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

“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

“The Big-brother attitude of educators must end. The approach to tribal education has to be a two-way transaction of give and take, based on an informed appreciation of traditional tribal values and wisdom.” – Uma Ram (Professor & Head Department of English, Kakatiya PG College, Chhattisgarh) in Issues in Tribal Education in Bastar, Chhattisgarh (Folklore Foundation, Lokaratna, Volume IV 2011)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=14683

“Education has to liberate a person from narrow world view and the boundaries of caste, community, race and gender. Teachers have been entrusted with the responsibility of moulding the young minds to understand the world and make it better.” – Shri Pranab Mukherjee, President of India (National Award 2014 to Teachers)
https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/President%20-Confers.pdf
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=22421

“Janakiamma has not had formal education, but she is now the director of a farmer producer company in the Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu. Started by the tribal people, for the tribal people, Aadhimalai Pazhangudiyinar Producer Company Ltd (APPCL), located in Kotagiri in Nilgiris, has seven directors from the indigenous communities at the helm of affairs. .” – Arathi Menon in “Aadhimalai, winner of UN Equator Prize from Nilgiris, offers a lesson in indigenous economics” (Mongabay Series: Eco Hope, 20 December 2021)
https://india.mongabay.com/2021/12/aadhimalai-winners-of-un-equator-prize-from-nilgiris-offer-a-lesson-in-indigenous-economics
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=46483

“[A]bout 40 per cent of school absence in rural India is ­attributed to only one factor: malnutrition.” – Damayanti Datta in “Rage Of A Silent, Invisible Killer Called Malnutrition – Why Shining India Is In Grip Of An Epic Calamity” (Outlook Magazine, 26 August 2019)
https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/india-news-rage-of-a-silent-invisible-killer-called-malnutrition-why-shining-india-is-in-grip-of-an-epic-calamity/302037
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=30029

“There are many indices one can use to measure the shocking failures of education, even as it is conventionally understood, in India today. The stories of state-run schools that are in absolute shambles are legion, and have been documented by thousands of researchers, journalists, and social workers. More than seventy years after independence, the effective countrywide literacy rate is less than 50%; in some districts of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh, female literacy rates still hover at 10%. The best public universities have been gutted; all that is left is a shambolic display of awards of “excellence”, a word as shorn of content as any. In one instance the award has been to an institute of higher education that does not even exist.” – “The Undeveloped Heart: Gandhi on Education” by Vinay Lal (Professor of History & Asian American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles UCLA), 15 October 2019
https://vinaylal.wordpress.com/2019/10/15/the-undeveloped-heart-gandhi-on-education/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=29790

“In North India it is still common to reprimand a child: study or else you’ll cut grass; the prospect of manual work invoked as a threat. Education was valued because it could widen the distance from the labouring multitudes.” – Author and diplomat Pavan K. Varma in Being Indian: Inside the Real India (2005), p.104
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/903789955
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=21762

“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 [G.N.] 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

“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

“[The] morungs of the Nagas, the dhumkuria of the Santals and the gotuls of the Gonds [are] equivalents to schooling systems in mainstream societies.” – Subhadra Mitra Channa in Anthropological Perspectives on Indian Tribes, quoted by Richard Kamei in “Uncivilising the Mind: How anthropology shaped the discourse on tribes in India” (Caravan Magazine, 1 March 2021)
https://caravanmagazine.in/books/anthropologists-tribes-india
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=12454

“On a very small scale compared to the widely promoted homogenising mega-schools, [alternative schools] respect diversity and are sensitive to the socio-cultural and political context of the children. […] The notion of ‘mainstreaming’ needs to be challenged not just because Adivasi culture is being crushed, but also because Adivasi values and ways of life offer insights that the ‘mainstream’ needs.” – Felix Padel & Malvika Gupta in “Are mega residential schools wiping out India’s Adivasi culture?” (The Hindu, 13 February 2021)
https://www.thehindu.com/society/children-from-tribal-communities-are-being-corralled-into-mass-schools-that-are-wiping-out-cultures/article33818793.ece
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=4429

“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 [G.N.] Devy quoted by Santali poet, scholar and translator Ivy Imogene 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

“Literacy rate among the [Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups] has gone up significantly over the past. From a single digit literacy rate, the figures have increased to 30 to 40 % in many of the PVTGs. However, as is the case with entire India, female literacy rate is still considerably lower compared to male counterpart.” – “The Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups of India — Privileges and Predicaments” (published by the Anthropological Survey of India AnSI)), quoted by Shiv Sahay Singh in “Vulnerable tribes: lost in a classification trap” (The Hindu, 8 April 2017)
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/vulnerable-tribes-lost-in-a-classification-trap/article17894997.ece
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?page_id=22029