Learning to be a Literate

While talking on the ceremonial conclusion of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of St Xavier's College in Kolkata, the Prime Minister of the subcontinent made it clear that the government was keen on eradicating illiteracy from the country, and more so of female illiteracy. Every child should have the fundamental right to education, which goes beyond the scope of basic literacy. Unfortunately today all those who know how to sign their names are deemed literates by the government records, but will that ever suffice to live a honorable, diginified life, where education is all but taken for granted?

If the country has not attained 100 per cent literacy, even 63 years after its independence, who should be blamed and be held responsible? On the one hand are the selfish exploiters, who would make use of people's ignorance and illiteracy in order to fulfil their selfish goals, and on the other are faulty government plans and policies which had not made basic literacy an obligation. But now that Right to Education bill has been passed by the government, more effective ways of implementing literacy programs is expected to be operative soon.

One of the main reasons for illiteracy in every nook and cranny of the subcontinent is faulty literacy methods; the government had been pushing a uniform pedagogical method in all cities and villages, hoping that children would benefit from the methods; but the method has failed miserably in the rural areas, where the students come to school with different kind of expectations, preoccupations and hopes and aspirations. We still believe in chalk-and-talk method of teaching, which is an alien concept to village children.

No one in a tribal community teaches the children the art of archery, hunting, swimming, singing and dancing. The community takes responsibility to introduce the tiny tots from their very early age to the different artistic repertois of the community, and one cannot come across a tribal young man or a lady, who does not know how to sing and dance in his/her own tribal language! But how is it that the ministry of education has not thought about this kind of innovative ways of imparting true education. The same thing is also true of the art of farming that the children in villages learn from their parents, and can't it be called an art in its own right?

Sometimes I wonder what is my role in spreading the vibrations of literacy and true education around me? I am a single man, and my area of operation is quite limited, and yet how could I be part of the process of spreading literacy around me? Can I just close myself from ignorance all around me (and the Indian Vedas would call 'avidya' as the root cause of all trouble, evil in the world), and live in my glass house? If I am not able to come down from my pedastal to reach out to the hundreds of ignorant children, men and women and teach them what they know, and learn from them the art of caring for the earth, singing to the tune of birds of the air, to flow with the carefree currents of the brooks, to lie leisurely with drunken donkeys... I have a lot to learn, and am now ready to take my literacy classed today!