With all of our Naga ancestors acclaimed fervour of bravery and courage, their marked virtues of honesty, trustworthy merits replication even in today’s relativistic world. What’s unfolding before us today is a rapid disappearance of our social and personal virtues that govern an upright human being. There is buzzing voices of disappointments, anger, dissents in social media spaces by conscious community against political leaders, bureaucrats and people who are at the helm of affairs failing to perform their duties responsibly. There seem to be complete breakdown of our social and personal ethics, finding no moral anchor points everything appears bleak as if that is all there is to it! As depressing and painful it is our leaders have failed us miserably in every sense of the term. There is an acute dearth of leadership with deep commitment to stand for voiceless; conscientious towards downtrodden; courage to fight for truth despite foreseen eventuality.
Never in the history of Nagas did class system exist. Yes, granted that no society remain stagnant but visibly there is disturbing scene of widening gap between rich and poor in our Naga society. We have landed into materialist culture, knocking ourselves senseless with consumerist lifestyles. Whereas, somewhere in remote reaches, our own people are languishing in abject living condition devoid of even the basic modern amenities! Our so called more goods and capital accumulation, the happier and more civilised we become philosophy is increasingly adding more miseries than good to certain sections of our society. So where does all these funnel down to? Who shall bear the responsibility for such an afflictions?! Shall we again resort to tradition of hurling blame against each other?! Do we not feel the urgency to reason together – take a step further beyond the horizon and glean where we have gone wrong?
The evils of corruption is so real, chilling and complex, it only add more conundrum on closer examination. However, it all funnels down to our deep-seated moral depravity. Our modern progress and development seem to be the morass of corruption and callous life style. Corruptions in our Naga society has apparently seeped into every cog and wheels of the system, extremely difficult to trace where the trail ends and begins. In the context of present malaise, we need to reorient our intellectual rigour to look beyond the surface level manifestations and try to investigate how our foundation is being laid. Here, particularly referring to gamut of our educational system in state.
Supposedly, the role of education is to shape and mould a person’s character and instil the values of; persistence, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism and self-control besides building cognitive skills. How is our education system like in past and present? Does our educational institution instil equal essence of both cognitive and non-cognitive skills and abilities? With rapid growth and progress of our society, it is seen to be all the more imperative to provide due importance to non-cognitive abilities (conscientiousness, character building, working ethics, encouraging creativity, risk-taking, generosity, integrity, patience and perseverance). Without all of these qualities, education would be nothing more than a mere manufacturing of robotic, automation human being! Howard Gardner, a Harvard psychologist, in his theory of Multiple Intelligence, posited that IQ (intelligent quotient) is an inadequate measure of human ability and intelligence. Exam results and high scores alone do not constitute the essence of education, rather there are multifaceted aspects tied to it. Besides, honing our cognitive skills and abilities our education must essentially make us better human being. As Dr. Bronowski, a British mathematician, biologist and science historian aptly put it, “the acquisition of knowledge entails a responsibility for the integrity of what we are as ethical creatures”.
Overwhelming number of people pursue education with a dream of making big money, to climb a ladder of elite, affluent, opulent life. If material accumulation and luxury living takes the front seat in our pursuit for knowledge, there then is no doubt the values of ethics and morality lay buried deep within the overpowering desires of selfish pursuits. Can’t help but think of such powerful lines from King Crimson song which proclaims, “knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules the fate of all mankind I see is in the hands of fools”. Our leaders holding high positions in government offices began their journey from simple alphabets and arithmetic. They once were students in school, college and universities. Perhaps one can surmise that their education failed to imbibe in them the values of integrity, honesty and sense of responsibility.
Rational and capable as we humans are, it is not impossible to reshape our future in retrospection from the lapses and mistakes. Therefore, the need of the hour in our education system is to revamp our curriculum that can provide students from tender stage, a strong moral and ethical grounding. Our current curriculum should be design in such a manner that would pave the way for a process as what Massimo Vignelli puts, an intellectual elegance, “a mind that is continually refining itself with education and knowledge”.
Tsilise Anar MA in Ecology Environment and Sustainable Development, Guwahati.
