Knowledge

Book excerpt: I read an article in Times of India on our education system more than four years ago. It was written by a past CJI of India Justice LaHoti. He had questioned why the educated people are not knowledgeable. He had raised a doubt if British had handed down a defecctive education system to us? This made me sit-up and undertake a systematic investigation, from the basics. I spent some four years into understanding education system around the globe, including past and present times. I went through poetry and prose which discussed knowledge and education. I have given the essence of my learning in this book. While most of us talk about the short coming in our education system but no one came closer to Justice Lahoti in defining the problem and questioning the root cause. I found a lot of information on education and knowledge in Tamil Literature. I am not sure that there are so many in other languages / societies. Chinese Philosophers, who lived some thousand years ago, have left behind some treasure that come handy to define new goals for improving the processes for our education system. I tried to share my learning with several professionals working in education space only to receive a cold response. I can trace this to Resistance to change. I wish that every stake holder in education in this country the teachers, students, parents and leaders give some time to examine the content of this book. Those who have the power to bring about changes may do so with greatest urgency as we have moved long way on a wrong track. N.Natarajan