The British-made education in India

The British-made education in India
by Remigius de Souza


A few educated persons read “Indian Schooling” (published in 1990). Their response prompted me to elaborate my 600-word article. I continued to work on the issue of education.

The British-made education, since its inception in India, has indeed made an impact upon its subjects, either to be aware of their subjugation by the British rule and rebel or to submit without a second thought and accept colonial masters then and now the neo-colonial.

Sixty years of Independence failed to bring any relevant change appropriated to her people in the literacy and education in the country. Though the British Empire collapsed in due times its education system has become global, with minor adjustments, though it’s neither universal nor relevant in the changing times.

There were merely ten percent educated people when the late G. K. Gokhale tried to bring his bill of Compulsory Primary Education in the Privy Council. Now it is claimed the literacy level is at 60 percent, though it varies from 100 to 4/5 percent in different places. Most of them do not practice or use literacy effectively.

The majority – the peasants – have stubbornly keeping away from the formal schooling for obvious and often repeated reason: It is irrelevant for their survival (Read: to live sanely), or in other words, it lacks imparting “life-supporting skills”. Eighteen years after writing this article I feel it is still valid.

I continue to post more on education.



© Remigius de Souza
Subscribe: