Country faces disaster as literacy being palmed off as training: Romila Thapar 

By PTI

NEW DELHI: Noted historian Romila Thapar on Saturday argued that the nation faces a disaster in the present day as literacy is being palmed off as training.

Giving instance of the training system introduced in by Maulana Azad, she mentioned India’s first training minister and some others understood that training isn’t just literacy.

“I am emphasising and underlining it because I think it is terribly important. There is a crisis today in which literacy is being palmed off as education. It is not just literacy, it is opening of the mind,” Thapar mentioned.

She was talking on the launch of historian S Irfan Habib’s biography of Maulana Azad, revealed by Aleph Book Company.

Thapar added that it was completely basic to understand the aim of training because it was not nearly figuring out alphabets. Talking about Azad’s “tremendous emphasis and interest on basic education”, Thapar mentioned the nationalist chief argued that residents can’t discharge their duties until they’re educated.

However, she famous that primary training was not merely memorising a number of questions and their solutions however to have the ability to assume freely.

“I think that the purpose of functional education is not just providing questions and answers, it is to learn how to think. You have to teach the child how to think, the child must be encouraged to ask questions. Questions can only be asked if you are allowed to think freely,” the 91-year-old mentioned.

She recommended Azad for having considered a complete strategy in direction of the training system by establishing a number of “akademis” like Sangeet Natak Akademi, Lalit Kala Akademi and Sahitya Akademi to encourage pursuit of humanities. Azad additionally emphasised scientific mood via the founding of Indian Institutes of Technology.

“They (akademis) did have a role as they did make people conscious of the fact that humanities are a part of cultural living. And sciences were not to be left behind, that’s when the IITs were set up..scientific temper grows out of these IITs,” Thapar famous.

NEW DELHI: Noted historian Romila Thapar on Saturday argued that the nation faces a disaster in the present day as literacy is being palmed off as training.

Giving instance of the training system introduced in by Maulana Azad, she mentioned India’s first training minister and some others understood that training isn’t just literacy.

“I am emphasising and underlining it because I think it is terribly important. There is a crisis today in which literacy is being palmed off as education. It is not just literacy, it is opening of the mind,” Thapar mentioned.

She was talking on the launch of historian S Irfan Habib’s biography of Maulana Azad, revealed by Aleph Book Company.

Thapar added that it was completely basic to understand the aim of training because it was not nearly figuring out alphabets. Talking about Azad’s “tremendous emphasis and interest on basic education”, Thapar mentioned the nationalist chief argued that residents can’t discharge their duties until they’re educated.

However, she famous that primary training was not merely memorising a number of questions and their solutions however to have the ability to assume freely.

“I think that the purpose of functional education is not just providing questions and answers, it is to learn how to think. You have to teach the child how to think, the child must be encouraged to ask questions. Questions can only be asked if you are allowed to think freely,” the 91-year-old mentioned.

She recommended Azad for having considered a complete strategy in direction of the training system by establishing a number of “akademis” like Sangeet Natak Akademi, Lalit Kala Akademi and Sahitya Akademi to encourage pursuit of humanities. Azad additionally emphasised scientific mood via the founding of Indian Institutes of Technology.

“They (akademis) did have a role as they did make people conscious of the fact that humanities are a part of cultural living. And sciences were not to be left behind, that’s when the IITs were set up..scientific temper grows out of these IITs,” Thapar famous.