Gandhiji believed in life skills-based education: Niranjanaradhya

Niranjanaradhya highlights Gandhi's vision of life skills-based education and critiques the neglect of government schools in India.

Academician V.P. Niranjanaradhya has said that Mahatma Gandhi believed in imparting life skill-based education, which provides students with an opportunity to learn and work, and only such education can help in making them self reliant.

He was speaking after being honoured with an endowment service award instituted by Bellad Krushi Haagu Shishana Pratishthana at a function organised at Karnatak Vidyavardhak Sangha in Dharwad on Monday (March 23).

Mr. Niranjanaradhya said that the D.N. Kothari Commission had recommended making uniform school education available to all, and this is mentioned even in the Preamble. However, it is ironic that government schools, which were referred to as ‘cradles of the Constitution’, are being neglected, he said.

“It is regrettable that education is getting commercialised. A total of 62,000 teacher posts in the State are vacant. It is a tragedy that nearly one lakh students have failed in the Kannada language in the SSLC examination. Although government school teachers are efficient and talented, they are not getting time to teach as they were burdened with non-teaching works,” he said.

Conferring the award, Basavaraj Gurikar, national president of Akhila Bharat Prathamiksa Shala Okkuta, praised Mr. Niranjanaradhya for his efforts towards saving government schools.

Chandrakanth Bellad, president of the sangha, briefed attendees about the objectives of the endowment. Presiding over the function, vice-president Sanjiv Kulkarni said that according to the global yardsticks, school education in India is in a pathetic state. On the pretext of establishing magnet schools, the government is closing down government schools, he alleged. Shankar Halagatti made introductory remarks.