Contributions of Indian Philosophers to Early Childhood Education

Biographical note: Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo Ghosh was born on August 15th, 1872 in the town of Konnagar near Calcutta.
When Aurobindo was five years old he was tutored privately at home by reverend William
Drewett. Later he matriculated from St. Paul’s school. There he began writing poetry at the age
of 17 years. He studied Latin, English and French. He got scholarship to study in Cambridge
University. After that he returned to India and worked with Maharaja Geakward of Baroda for 13
years. There he learned Sanskrit, Marathi and Gujarati. He moved to Calcutta and awakened the
spirit of nationalism through his writings in different journals and news papers.

He was imprisoned in Alipur Jail for a year. There he experienced presence of silent mind. In
1910, he began two newspapers ‘Karmayogi in English and ‘Dharma’ in Bengali, where he
wrote extensively on education and literature. He became editor for ‘Bande Mataram’ a
nationalist newspaper.

Aurobindo’s philosophy

According to him Vedas contain the highest truths and ideals. Gita and Upanishads are the
natural continuation of the Vedas. There are 4 types of Yoga of Gita. They are

1. Yoga of knowledge (Jnana)

2. The yoga of Devotion (Bakthi)
3. The yoga of activity (Karma)
4. The yoga of concentration (Dyana)

Similarly there are four layers of mind. They are

1. Chitta: It is the store house of memory which contains both active and passive
memory.
2. Manas: It is the sixth sense. All five senses together serve as a faculty of development.
The function of Manas is to receive the images coming from the five senses
and translates them into thought sensations.
3. Budhi: Is the actual instrument of knowledge and important for intellectual
development of human mind.
4. Intuition: It is characterized by multiple concentration and intuitive vision.
The human beings make efforts at various levels of mind to increase their capacity through
widening and expansion of the complexity of the cognition which includes ideas and perception.
Education plays a key role to increase the capacity of a person to the greatest extent to enable
him to realize the super mind.

Educational ideas and their implications

Creative approach to education: He suggested a creative approach for education i. e. education

should be organized around a central theme. Child should be given freedom to find many
approaches to the subject. Many ideas could be built around some original subject.

Function of education: The principal function of education is to discover the “psychic being”
within the person. This could be done by focusing for some time on oneself, through
concentration and focusing on an idea or problem.

Vehicles of learning: There are 4 vehicles of learning, the vital (body), the physical
(environment), the mental (attention, perception, problem solving) and psychic are instrumental
in cultivating power and knowledge in individuals.

Independent work by children: He suggested that lectures were essential but at minimum level.
More emphasis should be given to independent work of children under the supervision of
teacher. Children should be given more number of worksheets to work in heuristic approach.

Free progress system: It prompts the child to advance the principle of freedom and choice of
education. According to this system, Each student proceeds at his own rate. The students are
allowed free choice in their subjects of study and examinations. The students may concentrate on
one or two subjects only. The child discovers the knowledge by himself by firsthand experience
through the activities provided by the teacher.

Education is merely an invitation and suggestive to learning. The classroom should be organized
in an open place. i.e called open class system. This is currently popular in some western
countries.

Teacher’s Role: Teacher has to help children to acquire knowledge. She should create proper
learning environment. The teacher must be a saint and a great yogi to become a good teacher.
She must be a guru- a communicator of love, knowledge, power and beauty.
Training of the senses: The five senses and the mind form the six senses of man. Training of all
senses is the essential part in education. The child is to be made interested in life, work and
knowledge. His intellectual curiosity must be aroused and he should develop an attitude of a
scientist. Child artistic creation should be developed through imitation and imagination.

Contributions of Jiddu Krishnamurthy to ECE

Biographical note: Jiddu Krishnamurthy was born on May 11th, 1894 in Madanapalli, north of
Madras. In 1911 he was taken to England by Anne Besant. There he was educated privately and
was groomed for the role of “World teacher”. His teachings are based upon “self inquiry” and
“illumination”. The essence of his teaching are change the heart in the individual to change the
society and the world. He founded two schools in India; one at Rajghat in Banaras & the other at
Rishi Valley in Chittor dist of AP. He used to visit his schools annually and hold discussions
with parents and teachers of the children. He expressed his views on education in his famous
books ‘Beginnings of Learning”, and “education and the significance of life’.

The basic theme of his educational philosophy is that children are not to be fed on others’ ideas,
sayings and beliefs. Self knowledge is the best education’.

His views on education are described below

Current system of education: The existing educational system has some inherent drawbacks. It
doesn’t awaken the integrated intelligence of the child. It is preventing the child from
understanding himself. It is encouraging him to conform to a rigid system, blocking his thinking.
It prepares the child for different jobs through special training without which they will not feel
secure. Technical knowledge in education emphasizes secondary values. It doesn’t resolve the
inner psychological pressures and conflicts of the students. Little emphasis was given to
prompting of heart. Hence, the emotional development of the child needs to be strengthened only
with the right type of education.

Aims & objectives of education: The purpose of education is not to acquire knowledge and
correlate it with other aspects of life. Education should bring about an integrated individual who
is capable of dealing with the total life. Education should awaken the capacity to be self aware. It
should encourage thoughtfulness and concern for others.
Methods of educating the children: The teachers should not exercise their authority and block
the thinking of children. They should not project their prejudices, fears and hopes on children.
They should understand a child and then develop him according to his capacities rather than
imposing upon him an ideal of what we think he should be.

Concept of discipline: One drawback of external discipline is that the system assumes more
importance than the human beings who are included in it. Discipline takes the place of love. Fear
cannot be the basis of right action.

Teachers and type of schools: Schools should have limited number of students. Right type of
teachers should be engaged. Small schools with limited financial resources are suggested.
Cooperation between teacher and students is possible with mutual affection and respect between
them. There should be cooperation between the school and home.

Contributions of Tarabai Modak (1892 – 1973) to ECE

Padmabhooshan Shrimathi Tarabai Modak was a pioneer of preschool education in India. She
was born in Gujarat in 1892. She was motivated by Gijubhai Badeka’s work in preschool
education. 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.

In 1931, the movement of preschool education was extended by Tarabai to Maharashtra. There
was a criticism that preschool education was meant only for children of rich. She took that as a
challenge and conducted successfully a Balwadi in a Harijanwada at Amaravathi in Maharashtra.

In 1936, she started Shishu Vihar Kendra at Bombay, which served as a centre of Pre School
Educational training. In 1945, she moved to Bordi & founded Gram Bala Shiksha Kendra. Later
shifted to Kosabad, tribal area in 1957, where she tried her methods on most neglected tribal
children. A Balwadi indigenous nursery school developed by Tarabai, is a type of
She started two types of Balwadi’s at Bordi. They are Central Balwadis and Angan Balwadis.
The Central Balwadis were run during regular school hours. Angan Balwadi’s were started at the
convenience of children.

Types of Balwadies

Central Balwadi Angan Balwadi

Conducted for 5 hours one and half hours

Regular school hours convenience of the children

Fully equipped not fully equipped

Children are brought from their homes conducted near the houses in front of parents
and elder persons

 The programme was on personal and general cleanliness, decoration, crafts & hand
work, oral language, physical education, rhythmic movements & social activities.
 Teachers should make their own indigenous materials and use locally available
material and also with the help of local artisans.
Tarabai’s educational method is a significant contribution to preschool education in India. Her
method brought a salient revolution in the tribal community Kosabad. Tarabai Modak and Sarla
Devi Sarabhai (PSE worker) were called one of the two “Montessori Mothers” as they have
indianized the Montessori education and popularized it.

Contributions of Zakeer Hussain to ECE

Biographical note: Dr. Zakeer Hussain was born in 1877 at Hyderabad. He received his early
education in home through a tutor, college education at Aligarh Muslim University and Higher
education from the University of Berlin. After he came to India, he worked with Gandhiji,
especially in implementation of the scheme of basic education. His most important contribution
to education was his association with Pre-basic and Basic education as President of Hindustan
Talimi Sargh from 1938 to 1950.

Views of Zakir Hussain on education:

1. The aim of education should be emotional integration. The activities in the home and Pre
School should be integrated. The school should attempt to be a better home by combining
affection and competence.
2. Education should become an integral part of personality rather than from books.
3. Teacher should not merely be a source of knowledge rather he should be a source of love
and affection.
4. The school should function as a society.
5. In curriculum, in addition to the study of mother tongue, English should be taught as a
literacy and international language.
6. For acquiring knowledge, nature study, observation and activities should be planned.