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The International Commission on Education for the 21st Century, popularly known as Jacques Delors Commission,1 outlined a grim picture of the global scenario in the 21st century. According to the commission, the problems are accentuated by:
- Growing tension on many fronts;
- Rising inequality due to progress that has not been equally shared;
- • Smouldering tension between nations and ethnic groups;
- Tension between tradition and modernity; and
- Declining respect for human values and relationships and for natural resources.
The report also pointed out that the fear of loss of roots in a globalizing culture and an overabundance of transient information to the current generation of youth as two new forces of disruption in the current century.
Bhagavan Baba pointed out the various sins that have become common place today.2 These, along with those originally pointed out by the father of nation Mahatma Gandhi, are:
- Education without character;
- Commerce without morality;
- Politics without principles;
- Science without humanity;
- Religion without love;
- Administration without justice;
- Knowledge without application; and
- Patriotism without sacrifice.
One of the major reasons for all these sins to occur is a poor education system. Lickona3 pointed out a number of problems in the education of modern youth. These include:
- Rising youth violence;
- Increasing dishonesty;
- Growing disrespect for parents, teachers, and other legitimate authority figures;
- Increasing peer cruelty;
- A rise in bigotry and hate crime;
- The deterioration of language;
- A decline in work ethic;
- Increasing self-centeredness, accompanied by declining personal and civic responsibility;
- A surge of self-destructive behavior; and
- Growing ethical illiteracy.
As Schumacher4 pointed out, one of the major reasons Western civilization is in a state of permanent crisis, is because something is wrong with its education. Current education focuses more on development of skills and dissemination of information. According to Bhagavan Baba, “What the world badly needs today is not wealth, affluence, and prosperity but students with exemplary character. The progress of the nation depends on such students alone. This is the fundamental assumption of Bharatiya culture.
In this scenario of problems with global magnitude, there is indeed a glimmer of hope. Philosophers of the world have time and again pointed out the most important solution to all these problems, namely, the reformation of the education sector with a focus on development of holistic or integrated personality. Krishnamurti6 stated, “There is no denial that the purpose, the aim and drive of the educational institutes must be to equip the students with the most excellent technological proficiency so that the students may function with clarity and efficiency in the modern world. But a far more important purpose than this is to create the right climate and environment so that the students may develop fully as total human beings.” |
