Saturday, March 17, 2012

Blending Education with 'Vidyabhyasam'

I have seen the word 'Vidyabhyasam' used (in Malayalam, and probably in many other Indian languages as well), quite often, to mean the same as 'Education'. Is there a difference at all? I think there is a subtle difference and this has a lot to do with current state of education.

The word 'Vidyabhyasam' refers to the process of acquisition (abhyasam) of knowledge (vidya). This implies an internal desire to acquire knowledge of the respective individual as primary driver, inspired by a realization 'Vidyadhanam Sarvadhanat Pradhanam' (which can be roughly translated as mean 'knowledge is the ultimate wealth')

The word 'Education' refers to the process of educating, which implies existence of an uneducated who needs to be educated. This, in turn, implies an external source who wish to enforce a transformation on the less privileged 'uneducated' person, as primary driver.


.. to be continued/detailed later...

Education system, in its current form and state, is a legacy that we carry from colonial rule. Colonial rule was, in turn, empowered by industrial revolution which required existence of laborers on a large scale. ....

Laborers were required to be skilled through training and managers were required to be educated to manage laborers. This resulted in creation of classes of people, and the role of education was largely limited to ensuring availability people as resources for these objectives....

This resulted in considering education as the sole means of getting a decent living, and the sole purpose of education was understood as means to get a decent living... other dimensions of learning was hardly conveyed/understood ...

This resulted in skewed acquisition of knowledge as well as skewed distribution of knowledge among people, resulting in compromise of even basic values of education and social disharmony....

Education underwent through many transformations, leading to many variations like teaching, training, mentoring, coaching etc. But all of these continues to base itself on external source as primary driver, and education continues on a prescriptive model, rather than adapting to needs of individual learner...


Let me clarify at this point, lest my intent be misunderstood, that I am not advocating scrapping of education in its current form. As can be gleaned from progress so far, we have to accept that it has its merits.

Also, 'Vidyabhasam' as was practiced earlier had its own share of drawbacks as well, which led to its eventual decline. Therefore, what I am recommending here is blending.

That is, 'Vidyabhyasam' going hand in hand with 'Education'... or, 'Education' may help a person to reach a stage where he can commence his 'Vidyabhyasam'