Reclaiming the wider meaning of education
11 August 2010 2 , Teacher Plus
Manish Jain
At a time when the world is calling for urgent systemic transformation, the Right to Education (RtE) Act stands as a regressive and reductionist document that is based on 19th century colonial assumptions of education and learning. It institutionalizes Macaulay’s racist vision of education while devaluing the wide range of learning assets, learning spaces, learning traditions and learning experiments that exist in India. There is a certain irony in that the framers of the RtE seem to have failed to learn from history, science, and many of the other subjects which they wish to propound. One wonders whether there can be space in the RtE for an evolutionary and pluralistic post-post colonial vision of the 21st century which highlights the policy design principles of flexibility, diversity and co-creation. Read the rest of this entry »