa, Varāha
Purāṇa, Vāmana Purāṇa etc. 100 BCE-600 CE
Systematisation of tradition around 100 BCE
to 1300 CE: Indian Philosophical Systems
• Madhvācārya (13th century CE) in his Sarvadarśanasaṁgraha mentions about 15 philosophical
systems that exist in his period.

Cārvāka Darśana
Bauddha
Jaina/Arhat
Rāmānuja
Pūrṇa Prajña
Nakulīśa
Śaiva
Pratyabhijñā
Raseśvara
Aulūlkya
Akṣapāda
Jaiminīya
Pāṇinī
Sāṁkhya
Pātañjala
Once formed, Indian Philosophical Systems were
passed through Gurukuls by Gurus…
ग#
ु गह
ृ पढ़न गए रघरु ाई।
अलप काल 2व4या सब पाई॥
• Ramayana….
• Guru Vishwamitra
• “Guru Tatva” Omniscient
• Education as a way of life
• Education on a wide range of
topics was provided in a much
shorter span of time (compared to
today), followed by specialization.
Broad areas: philosophy, arts,
science
Specialisation: ‘raj dharma’: law,
administration, military
Indian Knowledge Tradition (IKT) and System
(IKS)
• Started with oral tradition: Shruti (what is heard) + Smriti
(what is remembered)

• Sharvan (Learning)

• Manan (Meditation)

• Nididhyasan (Continuous experience leading to further

learning and meditation)
Methods of teaching-learning
These have been termed as three stages of education
• Self Meditation and Study (Experiential)
• Question Answer Method (Inquisitiveness)
• Enigmatic methods (puzzles and interaction)
• Aphoristic method (shruti and smriti - knowledge is
compressed in small sentences, which require sufficient
intelligence)
• Etymological Method (meaning of word is explained
according to its root)
• Analogical Method (what cannot be explained by reasoning is
explained through analogy)
• Regressive Method (successive questioning methods)
Ancient Indian Universities: Taxila, Nalanda,
Vikramshila

• Institutes like Taxila, Nalanda

and many others not only
gave importance to sciences
but…

• Liberal arts and humanities

flourished

• Example: Chanakya came

from Taxila
Note for Quizzes
• Very Short Objective Quizzes
• Each Quiz will go LIVE under a separate tab under the Session
• Quiz based on the case study to be discussed that day
• For example, Quiz 1: PRATHAM CASE 20.08.20
• In the first 20 mins of class
• Join the class
• Announcement for Quiz in Class
• Click on the Quiz and take it in stipulated time
• Rejoin Class
• If your network is there but poor, you can drop out of zoom call, take the quiz, and
rejoin the zoom call – we will take attendance at both times/Try on your mobile
phone
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8017142879 à Random group of quiz questions will be messaged to you and you
will have to respond via message in the same time for your answers to be considered
Thank You!