Category Archives: Education and literacy

“The goal is to prepare some model students in our villages, so that others will be inspired to follow them.” – Santal educationist Boro Baski in “Long-term success of non-formal Adivasi school in West Bengal” (D+C Development and Cooperation, 2 July 2009)
https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/long-term-success-non-formal-adivasi-school-west-bengal
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=2274

“Nearly one in every twelve humans is a young Indian for whom meaningful education is of critical importance. […] If knowledge is the core of education and if education lays the very foundation of a nation, the author [Ganesh Devy] argues that it is of critical importance that the plight of educational institutions and the need to generate knowledge appropriate to India are addressed without any delay.” – Book Review: The crisis within by Ganesh Devy (Privy Trifles for The Book Shelf, 24 June 2017)
https://www.privytrifles.co.in/2017/06/book-review-crisis-within-by-gn-devy.html
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=23322

“A most important truth, which we are apt to forget, is that a teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself. A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame.” – Rabindranath Tagore quoted in Santiniketan (1961, p. 28)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=2603

“Due to the pandemic, the school has been closed. However, teaching has not really stopped. Teachers make short videos and send them to the students’ parents. Whenever the students watch the videos, they respond on the WhatsApp group.” – B Ramdas, co-founder of Viswa Bharati Vidyodaya Trust (VBVT) in “The story of YouTube channel Kaathadi and how it’s empowering tribal communities in TN” by Megha Kaveri featuring “Kaathadi”, an innovative YouTube channel accessible to all learners (thenewsminute.com Education, 18 July 2020)
https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/story-youtube-channel-kaathadi-and-how-its-empowering-tribal-communities-tn-128968
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=34846

“At the core of any higher education policy lies the notion of a university [distinguished] from its medieval forerunners by envisaging for it an autonomous sphere in relation to the emerging nation-state. Universities are thus required to be ‘incubators of ideas and innovations’.” – Suranjan Das, Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University Kolkata (The Telegraph, 30 September 2020)
https://www.telegraphindia.com/west-bengal/calcutta/the-relevance-of-vidyasagar/cid/1793177
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=35639

“A sustainable improvement in the quality would happen only when there is an effort to improve quality along with inclusion. This cannot be achieved by creating a few centers of excellence.” – V. Santhakumar (Azim Premji University) in: “Only small, consistent steps can improve the quality of education in India” (Economics in Action, 11 October 2019)
https://vsanthakumar.wordpress.com/2019/11/01/only-small-consistent-steps-can-improve-the-quality-of-education-in-india/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=30571

“In contemporary practice, the tribal memory is greatly undermined. There is general insistence that tribal children attend schools where non-tribal children attend schools, that they use medicines manufactured for others and that they adopt common agricultural practices. All because the world has very little time to listen patiently to the tribals, with their immense knowledge and creativity. We have decided that what is good for us is good enough for them. In the process we are destroying a rich vein of our cultural heritage.” – Ganesh Devy quoted by Ivy Hansdak (Inaugural Speech for the National Conference “Tribes In Transition-II” 2017)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=23032

“The educational establishment has entrenched interests within it for whom the improvement of Adivasi education is not a priority and who may even look down upon them as second-class citizens.” – Amman Madan, Rama Sastry and B Ramdas in “Social Movements and Educational Change: A Case Study of the Adivasi Munnetra Sangam” (The Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 54, Issue No. 5, 02 Feb, 2019, Social Movements and Educational Change)
https://www.epw.in/journal/2019/5/special-articles/social-movements-and-educational-change.html
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=27219

“The concept of public education is based on the objective of inclusiveness. What are the consequences of this overnight switch to a digital mode when a large segment of population remains digitally excluded? […] The path we now follow focusses only on people who are digitally privileged. People without access to resources, data and devices have been left in the cold.” – K.S. Madhavan in “Kerala: Path we’ve taken favours privileged” (Times of India, 3 June 2020)
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/kerala-path-weve-taken-favours-privileged/articleshow/76174319.cms
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=1882