The Lure of a Degree

WE depend for our livelihood on passing examinations. This results in great harm to the people. We forget that a degree is useful only for those who want to go in for Government service. But the edifice of the life of the people is not going to be raised on the few who seek Government service. We see that people are able to earn money quite well even without going into Government service. When those who are almost illiterate can become millionaires by their intelligence and shrewdness, there is no reason why the educated cannot do the same. If the educated would only give up their fear, they can certainly prove to be at least as able as the illiterate.

If this lure of the degree could be shaken off, any number of private schools could be started and run according to the plan charted by us. No Government can provide fully for all the education which the people need. In America, education is mostly a non-official enterprise. In England, too, private enterprise runs a number of such institutions. They give their own certificates.

It is a difficult task to put our education on a sound foundation and it calls for Herculean effort. We will have to devote to it our all — the body, the mind, and the soul, and, last but not least, money !

Education Trusts

I suppose there is not much that we can learn from America. But there is one thing which we may well copy. Some of the biggest educational institutions there are run by huge Trusts. Wealthy Americans have donated millions of dollars to the cause of education. Often, these Trusts run a number of non-official schools and colleges. Just as the wealthy have donated money to it, in the same way the learned who love their country have offered their services to it. They inspect all these institutions and help them in maintaining the academic standards. They provide to each institution as much help as they think it needs. Any institution, which agrees to adopt the approved constitution and the regulations of a particular Trust, can easily apply to it for aid. It was the campaign launched by one of these Trusts which carried the knowledge of new researches in the field of agriculture to the peasants. We can have a similar plan and do things in a like manner. There is wealth here and scholarship too, and love of religion has not yet disappeared. Our children are waiting to be taught.

The establishment of such a Trust will ensure both a continuous campaign for the spread of education as also practical work in that field.

Need for Austerity

But if this is done, most of our work will have been done. Evidently, therefore, this work cannot be done easily. Like the Government, wealthy people also wake up only when awakened. And there is only one way of awakening them—Tapasya, i.e., austerity. Austerity is the first and the last step of Dharma. Moneyed people are always suspicious. There are reasons for suspicion. There-fore, if we want to please the Goddess of Wealth, we must first prove our fitness.

Though we would need a lot of money for this work, we need not worry unduly about it. He who has the will to work for the spread of national education, if uneducated, will take up the life of a laborer and educate himself meanwhile. When he has acquired sufficient knowledge, he will start a small school beneath a tree, and teach those who come to him. Want of money will not, and should not, deter him from fulfilling his resolve to dedicate himself to the cause of national education. Imparting knowledge is the duty assigned to Brahmins. Anybody who is prepared to live the life of a Brahmin, can do it. When such Brahmins are found, both wealth and power will bow their heads before them.

— True Education : p. 35