New approaches to social work & education stressed at two-day DOWs meet

On : 2021-09-22

“We must put our trust in the collective potential. It is this collective potential that will keep us in good stead in times of situations that seem to be of less hope,” said Dr Vasu, a social activist.

He was speaking to the directors of work (DOWs) of the Karnataka Jesuit province on September 18. Dr Vasu emphasised that though the right wing seems to have an upper hand in the country, the reality is that it is just 39 per cent of the electorate that has chosen them. “Another 61 per cent of the people have rejected right wing politics. The experiments in West Bengal and Delhi show that alternative is still possible. It is just that we must put our trust in the collective potential,” Dr Vasus said.

Speaking about the pandemic that has struck the world, Dr Vasu said that we must more be worried about the ‘pandemic of hate’ that is gripping this country in the recent past. “However, it is possible to fight such a pandemic through the vaccine of love and harmony,” he said. Giving an analogy to make his point, Dr Vasu said that acknowledging one’s hunger is the physical dimension; acknowledging someone else’s hunger is the moral dimension, while making someone else’s hunger as my own is the spiritual dimension.

He also added that while the tyranny of fake news is dangerous, fake news has been there from time immemorial. “What is new is that today fake news has become the raison d’etre of some outfits,” he said. Thus, it is important that everyone becomes the stakeholder to fight such melee and has a share in nation building, he opined.

Dr Niranjan Aradhya, senior fellow and programme head Universalisation of Equitable Quality Education Programme, was the resource person on the second day September 19. In his presentation, Dr Aradhya stressed the need for alternatives in education in the post-covid situation. He said that it is important that we address issues that have emerged due to Covid from a rights perspective. “Right to education (RTE) is a fundamental right coming under right to life given in article 21 of the Constitution of India. However, unfortunately the New Education Policy (NEP) does not have any reference to RTE,” Dr Aradhya said.

Referring to the NEP Dr Aradhya said that the entire document can be summarised in four Cs: centralisation, corporatisation, commercialisation and commodification. “The pandemic has only made the whole education process more complex with rural students losing out to their urban counterparts. The digital and online learning has only been possible to mostly urban students with the rural students losing out big time with no learning happening for over a year,” he said. Added to this, with no mid-day meal, studies showed that 42 per cent children were now malnourished.

Enumerating the new approaches to education, Dr Aradhya suggested that the stakeholders focus on self-learning, group learning, peer learning and distance learning as supplementary in the case of the classroom teaching not taking place.

The two day programme ended with the address by Provincial Fr Dionysius Vas SJ. Socius to the Provincial, Fr Joseph D’Mello co-ordinated the programme. Over 45 DOWs took part in the two-day programme.