Birth of Distance Learning in India
BigGyan Cloud eLearning – Rebooting education
I believe only way to really learn anything is to
study its history. Also, there is no real history of
anything, only the history that was discovered.
Many parts of history are hidden or lost, never to be
recovered. Here, I will show you a hidden piece of
history which led to birth of distance learning in
India.
Until the British came to India, education in India was primarily dominated by Guru-Shisya parampara
(Teacher-student tradition). The epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata aptly capture the education
environment in such times. Guru (the teacher) imparted his knowledge to Shisyas (the students) and was
considered above God. The single biggest advantage of this system was deep bonding between teachers
and students as a Shisyas used to dedicate his 10 to 15 years serving and living with the Guru in a
Gurukul. The only monetary benefit that Guru received was the Guru Dakshina. However, only a handful
of Shisyas could be educated by the system. Mostly because the economics of the system were not good
enough to be a success. Also many parents did not want to be separated from their children for 10-15
formative years of their lives. Moreover, the education was very much dependant on the Guru, in terms of
what he wanted to teach or knew. Students/parents had no say at all as far as the course curriculum was
concerned. In most scenarios students/parents didn’t even had any preference as they didn’t knew what
was useful. This system of teaching continued pretty much till the advent of British in India. British brought
in their productized/processised education system.
But was that the only way of imparting education before British. Most of us will respond with a Yes. But I
think we all are forgetting the characters of "Eklavya and Dronacharya" and their story. Infact, the story
contains germ of the distance learning. That was the first time that the so called "Indian education
system" was "Shaken". How many realized it? Perhaps no one. Eklavya was refused education by Guru
Dronacharya. Still he managed to learn without direct contact with guru. He acquired skills and knowledge
of the level of Arjuna (the best student of Dronacharya) by observing Dronacharya giving training to his
students from a distance. He was the first person to have got an education without direct contact with
Guru. In other words, he was first student taught via distance learning (at least in the mythology). Much
has changed since then but that was a first knock on the door of Traditional Education System. It has got
revolutionized since that time. But it gave an idea that content was the center of education and not the
teacher. Teachers presence enhances the effect of content but to put it crudely - content is king.
Since then, the question has always been - how much distance. Now with eLearning, the distance has
been made immaterial.
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