14 SRI AUROBINDO GHOSH, GIJUBHAI BADHEKA, TARABAI MODAK

Objectives

By learning this lesson

Students are able to understand the early childhood educationists namely Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Gijubhai Badheka and Tarabai Modak
Students learn the principles of childhood education they followed

14.1 Introduction

Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Gijubhai Badheka, Tarabai Modak are the contemporary humanistic philosophers and educationists of India. They paved the way for the highest spiritual and educational growth of human being.

14.2 Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950)

Sri Aurobindo Ghosh had great faith in the Gurukula system of education and created Ashram school in Pondicherry in the year 1943. Aurobindo’s integral yoga and spiritual yoga are the sources of ideas for his scheme of education. He emphasizes that a man possess physical and mental spirit and the spiritual soul has the capacity to recognize and realize God. According to Aurobindo, real education provides a free and creative environment to the child by developing the child’s interests, creativity, mental, moral and aesthetic senses and finally leads to the development of the spiritual powers.The main aim of education is to bring out the real man.

14.3 Principles

True teaching is that nothing can be taught. The teacher is not an instructor or task master; he is a helper and guide.
The role of the teacher “is to suggest and not to impose”. He does not actually train the pupil’s mind, he only shows her how to perfect the instruments of knowledge and helps and encourages her in the process. He does not impart knowledge to her; he shows her how to acquire knowledge for herself. The teacher is like a friend and torch bearer of the child.
Education should take the child from the known to unknown and from the near to the far.
Audio-visual materials help in getting real or stimulated experiences.
It should be given according to the interests of the child who will motivate to learn well.
It should be provided with a free environment so that the child gains more knowledge by her own efforts and experiences. This leads to permanent learning and useful for future.
It should be imparted through the medium of mother tongue.
It should develop consciousness.
It should develop all the faculties of child to make the child a complete man.
It should be child-centered. The whole teaching process is based upon the child. The capacities of the child should be considered.
Concentration and Abhyasa or steady natural practices are the main principles of learning.
The best method of learning is learning by doing. Hence Aurobindo emphasized Montessori Method for young children. Children should be treated with love, sympathy and consideration which promote child’s normal development at the maximum potential. Teaching and learning is a co-operative process.
It should train the senses of child. Apart from the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, Aurobindo has included the mind also as the sixth sense.
Subjects of education should be interesting and motivate the children towards the attainment of knowledge of the whole world. The curriculum should contain creativity of life and constructive capacities.
The best method of moral education is by personal example, daily conversation and the books read from day-to-day.
Education should encourage the self discipline of the child. The basis of discipline is purification of the mental and moral habits. The child discriminates the right and wrong impressions and to absorb the right ones.
The moral and conducive development of the child should be done.
All round development of the child should be done by education.
There should be religious tinge in education.
Brahamcharya should be the basic foundation of education. It is like a life of saint which helps in concentration. It fills with energy for body, heart, mind and spirit. Self-control leads to God-realization.
There is no ‘final examination’ in Aurobindo’s scheme of education. Learning was an end in itself and not a means for success in any formal examination and recognitions theorem.

14.4 Aims of education

Shri Aurobindo emphasized that education should be in accordance with the needs of our real modern life. In other words, education should create dynamic citizens so that they are able to meet the needs of modern complex life. According to Shri Aurobindo Ghosh, the following are the aims of education.

Physical development and purity- It is the body which performs all religious obligations. Physical development and purification are the two important bases on which the spiritual development is built. When the body is sound, the brain works well and the child can attain success.
Development of senses- It trains the senses namely hearing, speaking, listening, touching, smelling and tasting. Through education purity of senses is to be achieved. According to Aurobindo, the first work of the teacher is to develop the method of proper use of the six senses.
Mental development- It develops all mental faculties such as thinking, reasoning, imagination, memory, discrimination, decision making power etc. through education fully and harmoniously. The interests and inner powers of the child can be developed on the basis of mental growth.
Growth of logical power- Aurobindo believes that the logical power of the child must be necessarily developed after the development of the child’s mental powers.
Development of morality- The hearts of children are developed to show extreme love, sympathy and consideration for all living beings.
Development of conscience- The four levels of conscience such as Chitta, Manas, Intelligence and Knowledge should be developed harmoniously. It develops remembrance, awakening and intelligence of the child, which develops all round development of the child.
Spiritual development- Every human being has some divinity in her. Education finds it and develops it to the fullest extent. The chief aim of education is to help the growing soul to draw out that in itself which is best and make it perfect for a noble use. It buildsthe power of human mind and spirit. Spiritual development grows the thinking and imaginative capacity of the person.

Aurobindo gives importance to the controlling of the mind to a state of silence and stillness, immune to distractions. He gives importance to spiritual education and universal humanity. Education unites these two for the betterment of humanity.

14.5 Gijju Bhai Badheka (1885-1939)

The full name of Giju Bhai was Girja Shanker Bhagwanji Badeka. His faith was that the education is for child and not the child for education. He gave importance to the child rather than curriculum. He believed in children’s right to freedom. He did not prefer physical punishment and believed that learning is possible only in the environment of love and sympathy. He wrote about 223 books for children and many more for teachers and guardians. Gujibhai Badheka is the first Indian educator who started first working in the field of early childhood education. Gujibhai Badheka and Tarabai Modak were the early educators inspired by Madam Montessori, adopted her methods to suit Indian conditions. A training centre at Bhavnagar Dakshinamoorti was started by Giju Bhai and later Tarabai Modak started at Dadar Bombay. They developed an indigenous educational system, imbibing the basic Gandhian philosophy and integrating it with the educational principles and scientific pedagogy of Madam Montessori.

Gijubhai Badheka started working in the field of preschool education in 1920 at Bhavnagar in Gujarat. He was later joined by Shrimati Tarabai Modak. Both of them together prepared material for teachers and started a training college for preschool teachers. Later on he founded a society for preschool education and published literature in this rather neglected area of education.

14.6 Contributions to early childhood education

Gijubhai Badeka established the first Montessori school in India in 1920. He attempted to introduce this method, by removing the didactic materials altogether and replacing them with storybooks, storytelling, role-plays, local games and creative exercises. In this way, he afforded the children greater freedom; without didactic materials, they could express more of their own potential.

Child-centered education

Gijubhai Badeka emphasised child-centered education. The main characteristic of child-centered education is the supremacy of the child. It develops the qualities like discipline, self- dependence and hard work among children. It is considered as very important because of the following points.

Child wise education- The child is provided the utmost supremacy. The education is based on the interests and capacities of the child.
Simple and interesting- It is very simple and interesting. The modern knowledge is provided simply and interestingly to the child.
Chances of self-expression- The children get the chances of self-expression in child-centered education.
Enforcement upon training of organs of knowledge- Special enforcement is given upon the training of organ of knowledge. The mind is really developed only by training the organs of knowledge.
Practical and social- It provides the practical and social education to the child.

Nutan Bal Shikshan Sangh

Nutan Bal Shikshan Sangh (NBSS- New Child Education Association) was started in 1926 by Gijubhai Badheka and Tarabai Modak at Dakshinamurti Foundation in Bhavnagar in Gujarat state. It is a pioneer institute in child education. Its mission was creating awareness of child education all over India.

The first balwadi was started in a coastal village in Thane district of Maharashtra by NBSS. The objectives of NBSS are given below:

To promote child education by conducting research work and disseminated the new theories and adopting suited to Indian conditions.
To encourage the people who worked in child education and to write original books.
To encourage translations from other language regarding education of children into the national language and regional languages.
To develop pamphlets for parents to understand easily related to new education and distribute them freely or sell at a nominal price.
To conduct guest lectures for parents and teachers.
To publish a magazine for teachers and parents to highlight about the new theories in child education.
To run a training college or classes for teachers to train the new methods in child education.
To promote efficiency of teachers who play an important role in child education.
To establish an information bureau to supply up to date information regarding child education all over the world.
To encourage manufacturing in India the educational apparatus which must be scientific in nature and also economical.
To advise, direct, supervise, inspect and appoint inspecting bodies to visit schools.
To have a circulating library of books on child education in India.
To start a psychological research institute.
To conduct educational conferences to spread the new child education.
To establish balwadies, creches,balmandirs, centre for parental education, children’s club, libraries, museum, clinics, stores and offices to achieve the objectives of Sangh.
To publish magazines, newspaper, monographs, books, leaflets for the promotion of its objectives.
To have book club, book association, reading room for the convenience of the readers.
To provide for conducting exhibitions to achieve the objectives of Sangh.
To cooperate with local, regional, state or national education authorities and organizations interested in any of the objectives of Sangh.
To merge with an institution, society or association having objectives of the Sangh.

Gijubhai published a small “Teaching Magazine” in Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi. It is about the meaning of child development, child teaching, child culture and child life which enlightened thousands of families to picturaise the correct concept about children education. He showed affection to children very much so he is called as ‘Maochhali Ma’ meaning mother with whiskers.

14.7 Tarabai Modak (1892-1973)

Padmabhooshan Shrimati Tarabai Modak, a pioneer of pre-school education in India. Tarabai Modak is rightly called as the “Montessori Mother”. She has made a significant contribution to preschool education along with Gujibhai Badheka in India. She was motivated by Gijubhai Badeka’s work in preschool education. Her method brought a silent revolution in the tribal community of Kosbad. She was the General Secretary of the Nutan Bal Shikshan Sangh for over 25 years and became its vice-president. She had written a number of books for children and parents in Marathi and Guajarati. She also had written books on child education in English. She was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1962 for her work in preschool education.

14.8 Contributions to early childhood education

Tarabhai Modak being inspired by Gijubhai work, joined with him in 1923 at Bhavnagar. They worked together from 1923 to 1932 to lay the foundations of pre-primary education in India. They introduced numerous low cost educational aids and apparatus. They wrote and published stories, rhymes and certain songs, which children could dramatize. They prepared necessary literature for the trident teachers and started a training college for pre primary teachers in 1925, which proved to be first training college for pre primary teachers in India. They started Shikshan Patrika to create awareness among parents, society and others. In 1926, they formed Nutan Bal Shikshan Sangh, which became the fountainhead for ideas in promoting ECCE and started Balwadis. They campaigned for children’s education throughout India specially Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Saurashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

In 1936, she started Shishu Vihar Kendra at Bombay which served as a centre of preschool education training. This centre functioned in a well to do locality. In the year 1945, she moved to Bordi and formed Gram Bal Shiksha Kendra there. She worked in Bordi for twelve years and then shifted her entire institution to the tribal area of Kosbad in 1950 where she tried her methods on the most neglected tribal children. Tarabai fully devoted her time and energy to preschool education. Consequently because of her comprehensive efforts, a unique system for children’s education applicable all-over India came into existence. In her stay of twenty eight years at Kosbad and Bordi, a structure for the education of the tribal children evolved under her leadership.

Her contribution lies in the development of Balwadis. A balwadi, developed by Tarabai, is a type of indigenous nursery school in Kosabad village in Maharashtra in 1957 for tribal children. It is a rural preprimary school run economically but scientifically. Later these Balwadis were taken up by the CSWB and spread in all the urban and rural areas. The activities which are conducted in the Balwadi are given below:

Health care activities
Outdoor activities
Free activities
Creative and art activities
Sensory training activities
Language and number activities
Field trips and excursions

She started two types of Balwadi at Bordi i.e. Central Balwadis and Angan Balwadis. The central balwadis were running during the regular school hours. Angan Balwadis were started at the convenience of the children in their own localities which were started in the courtyard or ‘Angan’ in front of the huts which were called by the new name Anganwadi. The Central Balwadi is conducted for five hours but the Angan Balwadi is conducted for an hour and half. Central Balwadi is fully equipped but the Angan Balwadi has a few materials like mirror, combs, buckets, napkins etc. The children are brought from their homes to the Central Balwadi whereas Angan Balwadis are conducted near the children’s huts under the eyes of parents and teachers. But the objectives of both balwadi and Angan Balwadis are the same i.e. to provide facilities for physical and mental growth of children at school and at home.

The activities conducted in Angan Balwadis are personal cleanliness, general cleanliness, decoration, craft work, hand work, informal talk, physical education, rhythmic movements, social activities, health care activities, language activities, outdoor activities and free activities by using the material that was available in the environment – feathers, empty nests, sticks, colorful seeds, shells, big and small stories, clay, dry leaves, etc. Sensory training by using natural objects, exhibitions of play things, specimens and natural objects collected by children. She planned field trips for observation of particular activities to gain first hand experience. Systematically distributing and eating simple snacks like roast gram, parched rice, etc. An important aspect of the anganwadi program was the informal education of the parents and the older children in proper practice of child care.

In organizing balwadi, the following three items need to be considered:

Building: A balwadi building should be near to the home of the child.
Compound: The open space should be big enough for a playground, a small garden, latrine, urinals and dumping pits.
Equipment: The material that is to be used should be available in the village or nearby. Tarabhai Modak thus designed child education which would help Indian children grow up joyfully and intelligently through self learning activities. Tara Bhai and Gijju Bhai went on propagating their ideas through ‘Shiksan Padrika’, the mouth piece of NBSS, prepared literature to orient parents and teachers and stimulate the child education.

14.6 Conclusion

The educational philosophy of Aurobindo is based on spirituality. His principle of teaching from known to unknown, which consists experience as the basis of learning is effective for childhood education.Educational thinkers and practitioners starting from Mahatma Gandhi, Tarabai Modak, Gijubhai Badheka and Maria Montessori have contributed their services to the growth and development of the early childhood education and have dedicated their whole life for the welfare of children. The first six years of life is very significant for all round development. Therefore, all kinds of facilities should be provided to the child to explore, to enquire, to play and to interact with his peers for optimum education. Now at present majority of the people know the significance of early childhood education. But the seeds of the same were sown by Gijubhai Badheka and Tarabai Modak.

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Bibliography

Sharma, R.K.et.al(2006),Education and Teacher in Emerging Indian Society, Radha Prakashan Mandir, Agra.
Pankajam, G(2005), Pre-Primary Education: Philosophy and Practice, Ashok Kumar Mittal Concept Publishing Company,New Delhi
Morrison, G.S(1988), Early Childhood Education Today, MacMillan publishing Company, London.
Saxena, N.R.S(1981), Principles of Education,Loyal Book Depot, Meerut.