Mahatma Gandhi’s views on education

On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, October 2, NewsGram brings to you some the often quoted views of Mahatma Gandhi on education.

Gandhi's views on education focus around the fact that education is not merely a means to achieve status or earn money, rather it should bring freedom to the individual. He advocated the fact that kids must be imparted with vocational education which is a good way to learn and know things.

Here are some of the best quotes from Mahatma regarding education, literacy, teacher and how education should be able to let people know the difference from good and bad.

1. The principal idea is to impart the whole education of the body, mind and soul through the handicraft that is taught to the children.

2. The aim of university education should be to turn out true servants of the people who will live and die for the country's freedom.

3. I hold that the highest development of the mind and the soul is possible under such a system of education (Nai Talim). Only every handicraft has to be taught not merely mechanically as is done today, but scientifically i.e. the child should know the why and wherefore of every process.

4. Literacy in itself is no education. Literacy is not the end of education or even the beginning. By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in the child and man-body, mind and spirit.

5. An education which does not teach us to discriminate between good and bad, to assimilate the one and eschew the other, is a misnomer.

6. Basic education links the children, whether of cities or the villages, to all that is best and lasting in India.

7. A teacher who establishes rapport with the taught, becomes one with them, learns more from them than he teaches them. He who learns nothing from his disciples is, in my opinion, worthless. Whenever I talk with someone I learn from him. I take from him more than I give him. In this way, a true teacher regards himself as a student of his students. If you will teach your pupils with this attitude, you will benefit much from them.

8. The real difficulty is that people have no idea of what education truly is. We want to provide only such education as would enable the student to earn more. We hardly give any thought to the improvement of the character of the educated. The girls, we say, do not have to earn; so why should they be educated? As long as such ideas persist there is no hope of our ever knowing the true value of education.