Prasanga: Shiksha Edited by Asitabha Das Bengali PDF.
Title— Prasanga: Shiksha (Context: Education) (Selected Collection on Education),
Edited— Asitabha Das,
Genre— Collection Book, Education, Documentary Collection, Edited Book,
Format—PDF, Size—9MB, Pages: 276,
Asitabha Das edited the Prasanga: Shiksha (Selected Collection on Education)
Introduction
A collection of diverse thoughts of conscientious Bengalis on education was very much needed at this moment. It is needed because education is spreading in the country, there has been a strong response of enthusiasm for literacy and post-literacy activities, the picture of great enthusiasm for admission to schools and colleges and the disappointment of not being admitted is being very clearly publicized in the daily papers.
But the biggest questions are no longer being asked—‘why’ education, ‘which’ education, ‘how’ education. As we continue to study and become anxious about admission, taking exams, and passing—we have to ask ourselves these questions again and again, and to those who organize and manage education.
It is not that the answers to these questions have not been found. The scholars whose writings have enriched this collection have given answers in various ways. We cannot always remember those answers—that is what they are.
Types of Education
Let’s start again with the questions. The above three questions are not separate from each other, rather if the answer to the first one is found, the answers to the rest will also come easily.
So, two things can be said about it-
- The first question is also given an answer at an idealistic level—education to become a human being.
- An answer to the second question is also more or less connected with idealism—education to gain knowledge.
- But the source of the third answer is our family, social, practical view or pragmatism—education to gain a decent livelihood.
In the education system that we have developed, especially the education system that the colonial foreign rulers have created in our country, the first two answers have become just meaningless slogans. The third answer has become our everything.
Basic Need of Education
The reason for that is very simple. Prato, Aristotle, Spencer, Rousseau, Locke, Comte, Dewey, and Dhiez thought about education with the development of members of a free or democratic society in mind, and our scholars also basically follow that ideal. But the educational policy of the colony is the educational policy of creating good servants. Colonies are established to capture a larger market, and their rule is to strengthen and stabilize the system of cheap production and high-priced distribution of goods.
As a result, what we call the “Market Economy” today, the “send-coal-oil” economy, is the main source of the colonial economy. Politics was still a slave to the economy then, and it still is. And the politics of education were also created according to the dictates of the economy, and it still is.
Women Compete for Jobs
As a result, employment has become a condition for all education. Due to the economic downturn, women are now also having to compete for jobs with education and degrees – which is certainly a good thing in terms of social equality – but as a result, students are also becoming marketable commodities. The value of humanity depends on how much someone is worth in the job market. This is also the calculation of gold and silver.
In a poem by Annadashankar Roy, a potential suitor says – ‘I will not take a dowry, if the bride is beautiful, but I have to tell you how much gold you will give‘. That is, beautiful – not beautiful, unless she is given a price of gold. But when the suitor is asked – are you or some Kartik? Then he angrily said that the calculation is “both financial” – the name of gold is Sundari, and the name of the mine is ‘Kartik’. She gets it for a lot of money, so we have to assume that she is as handsome as Kartik.
Education is Industry!
This education of ornaments-dowry and big money is the goal of our crazy horse race. That is why there is so much excitement in many English medium but almost illiterate schools, that is why there is so much rush of joint entrances, that is why parents feel ruined if they cannot teach their sons science or medicine or management.
And what is wanted for the wheel is not good ‘degree-knowledge‘, that is why there are so many notebooks, private tuition coaching class nonsense. One market nourishes another market, like the basic industry with the downstream industry, the market for selling illegal education is connected with the ‘degree market.
Why Education?
Some people may think – is this what education is for? Some young people fall into this grinding machine and fall out, and instances of suicide are not rare. Perhaps the thought arises more among them – why this education, why such education. What is true education, what goal will true education reach? It is not cruel market competition, it is not about moving forward by throwing away and destroying competitors who are running next to you, it is not just blind self-gratification, money and luxury, there is definitely a greater meaning in education, there is a human happiness.
Selected Collection on Education
That meaning, that human character can be found in the articles compiled in this book. The best and representative examples of the educational thought of all those scholars, starting with Rabindranath Tagore, who have enriched the thinking, life and ideals of Bengalis in an extraordinary way, have been collected here. They are the ones who have provided the best answers to the above questions.
May those answers further strengthen the ethical and humanistic foundation of our education. Such a selected collection on education is rare in our society. Readers can read the Shiksha Prasanga by Syed Mujtaba Ali.
Therefore, this selected collection on education The PDF link of the Prasanga: Shiksha book is given on this webpage for the readers. Readers can collect the PDF of the Prasanga: Shiksha collection book from this web page and read it online.