Dewan, Hridaykant
(2009)
Commitment to education: are we failing?
Learning Curve (25).
pp. 17-20.
Abstract
The idea of a democratic state has its basis and its
goals in freedom, equality of opportunity, agency
and justice which requires the participation of all
its citizens. There are various ways in which this
idea has been expressed, the most remarkable
being the preamble to the Constitution of India. It
is a declaration by the people of India of forming
themselves into a group that would give each
individual certain equal rights and equitable
opportunities.
The key terms in the preamble to the Constitution are
justice, liberty, equality of status and opportunity,
and fraternity. As is clear, each demands from the
citizen concern for other citizens underpinned by
an understanding of the meaning of these terms.
It also expects the governance system to respond
to the challenge of making each of us aware,
knowledgeable and capable of striving for these
goals. We have committed to social, economic
and political justice and equality of status and
of opportunity in our preamble. This promise in
a caste-ridden, extremely gendered, culturally
diverse, economically highly stratified, politically
divided unequal society showed far-sighted vision.
To understand the perspective, meaning and
implication of the ideas enshrined in the preamble,
as well as for citizens to have the capabilities to
make it possible, education is the central tool.There are other crucial considerations in the
relationship of educational processes and inclusion
of the diversity of children equitably. These relate
to the nature of knowledge and the way it could
be transacted in the classrooms and the school.
It also relates to the nature of the structures that
provide educational experiences. Only a few critical
aspects of these have been considered here. There
are many steps to these critical issues, but they are
all clearly only a product of the larger concerns of
convictions and beliefs about diversity and equity
and in the will to make it happen.
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