Understanding ‘Inclusion In Education’ From a Caste Perspective

Comparison of Two Policy Documents Concerning Teachers’ Status, Teacher Education and In­service Training

This paper compares the Report of the Committee for Review of National Policy on Education 1986 (1990) also known as Acharya Ramamurti Committee Report and the World Education Report: Teachers and Teaching in a Changing World (1998) published by UNESCO. The main terms of reference for comparison are teacher’s professionalisation, professionalism, resources and assessment practices.

Teacher's professionalisation

The World Education Report (1998) mostly refers to the R​ecommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (​1966) while discussing the aspects of teacher education, their recruitment and conditions of service.

It recommends that for an individual to be employed as a primary teacher, completion of secondary education should be the minimum educational qualification. They should also have undergone a formal teacher training programme. But it also acknowledges the fact that often these requirements are ignored by recruiters when there is a shortage of teachers. Since unqualified candidates are also employed for the job of teaching, the status of teachers in comparison with other professionals is undermined.

The report gives an interesting insight about the low salary paid to teachers even though people working in other professions with same or lesser qualification receive a decent pay. It says that teaching is generally considered to be a woman's profession which attaches certain negative characteristic to it unlike other jobs which are dominated by males. There is a possibility that more number of female employees in teaching results in low level of salary being paid to teachers as a group. This kind of system can be removed only when discrimination against women is eliminated and their skills and qualifications are given the respect that they deserve.

The Recommendations (1966) emphasise that the salary structure of newly ­recruited teachers should be discussed between teachers’ organisation and their employers and then only decided. But there are very few countries which have teacher associations that enjoy freedom to deliberate and demand better emoluments and working conditions for their member teachers.

The report quotes an excerpt from a paper presented at the 45th session of the International Conference on Education, Geneva, 1996 by Ministry of Human Resource Development (Government of India). This paper states that in India every state grants the formation of teachers’ unions so that they can collectively bargain for improving the overall service conditions of teachers. However they do not have certain facilities provided by the government as enjoyed by other public servants. The report too says that equating teaching with other public sector jobs restricts teachers to bargain for their rights.

Age ­profile of teachers also affects the expenditure on teacher salary. Developing countries like India have more number of young teachers than those in developed countries. These teachers most likely will continue their service till retirement with raise in salary. At the same time, more and more young professionals will join the field. Thus, the overall public expenditure on education needs to be raised. However, this is not generally the case as stated by the report that till 1998, “no region of the world at present has the average share of educational expenditure in GNP yet reached the 6 per cent level ...”. This is reiterated several times in the document that in spite of increasing demand for quality in education, the expenditure on education has not increased significantly and it is considered by the states that education systems will expand themselves with the help of existing resources.

Acharya Ramamurti Committee reviewed the National Policy on Education (1986) and gave recommendations for improving the overall system of education in India. In regard to recruitment of teachers, it says that mere good grades in academics at the university level should not be the sole criterion for selecting someone as a teacher. It recommends that the candidate should be tested for his/her aptitude for teaching first and then only employed.

But when it comes to non ­formal education, the committee recommends that para ­teachers be recruited. These para ­teachers are required in areas where either a large section of population does not have access to formal school system or in situations where children work during day time and cannot come to schools. The committee says that these teachers need not have qualification like the formal teachers in school. Also they should be preferably from local community who are interested in working with children. These teachers will work under probation for two­-three years and receive a salary almost half as that of school teacher. They will be appointed as permanent teachers in school only after completion of minimum qualification during probation.

The committee encourages mobility of teachers within the education system as well as other related sectors. It says that there should be provision to transfer the benefits of teachers’ past service from one institution to other.

The committee considers it essential that along with working conditions, the living conditions of teachers are also good. It suggests that the school building should have separate rooms for teachers so that they can interact with students and also they should have access to departmental libraries. They should get residential quarters in areas which facilitate community life as well as medical support. There should be arrangement from the institution’s side so that the teachers can travel for participating in conferences, industrial centres, etc.

Teacher professionalism

Apart from the factors mentioned earlier in UNESCO report (1998) which accord low status to the profession of teaching, the multiple functions that teachers are required to perform other than teaching also give cause uncertainty of their status. This uncertainty more often than not comes from within, i.e., teachers themselves feel unprepared when they join their duty. These functions include designing and administering tests for students, school management and administration, conducting classes using educational technologies, etc. In addition to this, teachers are also required to develop a rapport with the community to which majority of the students belong. The report highlights that the focus of teacher ­training programmes on only strengthening the content ­knowledge and pedagogy skills of teachers while ignoring the different responsibilities as mentioned above, to be carried out by teachers acts as a hindrance in their initial stage as a teacher.

This is more important for primary teachers who spend most of their day with a particular group of children for the whole academic session when compared to secondary school teachers who teach one or two subjects to various groups of students and do not get involved with any

particular group.

There is one more threat to the professionalism of teachers because of such pre ­service training. Instead of being an active contributor to the educational process in classroom, teachers become passive agents of passing prescribed information using prescribed methods to the students. The report does not provide any solution for this but asserts that orienting teachers ­to ­be about different teaching methods might help them in deciding what helps students to learn better.

The report next talks about in­service programmes for teacher training and stresses the fact that like any other professional, teachers too should update their knowledge and skills. While in­ service programmes initially dealt only with subject area knowledge, later the aspects related to assessment of students, educating children with special needs and school management were also included. Thus the issues with pre ­service training discussed earlier were covered in in­service training.

The report claims that although in many countries response to in­service training is overwhelming and that teachers take interest in obtaining career development qualifications leading to raise in salary, mostly teachers do not take initiative in participating in such programmes. This is partly due to the already packed schedule of teachers which does not motivate them to engage in any other activity during school hours and partly due to the lack of rewards on completion of such programmes.

The report recommends that instead of making in­service training a compulsion for continuation of service, teachers should be rewarded in the form of promotion, salary raise, etc. once they successfully complete the training.

The Acharya Ramamurti committee proposes the Internship model as an alternative to the pre ­service teacher ­training programme. It asserts that the shortcomings of the conventional pre­ service training are many such as isolation from real field experiences, is theoretical and involves high expenses. On the other hand this model aims at integrating theory and practical experiences of teachers so that they can learn for themselves which of their skills and methods are most helpful for learning outcomes of students.

District Institute for Education and Training and Educational complexes are given the responsibility to conduct these programmes along with monitoring and evaluation of schools. The teacher education colleges are suggested to be in close collaboration with DIETs and schools so that the trainees could get field experience during training. The report presents a two­-dimensional chart representing content to be learnt by teachers during training and how it can be learnt. The content includes knowledge, skill and attitude to be learnt through theoretical instruction, practical work and fieldwork experience respectively. Thus, there is too much emphasis on teacher’s empirical experience. During this period, the teacher­-student is required to be working under a skilled and experienced teacher who will demonstrate the practical aspects of training and will help in clarifying doubts.

The committee stresses the need for in­service training so that teachers are able to update their knowledge and skills. As discussed in the UNESCO report, this committee also supports inclusion of evaluation practices and training of those who evaluate teachers in the in­service training. The programme should also train teachers in areas like pre­school education, education for children with special needs, activity-­based learning etc.

The difference between the two reports in this regard is that while UNESCO report does not agree with the condition of institutions of forcing teachers to attend in­service training for continuation of service, Ramamurti committee claims that teachers should be demanded to undergo in­service training in order to stay employed. It also encourages the participation of teachers in planning and administrative activities of school. According to the committee, if teachers are involved in decision ­making process they will also implement them effectively thus improving the overall functioning of institution.

Resources

While the UNESCO report does not specifically talk about general living conditions of teachers, it discusses a great deal about the teaching and learning conditions which affect a teacher’s professional and personal status. Firstly it states that increasing student enrolment rates

are of no use if the conditions in which the students go are not suitable for learning. Thus it recommends that before any other expenditure in education, investment should be made in well-­planned and solid school buildings, furniture, water and electricity facilities and teaching­-learning materials. Only when this is fulfilled will the teachers be interested in teaching and students will learn in a productive manner.

Next important aspect of teaching and learning conditions is the class size. This has an economic implication because the class size determines number of teachers to be employed. In countries with large population, class sizes are big requiring more teachers and thus more expenditure by state on teacher salary.

However the report brings to our notice a problem with this in regard to regions where dropout rates are high. Thus, no stable policy can be proposed concerning teachers’ employment and salaries in such situations. Although the report does not say that large class size is a problem, it reveals that small class size helps both teachers and students to engage in teaching-­learning activity.

A section of the report is dedicated to the use of technology in education and its implications for teachers. It acknowledges that information technology will increasingly influence the teaching-­learning materials and teaching methods It says that unless the softwares are developed in such a way that the prescribed curriculum is readily integrated with them, use of technology in classrooms cannot contribute to students’ learning. The report stresses that teachers should be involved in the process of developing educational softwares so that they are in a better position to handle the technology and solve any technical difficulties that may arise during its use.

The Acharya Ramamurti committee recommended that the revised curriculum prepared by the NCTE for the B.Ed. courses should be sent to training institutions before finalising it. Suggestions from teacher educators and students should be taken so that it receives wider acceptance in implementation. It also emphasises that teachers should be provided with relevant material about current practices and debates in education. The report states that teachers should be included in the curriculum designing process.

Assessment practices

The UNESCO report discusses how teachers are assessed after they enter the profession. This assessment is unlike the one which is conducted to check the understanding of subject knowledge or knowledge about teaching methods. The evaluation is done so as to see if they are able to transact the curriculum as mandated by the school and if the learning outcomes of students is improving. Based on these criteria, it is usually decided by the headteacher and regional supervisor as to who will get promoted or otherwise.

The report asserts that there should be a valid assessment for teachers which they should be able to question also in case they feel it is unfair. It refers to a P​roposed checklist of teacher behaviour items to be utilized in the appraisal of primary and secondary school teachers in Beijing (p.75). Elements like preparation of teaching plans, assigning homeworks to students, evaluation procedures, teaching methods, presentation in front of class, etc. are taken into account while assessing teacher effectiveness and this ideally allows for objective evaluation of the teacher. The report supports the recommendation made by The 1996 International Conference on Education, that along with teachers those who supervise and evaluate teachers should also undergo formal training so that a fair appraisal and promotion is conducted.

As discussed earlier within the internship model proposed by Acharya Ramamurti committee the trainee will work in an institution during training. The committee suggests that only after three-­five years the trainee should be certified as a trained teacher. Based on the skills developed by the trainee during the training, his/her performance as observed by senior teachers and a written and oral test will be conducted to evaluate him/her.The committee recommends that head of the institution should have all the autonomy to evaluate the teachers in­service.

Both the reports stress that there is need for research in the field of teaching and that teachers should be given opportunities to engage in educational research right from the pre­service training through their career as a teacher.

References

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (1998). W​orld Education Report 1998: Teachers and Teaching in a Changing World.​Paris: UNESCO.

Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource and Development. (1990). R​eport of the Committee for Review of National Policy on Education 1986.​New Delhi

Teacher Professional Development: Comparative study of Acharya Ramamurti Committee(1990) and UNESCO World Education Report(1998) on the aspect of In-service Teacher Education

The Acharya Ramamurti Committee Report(1990) and UNESCO World Education Report(1998) both see In-Service Teacher Education as an essential element towards professional development of the teachers. According to UNESCO report the very nature of In-Service Teacher Education indicates the existing level of professionalism among the teachers. If the demand for In-Service teacher education is coming from within the teaching community it is said to indicate the very high level of professionalism when compared to a top down approach where the training programmes are imposed on the teachers. Then the teachers willingness to invest in their own professional development is said to indicate the high level of professional status of teaching. Further the professional status of teaching and professionalism among teachers are suggested to be closely interrelated. The prospective of attaining higher levels of professional status is said to serve as the most important motivation for teachers to voluntarily invest their time, effort and resources in improving their professionalism. It also observes that there is high level of teacher participation in areas where in-service education enables them to obtain qualifications that lead to the career development in terms of improvement in their salaries, tenure etc. This trend is said to be common across various professions.  It cites the teacher’s large number of enrollment in open universities as an evidence for their willingness to independently invest for climbing up the professional ladder. Hence the success of In-Service Teacher Education is argued to be interlinked with the factors like opportunities for upward mobility, incentives for improving professional status, extent of workload and the provision of support in terms of teaching-learning resources.  When compared to UNESCO report it is observed that the arguments made by the Acharya Ramamurti Committee with regard to Inservice Teacher Education are either inconsistent or incoherent in various sections of the report.

It proposes an Internship Model to meet the huge demands for teachers in the very short period. In this model the Headmaster/mistress would directly recruit the para teachers for the para schools that will serve the educational needs of children of the slum dwellers, villages, mohallas or habitations that are not yet served. There will be relaxation in the educational qualifications  and also in the remuneration of such para-teachers. Para teachers will be trained by senior teachers of the school and occasionally by the DIETs. After three to five years of such training they will be absolved as regular teachers. In another section while discussing about the leadership roles of the teachers it confesses that the current teachers lack the necessary motivation, aptitude and competence to assume the leadership role. On the other hand while listing out the characteristics of teacher educator it states that they should be the role models with high academic competence. These teacher educators will be from the existing school cadre who have years of experience.

The probability of finding teacher educators among the existing school cadre who will serve as role model will be very low. UNESCO report claims that poor school infrastructure, huge pupil teacher ratio, multigrade classrooms and lack of support in terms of teaching-learning resources work against the teachers who are willing to sustain high levels of competence. These conditions are said to be widespread in India by the Acharya Committee and hence the poor chances of finding teacher educators in large numbers. Further it is questionable whether in service training of para teachers will succeed given the failure of the same with regard to regular teachers.       

In another section the Acharya committee brings to our attention that there is lack of provision for organised and periodic in-service education of teachers in India coupled with poor co-ordination and monitoring of the such services. Here it also highlights the absence of research base on in-service education. So the rationale for suggesting the recruitment of para teachers given such poor conditions is not justifiable in any manner.

UNESCO report exactly claims that it is such practices of recruiting para teachers which has negatively impacted the professional status of the teachers. It says whenever there are pressures on the State to meet the huge demands for teachers instead of increasing budgetary allocation or reforming the regulatory framework States have opted to keep the wages low by recruiting para teachers in large numbers while relaxing the criteria needed for a teacher. This is said to spread the poor image of the teachers and their competence.

Along with this the Acharya committee in its recommendations regarding para teachers calls for handing over the effective control of the school, including the appointment, posting and promotion of teachers, to a coordinated management system involving the school, Village Education Committee and the Educational Complex. Given the perception of low status and poor competence of teachers the implications of involving Village Education Committee composed of community members is not dealt meaningfully. In villages where the means of production is largely in the hands of higher castes mere representation of members from lower castes in such committees is said to be not sufficient to guard schools from caste discrimination, inherent hierarchies, gender bias and inequalities entrenched in the villages. So any involvement of Village Education Committee can further end up undermining the competence and role of teaching community.

Further it emphasises that preference should be given to women teachers to encourage the enrollment of girls students. This is a very valid argument but the committee fails to explore other dimensions of this issue. In other sections too it calls for considerable increase in the number of women teachers.  UNESCO report suggests that the poor professional status of the teachers and lower wages directly draws from the status of the women in the community. In other sectors it is observed that large number of women with high academic achievements are missing from the labor force. Most women are said to take up jobs only when the family is in financial distress. Further women are said to prefer teaching profession as it is considered less demanding by them and hence they can balance both the roles as a homemaker and teacher. This obligation exclusively on the women with regard to performing domestic chores and child rearing in the family is said to result in poor interest shown towards their willingness or to voluntarily take up the in-service education. This again necessitates the top down approach where in-service training is imposed on the teachers indicating poor professionalism. In such cases higher remuneration is said to have helped the women teachers to avail services like play schools for their children or maid servants for doing domestic chores. UNESCO report clearly brings out this interaction where all the factors are interlinked and influence each other.

Regarding the mobility of teachers, Acharya committee recommends to encourage the mobility of teachers both within the education system as well as between education system and other related sectors. It also suggests to ensure transfer and protection of benefits availed through past services during such mobility. UNESCO report suggests to link such mobility with the In-Service teacher education.

The recommendations of Acharya committee is ambivalent towards increased role and participation of teachers in the management and decision making bodies of the school. It recommends that teachers, teacher educators and the training institutions must be assigned a leadership role in all aspects of education policy making, planning, strategy formulation, implementation and monitoring.  While discussing teacher’s participation it also cites that the democratic practices of electing representatives for school bodies by the teachers has given rise to political activism, conflicts and confrontations. In such cases it recommends other modes of representation like seniority by rotation, nomination etc. It fails to appreciate that the already entrenched hierarchies or social arrangements can be normalised only through such political activism. Confrontations and conflicts trigger the debate on various issues and make teachers to engage deeply with the issues. Self governance should be seen as a gradual outcome of such confrontations and conflicts. It is through the practice of such democratic ethos in the school governance the teachers will be able to nurture the same in the children. So the need for teacher’s increased participation is well recognised but the nature of such participation needs further examination. The scope for teacher’s participation in the decision making bodies of the school and other related areas is suggested to indicate the extent of teacher’s professional status and professionalism. Such participation is said to help teachers themselves realize the importance of in-service teacher education while also influencing their peers towards upgrading their skills and knowledge.

Acharya Committee also recommends for community empowerment by communicating the expected learning outcomes from schools in simple form and arranging opportunities where the community could directly evaluate what their children have gained from the school. This is suggested to help both the teachers and the community to be mutually accountable in a responsible and meaningful manner. Committee also recommends a strong distance education system of in- service education developed using TV, Radio and Print media that can be easily accessed by all.

Acharya committee recommends the teacher training model followed by Central Institute of Indian Languages where teachers are paid full salaries for ten months of the training period along with the stipend. However during the training period the services of the teachers cannot be availed by the schools. This is seen as a drawback but given the poor service conditions and support for teachers such models are said to be very successful and effective in improving the knowledge and skills of the teachers. Committee strongly suggests to increase both the funds and teacher enrollment in such training programmes. Further the committee points out that education being a concurrent subject sometimes both Centre and State are seen to expect from the other party to make provision for the in-service education programmes leading to negligence or delay in the sanction of the funds for teacher training. Teacher training institutions are also referred in the report to be acting like a dumping grounds for punishing troublesome teachers. Most posts in the DIETs are said to be vacant substantiating such presumption. In another section the committee recommends increased autonomy for DIETs for carrying out teacher training programmes.

UNESCO report suggests that the most important component of teacher training is the teacher assessment. Usually teacher assessments are said to be used for selecting teachers for promotion, to give tenure, to assign particular roles etc. Instead the UNESCO recommends to use the such assessments in in-service teacher training for knowledge advancements of the teachers. Assessments are said to help in identifying the critical areas in which teachers might need help while promoting efficient use of resources. The lack of evaluation on the effectiveness of teacher training programmes through such assessments are said to be the prominent reason for their poor quality. In same discussion the report cautions the use of student performance as a yardstick for measuring teacher effectiveness. If teachers are solely held responsible for the student performance then the role of students own responsibility and efforts are said to be comfortably ignored. Even when the teacher is effective in teaching a particular concept, students performance in tests after few weeks or months later is said to not clearly reflect the teacher’s performance. So the report recommends for the judicious use of teacher assessments without hurting the professional status of the teachers.

UNESCO report observes the need for in-service training of not just teachers but also those responsible for management, supervision and evaluation of teachers. It stresses the need to prioritize training of such personnel over the teachers to avoid the systematic hangover of the entire mechanism. With regard to employing new technology in the classroom it suggests that teacher should be given the freedom to choose the technology in which they are comfortable. Even before introducing it to classroom, teachers are suggested to be given with an opportunity to experiment with such technology among their peers. It also recommended for including teachers in developing educational softwares. Further teacher training is recommended to go beyond the disciplinary subjects to include opportunities to sensitize the teachers with various social, political and economical issues pertaining to education.      

Virtue Approach to Moral Education

Teaching moral and social values in school is being emphasized all over the world and it is a matter of concern in itself. The increasing rate of rapes, thefts, violence committed by juvenile, irresponsible sexual behaviour leading to teenage pregnancy, widening gap between adults and children in family because of technological advances, etc. have led both psychologists and educationists to think seriously about the need of moral education. The National Curriculum Framework, 2005 recommends that the inculcation of ethics and values for personality development, qualities of justice, equality, democracy and cooperation should be an important part of the curriculum covered under Education for peace. The Social Science syllabus for class 6th to 10th tries to address these issues while Environmental Studies from class 3rd to 5th integrates aspects of nature to make them aware of the world around them and teaches them how to preserve and utilize the resources judiciously.

But, is morality something which can be taught systematically like any other subject in school? Even before answering this, one more question arises- why is it becoming essential to give moral education to children in school when they learn different moral attitudes at home?  This can be answered in two ways. Firstly, each child comes from a different socio-cultural background which consequently makes a difference in the values and attitudes taught at home. To develop a stable and harmonious society, it is essential that people respect and show tolerance to others’ principles. Schools can play an important role in doing this by providing a balanced curriculum which takes into account, the morals of different communities and promotes well-being of the society. Secondly, there are many children who are brought up in an environment where inter-personal relationships between family members are not cordial and there is lack of integrity in their behaviour. Such children fail to understand the proper code of conduct expected from them outside home and this excludes them from the normative picture of society. Therefore, schools are entrusted with the responsibility of teaching morality to children from early age to prepare them as responsible adults in their social and personal lives, irrespective of where they come from.

It will not be incorrect to say that moral education cannot be taught as a separate subject. It talks about a person’s behaviour and attitude, not in certain situations but his character as a whole. But, subjects like science, art and literature give chance to develop qualities like impartiality, appreciation of other’s expressions and understanding different perspectives respectively. Thus, moral education is integrated with various disciplines enabling the students to have an individual standpoint towards life as they understand it. Teacher also has a great responsibility in achieving the purpose of moral education. He/she stands as a model for the students and thus has to make sure that his/her personal opinions and attitude do not influence the students. In fact, the children should be in a position to make their own choices with regards to values and principles that they want to adopt, free from what the teacher asks them to. Thus unlike other subjects where a teacher is assumed to have more knowledge than students and so they are often forced to accept the statements made by the teacher, instructions in moral education ought not to be authoritarian. The instructions should not be a set of rules which are to be followed in certain situations or places; rather they should allow the students to internalize a particular mode of behaviour and standards which are not forced upon the children.  

Having said that moral education is essential for the overall development of children and society at large, there is no one way of going about giving moral education. There are various approaches on which debates are going on for quite long. Hirst said that children should be taught to reason correctly on sound moral principles while MacIntyre attempted to explain morality on the grounds of virtues (Wringe, 2000). Other approaches are to teach them to care for themselves and others (Gilligan, 1982; Noddings, 1984 as cited in Wringe, 2000) and to enable them in practicing a meaningful way of life. In this paper, I will discuss about the virtue approach to moral education as it has gained renewed interest in the field of philosophy of education.

Virtue ethics is one approach for studying ethical behaviour, the other two approaches being deontology and consequentialism. Virtue ethics emphasizes the role of an individual’s character and virtues in his actions. Deontology places importance to adherence to duties and rules while consequentialism says that the outcomes of an action determine the morality of the act (Hursthouse, 2013). Both deontology and consequentialism talk about acting, either following certain high moral ideas or by evaluating the consequence but virtue ethics is about being rather than doing. The virtues possessed by an individual reflect his character and his actions reflect his morality. Although the other two approaches also use virtue as a central aspect, it changes according to situation and cultures but in virtue ethics, the virtue helps the person in making consistent decisions.

Virtue can be defined as a “character trait that is for some important reason desirable or worth having” (Sher, 1992:94 as cited in Steutel & Carr, 1999, p.4). Honesty, perseverance, patience, politeness, tolerance, justice, courage, loyalty, etc. are virtues that are constituents of one’s character. They may not be useful always, but they help in taking crucial decisions when alternative way can be chosen. They enable us to overcome over weakness by acting in accordance with our character. For example, if a man is honest but the situation demands of him to lie for his own well-being, still he does not lie, then it is a virtue he possesses which does not change with time or situations. But, if someone is insincere in his work regardless of the situation, it is his character trait but not a virtue. Thus, only the desirable characteristics which are useful for one and all are counted as virtues.

Can virtues be taught is a question that remains unanswered. If we say that it can be answered by evaluating the students based on their responses to certain questions requiring morally acceptable answers, and if they are able to answer then, we have succeeded in teaching virtues. But this is not an absolute way of doing so. Virtues are not rules to be applied to questions; they are habits as said by Socrates (Kupperman, 1999). Aristotle made a distinction between moral education in early childhood and that in advanced stages. He said that till adolescence, virtues should be inculcated in the form of habits by making them go through pleasure when doing what ought to be and pain when there is a violation of the habit. This is essential because by the time children are 15, their character has already shaped and whatever changes occurring afterwards will be personality-related.

Once, their character gets a strong foundation, the education at advanced stage can make them aware of the value of goodness. They have to be taught that things such as money, power and sexual desires which often lure people into misbehavior can be overpowered by strong virtues of inner peace and satisfaction (Kupperman, 1999). Although these are true in general, we cannot deny that the ways in which this is taught has to change with time because increasingly the world is becoming competitive and demanding. So, we have to make sure that young people are able to cope up with the world while abiding their virtues.

Moral education at an advanced stage is important mainly because of three reasons: students should be able to take others’ perspective, to achieve a sense of self and lastly to go through challenging experiences in order to strengthen their character (Kupperman, 1999). It is essential for the students to realize that their actions can have negative effects on others and so they should think about the consequences of their acts before doing it. Exercises like role-play, imaginary works of fiction, drama, etc. can help in teaching this properly. The many roles of a son/daughter, brother/sister, friend, etc. help an individual to realize his/her place in others’ lives. But, having an image of self as an individual, having individual rights, freedom and self-esteem is most important. For this, not only schools but families have a big responsibility in helping the child build a positive self-image. While on one hand, schools usually instruct how to behave cordially with peers and teachers, upbringing at home focuses on child-centered virtues like love and care between child and parents. Finally, to prepare them for facing challenges in life, they should be posed with such situations in school. They should also be asked not only to reflect on their past and take responsibility for it, but also think about possible outcomes of certain activities, for example teenage pregnancy as an outcome of unsafe sex. Sports activities can develop virtues of self-discipline, cooperation, ability to accept failures, etc. Thus, certain activities at school can gradually but surely contribute in strengthening character of young people.  

Although, this approach strives to give liberty to individuals to make their own choices about how they want to live, it has its own limitations. Wringe (1998) says that in this age, living combines both morality and one’s self-interest so that no one is affected badly for the good of other. Thus, inculcating virtues should intend to enable students in recognizing limits of freedom while valuing others’ freedom as well. Indoctrination and instruction of certain beliefs and rules of behaviour will not serve the purpose of moral education as students will think of morality as something which restricts their desires and forces them to follow what other expect of them. According to Aristotle, each virtue has two corresponding vices which indicate excess and lack of that particular quality. For example, courage is a virtue with cowardice and recklessness as corresponding vices. Thus, while teaching moral values, children should be told explicitly about these aspects of virtues so that they learn to keep a balance between what ought to be and what may be harmful for them.

White (n.d.) while talking about educational aims says that aims which direct the attitudes of students towards being a democratic and responsible citizen are more important to formulate. The curriculum should be designed in such a way that virtues of “respect, self-directedness, tolerance ,benevolence ,cooperativeness in the  pursuit of common ends; self-control in relation to anger; patience; proper control of one's bodily appetites for food, drink and sex” (White, n.d.) are inculcated. Thus, even before determining educational aims, it is essential to identify the desirable traits of character expected from their behaviour. Children should be prepared to tackle different relations bound by love such as parents, friends, sexual partner so that they emotionally they are strong to play these roles. While proper conduct of physical desires need knowledge of physiology of body, nutrition, drug addiction, etc., virtues of friendliness and caring need social interaction which is provided largely by school. It is accepted widely that both family and school guide the desirable qualities in a child, they hardly have a say in the curriculum making process. Sectionalism in this process should be avoided as much as possible. A democratic process of deciding the objectives should be used so that opinions of all stakeholders are taken into account. Parents, teachers, psychologists, educationists, the State and last but not the least, views of children count the most and a curriculum devised in such a way will only achieve the aims of moral education.

References

Hursthouse, R. (2013).  "Virtue Ethics". In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/ethics-virtue/

Kupperman, J. J. (1999). 14 Virtues, character and moral dispositions. In J. Steutel & D. Carr (Eds.), Virtue Ethics and Moral Education (pp. 205-216). London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.lightforcenetwork.com/sites/default/files/Virtue%20Ethics%20and%20Moral%20Education%20-%20David%20Carr%20and%20Jan%20Steutel.pdf

Murray, M. E. (n.d.). Moral Development and Moral Education: An Overview. Retrieved from http://moodle.unitec.ac.nz/file.php/950/Day_9_childhood/MoralDevelopmentandMoralEducation.pdf

NCERT. (2005). National Curriculum Framework 2005. New Delhi: National Council of Educational Research and Training. Retrieved from http://www.ncert.nic.in/rightside/links/pdf/framework/english/nf2005.pdf.

Steutel, J. & Carr, D. (1999). 1 Virtue ethics and the virtue approach to moral education. In J. Steutel & D. Carr (Eds.), Virtue Ethics and Moral Education (pp. 3-18). London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.lightforcenetwork.com/sites/default/files/Virtue%20Ethics%20and%20Moral%20Education%20-%20David%20Carr%20and%20Jan%20Steutel.pdf

White, J. (n.d.). New Aims for a New National Curriculum.

Wringe, C. (1998). Reasons, Rules and Virtues in Moral Education. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 32(2), 225-237. Retrieved from http://www.fatih.edu.tr/~hugur/PATIENT/Reasons,%20Rules%20and%20Virtues%20in%20Moral%20Education.pdf

Wringe, C. (2000). The Diversity of Moral Education. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 34(4), 659-672.

Religion and Education An Insight into the conflict between Religion and Education

Author: Ananya Chatterji, K L Narasimha Swamy, Parvathy B.S., Piyush Wankhade

“Quebec Muslims slam proposed ban on religious headwear”

“Demonising your own: ‘Textbooks preach intolerance for minorities”

“Injecting propaganda: Learning acquires saffron hue in RSS-run schools in Madhya Pradesh”

“Israel education ministry accused of bowing to religious extremists after censoring sex-ed chapter”

“Academics, eminent citizens dismayed over biases in textbooks”

    These are the few excerpts of the headlines from the print media across the world.  All the above clearly showcase the interference of religion and its various machineries  haunting the present education system and society. These headlines are just a glimpse of the conflicts between education and religion.  While religion has always been supposed to be the foundation for moral values and human virtues, it is actually being used to instill hatred and narrow the mindset  towards the people of other religions. The education system is being exploited as a vehicle to propagate the skewed version of religion.  

    Across the world religion is part and parcel of everyone's life, even for non believers. Religion is an integral part of our lives-our culture, the way we live, our views about society, almost everything we do is defined in one or the other way by the religion we follow. When religion and education converge, there are many conflicts that arise. People fear that in the process of formal education, their religion may get suppressed or carried away by some other dominant religion. Another conflict is when content of the education defies their religious convictions. Opinions of a few who have religious authority influence a large community and its thoughts. It not only affects the harmony in the society but also the well being of an individual. This seemingly never ending dispute led us to sit and think about the influence of religion in education and try to get the clarity on the question “How religion  has to be dealt in education?” because its impact on our day to day life is so enormous that it can neither be ignored nor left to the destiny to find the order or equilibrium by itself.

    We also see the need to reflect on the roots of the conflict between religion and education.  For that we may have to figure out the essence of both education and religion.  We all agree with the fact that “Faith in God” though named differently in different religions is the gist of all religions. All other paraphernalia like places of  worship, rituals of worship, doctrines of worship(The Bible, The Quran, The Bhagavad Gita etc) and people exclusively assigned with the task of worshipping for themselves and for others are built on this fundamental thought. When it comes to education it is mostly about getting the younger generation ready for the norms of the society and to equip them with the faculties to face the issues and challenges that the society may pose before them. While the norms of the society and also challenges have kept changing over the time for many obvious reasons, people with vested interests in religion have been the major force in trying to manipulate the education to perpetuate the status quo to protect their own interests. Letting the norms of the society to change also means such well entrenched religious authorities losing their ground and also their privileges. So the conflict between religion and education is natural and quite obvious.

    Another confusion is whether religious education is about educating people regarding rituals and traditions from the scriptures or is it the preaching of noble values which have universal recognition. We do agree that knowledge about basic symbols, practices and rituals of one’s religion is important. But should it become the point of comparison between different religions, rather than promoting cross-cultural understanding?

   Now let us see what the literature has to offer to this debate, historically…..

Historical perspectives on the conflict between religion and education

    A quick overhaul of the available literature suggests or leads us mainly to the historical conflict of science and religion. Is it the same as the conflict between education and religion? or are these two completely  different?

    Firstly we would like to sort out this issue before moving ahead further. Whether conflict between science and religion is same as conflict between education and religion?. We get an interesting insight on this issue when we look at the evolution of education historically. Education was primarily religious and also primitive in its initial stages with limited scope for dwelling on the other disciplines of knowledge like astronomy, medicine, mathematics etc but as these disciplines evolved tremendously they all started adopting the common way of approaching the knowledge in their own domain via scientific method. Today we even refer disciplines like  politics as political science and the nomenclature like social sciences, life sciences, physical sciences has become the trend.  This trend is clearly not just to have some fashionable labeling but arises out of the fact that all these disciplines have took the idea of scientific method very seriously. This fascination for scientific method is seen in the acceptance of knowledge as something that has to be constructed collectively rather than individually and also in welcoming multiple interpretation for the knowledge they have built. Today every academician agrees that no knowledge is absolute and it is ever evolving. So in a broader sense every discipline comes under this common umbrella called science. Hence the word ‘education’ can be used synonymously with the word ‘science’ in this context. Also the conflict between religion and science comes within the broader conflict of religion and education.

    All the available literature deliberating on religion and education(science) can be grouped under three major theories :

1. The hostility theory
2. The harmony theory
3. The indifference theory

    All these three theories are quite helpful to anyone who is interested in solving or putting an end to the conflict between religion and education(science). let us briefly see what these three theories have to say…….

    As per the hostility theory “Scientific claims are false if religious claims are true, and religious claims are false if scientific claims are true. This depiction usually goes beyond that, however, to the claim that the opponent is not simply incorrect, but operating under great and dangerous delusions” (Bradley Sickler)

The classic examples for this theory include

1. The conflict between catholic church and Copernicus-Galileo duo over heliocentrism where the Church found justification for geocentrism in Christian scripture: “You have established the earth on its foundations; it cannot be moved,¨ says the psalmist(Bradley Sickler,IEP) and staunchly opposed heliocentrism though Galileo backed his hypothesis with solid evidence from telescopic observations made by him.
2. Newton and Mechanism: Through clever combination of observation and mathematical modeling, Newton formulated his three famous laws of motion. The result of this comprehensive and powerful work was the ability to account for nearly all natural phenomena from a few carefully stated physical principles. This led to the notion that if God is not needed to explain the behavior of the world, and if the cosmos, like a giant clock, operates on mechanical principles alone, then one has no reason to suppose that God even exists. There are no explanatory gaps left for God to fill(Bradley Sickler,IEP)
3. Darwin and Evolution: Genesis claims that God decreed creatures to reproduce “after their kind.¨ It also claims that species were created directly by God in the manner (more or less) that they exist today which contradicted the Darwin’s claim that species can mutate into a different species over a very long period (Bradley Sickler, IEP).

    Whereas harmony theory takes a very different standpoint as compared to the hostility theory:

    It says that during the heyday of scientific advancement in the modern period, countless thinkers have found themselves adhering to religious commitments and adding to scientific knowledge at the same time. People like Descartes, Newton, Pascal, Boyle, Kepler, Gassendi, and many more have sought the harmonization of science and religion . Since the belief that world is the direct result of God’s creative activity, advances in science has actually served, in William Paley’s words, to “increase the admiration of the contrivance¨ of nature’s(God’s) workings. Science has not refuted their view of the world: it has confirmed and strengthened it(Bradley Sickler,IEP).

    Then we have the indifference theory which states that science and religion make declarations that are completely unrelated to each other. As per this theory Science pertains to the classification of empirical observations; religion pertains to ethics, ritual, and propositions such as the assertion that a divine being exists that has no empirical entailments. Unlike the conflict model, where religious claims and scientific claims are seen to falsify each other, this description makes scientific declarations exempt from religious scrutiny and vice versa(Bradley Sickler,IEP).

Bradley Sickler views that religion and science can actually work together to present a fuller understanding of the world by mutually enlightening each other. This also gives us a significant insight into the conflict of Religion and Education.

Existing methodologies of dealing religion in public school curriculum

    Why should study about religion be included in school curriculum? Can religion be completely excluded from the school curriculum? Religion had been and is continuing to be a significant part of human life and the omission of such a significant component of human history will give a distorted picture of the past and the events happened.  Most of the events in history are intertwined with religion that its omission will make the whole picture unclear. For instance, the Renaissance and Reformation episodes in world history and certain incidents in Indian history like that of the greased cartridge episode during the first war of independence in 1857 cannot be made clear unless one has prior knowledge of religion. Also, if religion, which definitely played a role which is not trivial in the history, is denied its legitimate position in education, the new generation may get a false notion about religion that it is insignificant and irrelevant.

    Proponents of religious education believe that for the overall development of an individual, it is essential that he is aware of the religious practices and traditions. While it is widely believed that the ongoing violence and distress in the world is because of extreme faith in one’s religion, the rest of people think that it is because of more importance given to vested interests and not to religious values .They blame the formal schooling system for including materialistic outlook and ignoring values promoted by their religion. To counter this argument, it can be assumed that one’s intolerance to alternative belief systems is because of one’s ignorance about other religions. From this argument we can deduce that education about religions have a positive aspect in bringing about religious tolerance and peace.

    The approach of school in imparting religious knowledge also needs to be considered in this context. Confusion still exists in the entire education scenario whether it is teaching about religion or teaching of religion. Though schools are not constitutionally allowed to give religious instructions, teaching about religions in a secular manner or context may be permitted. For instance The Bible or The Bhagavad Gita or The Quran or any other scripture for that matter may be taught to children but for its historical or literary or cultural value and not as a religious doctrine to be followed.  Teaching about religions can bring about a tolerance, acceptance and respect towards religions or faiths which are not one’s own.

    Religious practices cannot be forced on children who attend public schools under the garb of constitutional right to freedom of religion. But we believe that courses which present the comparison of different religions and practices in a historical perspective are essential to have aware and are constitutionally acceptable.

    Teaching about religion involves giving information about the religious practices and beliefs in a religion while teaching of religion involves a dogmatic training of children. It heavily depends on the teacher’s methodology. There is a grave problem when the teachers believe in a particular set of religious beliefs and are not tolerant to any alternative beliefs. This has a direct influence on their way of approaching religious education. Instead of teaching about religion, they eventually start teaching religion which they adhere to. How the teacher uses the study material for religious education in the class cannot be kept under surveillance, and these methods of inducing criticism can easily undermine the purpose for which the course was intended.

    Again we cannot always blame the teacher for failing to promote tolerance and understanding. Such courses will be successful only if teachers are familiar with, the religious traditions of the world. The teachers themselves possibly do not have such studies in their schooling and do not have the training to teach a religion course. But their lack of knowledge can lead them to sound weird and disrespectful about unfamiliar religions unconsciously.

    If religion comes up as a topic of discussion in a classroom situation it may create unnecessary confusion in the class which may contain students from different belief systems. Also the teacher will also have his or her own system of belief and may not be aware of all the religious beliefs represented by the students in the class and those who are in minority may feel left out and it is one of the major disadvantages of including religion in school curriculum. But those in favour of imparting religious education to students counter argue that if curriculum omits religion the students will not be able to understand and appreciate the customs and belief followed by the co-existing faith systems. For example the Islam allows the practice of polygamy which is not advocated by many other religions and if these are not transmitted to students in a proper manner it can have negative impact leading to alienation of a section of students who follow a particular belief system.

    Apart from the curriculum, there are many other aspects of religion on the basis of which schools may involuntarily discriminate children. In order to make the children feel secular and comfortable in the school environment, the schools should avoid demonstrating the prominent symbols representing any religion. Putting images of Gods and Goddesses being worshipped by a particular religion also gives out a wrong signal to children from other religions. They fail to accept this as they have been following some other set of beliefs related to God whom their religion worships. Prayers that are recited in the school assembly become a very important part of children’s routine. If they are made to sing prayers pertaining to a single religion, they may feel inferior and also it will not make any sense to them since that is not a part of their religion and they are totally unfamiliar to it. So, schools should plan the prayers in such a way that it represents humanity as a religion and develops a sense of unity and harmony among the children.

    The portrayal of national leaders has a deep impact on children’s minds. They not only look up to them as ideals but also try to identify themselves on some similar grounds such as region, caste and  religion. If a school keeps on stressing the role of leaders from a particular religion and ignores the significance of leaders from other religion, children from that religion start feeling ignored and at times suppressed too. When they grow up, this suppression may turn into rebellious attitude towards the other religions. On the other hand, children from the glorified religion consider themselves as superior which creates rift between the two groups. Results of such conflicts are terrible and sad.

    At first, uniform may not seem to be a ground for discriminating children on the basis of religion. But when we see that a Muslim girl has to wear shirt and tunic instead of the long gown called as jilbaab and the headscarf hijab as required by the Islam religion.

“Quebec Muslims slam proposed ban on religious headwear”

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/8/21/quebec-muslims-mayhavetochoosebetweenjobsandheadscarves.html

    We agree that it is not possible for the schools to keep aside their disciplinary rules and agree to each request being made for wearing clothes or symbols that represent a religion. But denying education on this ground is also not constitutional.Although, parents always have the freedom to admit their ward in an institution where there is no rigidity about uniform policy.

    Teaching about religions seems to be closely related to teaching of values. Schools have to inculcate moral, social and secular values like honesty, brotherhood, being sensitive to other’s feelings, courage, etc in their students. These values may be taught using the stories in various scriptures but it should never be taught as religious codes of belief. Special care should also be taken not to make those children who are brought up with no religious faith being alienated.

    But many schools fail to understand the difference between instilling secular or moral values using religious stories and propagating religion or faith of their own interest. For instance, there are schools run by certain Hindu Sanyasi Missions which strictly ask the students to participate in Hindu scripture classes and all the students, irrespective of their religious beliefs have to take part in Hindu ceremonies like Mathru Puja in which one have to wash ones mothers feet and perform puja. But the whole idea of touching another person’s feet is against the belief system of many religious groups. We believe that trying to instill qualities through such religious activities without considering other’s belief systems will never help and it is bound to fail at some point of time.

    One more problem that the schools need to handle sensitively is the religious holidays. In a classroom, children from different religions come together and study the common curriculum. But when it comes to religious holidays, they have different beliefs and school should not force anyone to participate in any such religious practices which are not acceptable to them. School should try to focus purely on the culture and traditions of the religion and the values which are in consensus with other religions.

    These holidays should be used by institutions to teach children about religions across the globe. Such occasions are an opportunity to present the positive aspects of a religion to them so that they can be tolerant to it and try to learn the significance of respecting each religion. In doing this, the school should not get involved in the celebration of that festival, but limit its role to imparting the desired values to the students.

    The role of parents in deciding the appropriate kind of schooling for their children cannot be overlooked. Education system’s objective to include religious courses in formal education is to allow children to have a broad view about secularism and to satisfy the liberal society's need for tolerant citizens. But this is not more important than the parental rights to exempt their children from religious education. Proponents of liberal society must demonstrate that religious education in the public schools does not restrict parental rights, and that such courses do not violate the constitutional guarantee of, or human right to, freedom of religion.

    Parents may deny permission for their children to attend a religion course in the belief that such a course will be harmful to the spiritual welfare of the child. However, parents who desire that their children be tolerant of others' religious views may also withdraw their children from religion courses in which the school authority is dogmatic in its set of rules. A rigid education structure could promote the very indoctrination that the mandatory religious education courses are opposed to.

    The following case as referred from an article “The Fundamentals of the Fundamental Right to Education in India” by Dr Niranjanaradhya and Aruna Kashyap researched and written under UNESCO illustrates the tension which arises when content of education contradicts the religious beliefs of parents.

    “As per the Danish Constitution, all children have the right to FCE in State primary schools. The State had introduced compulsory sex education in State primary schools as part of the curriculum. The applicants, who were parents of school going children, gave several petitions to have their children exempted from sex education in concerned State schools. Although the court rejected their argument, it accepted that the school should respect the parents’ religious and moral convictions. But it clearly stated that imparting sex education keeping in mind the appropriate age of children is not the violation of their freedom of compulsory education. Moreover, the parents still had the freedom to educate their children at home to instill their own religious convictions and beliefs.”

    Curriculum makers should take into account the sociological aspects which help in building the personality of children as broad-minded individuals. Academicians should always take enough care not to hurt the sentiments of any religious groups. Teaching about religion does not mean indoctrination or practicing of a particular faith. It should neither sound devotional nor should it be doctrinal. The curriculum must not promote or denigrate any religion. For example The Bible may be used in the curriculum but the academicians should be vigilant not to make it project it as a religious doctrine. Similarly an incident happened in the state of Kerala, i.e. in the process of question paper formation a teacher unintentionally made a question in which a madman was called Muhammad. Such a hue and cry was made on the issue by the Muslim minority in the state arguing that it was an intentional move from the side of academicians to give a madman face to the Prophet Muhammad and alleged that it was a part of hidden curriculum to give an unpleasant face to the religion.

“Controversial question paper: Lecturer’s hand chopped off”

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/controversial-question-paper-lecturer-s-hand-chopped-off/642261/

    Thus adequate attention should be given even to such minutest of the details when it comes to the matter of religious interference in education.

    State machinery acts as a mediator between the curriculum makers and the constitution. It has to implement amendments in the curriculum as per the demands of time and requirements of the society. At the time of independence, the emphasis of the then government was on building institutes of higher education like IIT’s and IIM’s and keep words like religion, dharma etc away from such institutions. during this time, the primary education and the role of religion was neglected. This has resulted in long existing dichotomy between education and religion. Though now the government of India has brought in the right to education, but it does very little to resolve this problem.

    Even though the constitution of India does not allow propagation of any religion in any of the governmental schools, it has no control over the private owned schools. As a large population of students learn in such private institutions, they should be brought under the purview of the state. The state should be in the driver’s seat at least in issues which are highly sensitive.

    As of now the state holds a major role of curriculum development. But still very often the designed curriculum becomes the bone of contention on various counts. Thus this demands greater sensitivity so as to overcome all such conflicts.  Moreover, this should be done in such a way that it propagates harmony among all the religions.

    Sensitization of teachers is again an issue that should be looked after by the state. Inclusion of topics of religious inclusion in the curriculum of the aspiring teachers can be one such step in attaining the goal.

    Till now we saw how various issues of religion were dealt in the context of school in existing literature, blended with our own personal experiences. We also after much deliberation among ourselves felt that the existing literature on the ways the religion is dealt in school curriculum is not comprehensive or efficient enough to equip our younger generation to deal with issues like same-sex marriage, use of contraception, abortion, caste and race discrimination , religious restrictions or reservations on food habits like Hindus not having beef etc and dress code such as burqa for Muslim women and turban for Sikh men , ethical questions on surrogacy, cloning humans, menstrual-related religious traditions and restrictions on women, occupational bias like people belonging to certain castes being reluctant to  pursue or venture into new occupations, where religion confronts all these issues in its own manner.

    Just because it is part of one or the other religion should we blindly tolerate these things as a respect to our fellow being’s faith? Is there a way out of this conundrum? The various ways that we have seen earlier only concentrates on making the school environment secular and lays its emphasis on tolerance rather deliberating on the root cause. Aren’t we dealing this issue in a businesslike manner rather than dealing with it holistically? May be in a democratic nation like ours this businesslike approach may help our politicians to enjoy the luxury of peaceful governance.

    But……..what if am a gay? If am a lesbian? If I am a woman being a surrogate for the sake of livelihood? a woman risking my life, my career because the society does not allow abortion or the use of contraceptives to lead a better life? a woman facing social exclusion every month ?

    Can the words of tolerance, secularism, and respect for fellow religions console these individuals? Don’t these individuals have the right to live with dignity and comfort in between everyone? Do our schools and education system really have anything to help these  individuals?

    We see that the only solution for all these issues that arise due to religion is to reform the idea of religion itself. We consider the basic idea of religion itself is fundamentally flawed. Consider any religion, they have their scriptures , doctrines like The Bible, The Quran or The Bhagavad Gita and these scriptures are considered to be the words of God  Himself . It is fine that these scriptures are direct words of God but why do we fail to recognize the limitations of our own. That we mere human beings tend to interpret the words of God in our own way, that we are not as knowledgeable or as matured as God Himself to arrive at a common interpretation among ourselves. So conflict among us over different interpretation of God’s words has led to many divisions within a particular religion like Shias,Sunnis,Catholics,and Protestants etc. Hence the religion itself which is solely based on the God’s direct words, that is the holy scriptures is fundamentally not reliable. Does this mean that we should completely abandon the religion itself or stop having faith in God?

    We would say No. We need not stop having faith in God. We genuinely consider the need of having faith in God to have a mental equilibrium in this uncertain world as very much essential. But only thing is we should take care to employ better methods in interpreting the so called God’s words. So what should that method be?

    As every other discipline has accepted the scientific method to enrich itself we suggest that all the religions should consider reforming themselves using the scientific method. We all know that mathematics is abstract to the core but still it makes our life so convenient. Why not accept ‘God’ as just another ‘Concept’. Yes this type of God will be abstract.  Now it is natural that we will not ask our new ‘God’ to come before us alive. Of course we have to associate certain qualities to this concept of ‘God’. Some will be just the same as what we have considered till now like omniscient,omnipotent,the saviour,the one who could control and take care of that incomprehensible and uncertain part of life. This enables us to now add or delete certain qualities as required by our collective or personal life. So ‘God’ is no more a static symbol. He/She is a dynamic, ever evolving entity just as any scientific principle or concept. As we evolve ourselves from the knowledge and experience of life the ‘God’ of ours too evolves hand in hand with us.  

Now we could pray in temple, mosque or church. It makes no difference. Our God is now scientific, rational and learns along with the mankind. God is just an entity who takes care of certain things while we do the other. Our God is now secular, open to ideas and also ready for transformation.

REFERENCES

Kashyap, A., Dr. Niranjanaradhya (2006). The Fundamentals of the Fundamental Right to Education in India. Books for Change, Bangalore

Sharma, R.K., Sharma, R.N. (1996). Problems of Education in India. Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi

Web References:

http://www.thehindu.com/features/education/academics-eminent-citizens-dismayed-over-biases-in-textbooks/article5101680.ece, Retrieved on September 8, 2013

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/09/03/israel-education-ministry-accused-of-bowing-to-religious-extremists-after-censoring-sex-ed-chapter/, Retrieved on September 5, 2013

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/learning-acquires-saffron-hue-in-rss-run-schools-in-madhya-pradesh/1/307451.html, Retrieved on September 8, 2013

http://tribune.com.pk/story/289063/pakistans-educational-system-fuels-religious-discrimination-report/ Retrieved on September 2, 2013