NEP, Kaabiliyat and Liberal Arts

A Liberal Arts education is the route to transdisciplinary knowledge and gaining capability

After a long gap, the policy towards education is in the spotlight, with a lot of ‘ifs and buts’. Preparations are in full swing to implement the policy across India. The recently launched Shikshak Parv, which coincided with the first anniversary of the National Education Policy (NEP-2020), aimed at gearing up the education sector to take forward the initiative. In the past, India has witnessed two education policy announcements (1968 and 1986) which focused on improving access to education and creating incentives for the ‘less privileged’. The NEP-2020 is expected to overhaul the education system.

Enhancing the quality of education accelerates development and growth of individuals and society. NEP-2020 will play a vital role in making education accessible to the masses while focusing on providing holistic development of individuals through multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to learning.

The Indian educational system in the post-colonial period has been characterised by exclusion, caused by rigid cultural impediments which have created silos in learning opportunities. The choice of career is decided by herd mentality and the decision is generally based on a peripheral understanding of the discipline and career destinations, rather than on the individual’s interests and aptitude. Education has become restricted to intra-disciplinary repetitive nature, where disciplines are studied but in isolation, rationalised as ‘specialisation’. The specialisations provide opportunity for in-depth understanding of a narrow area but fail to recognise the interconnectedness across disciples, restricting students’ analysing capabilities, preventing them from connecting the dots across disciplines to weave a useful web of knowledge.

Also read: NEP and social science studies

Uni-disciplinary approach provides an understanding of one discipline while multidisciplinary approach entails learning many disciplines together. An interdisciplinary approach goes a step further, integrating knowledge and methods from several disciplines holistically. Students need the interdisciplinary approach of knowledge accumulation and synthesis. Mere intra-disciplinary or even multidisciplinary approach may not be appropriate to handle any branch of knowledge. One needs to further move towards transdisciplinary aspects while designing policies and courses. Transdisciplinary approach creates a unity of intellectual framework beyond the borders of a discipline. It involves multiple subjects and disciplines, making connections so as to construct their own meaning. The foundation for such a journey from intra-disciplinary via multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning channels to transdisciplinary has to be through a Liberal Arts education.

Liberal Arts is the systematic study of seven disciplines: Grammar, Rhetoric and Dialectic (Trivium), and Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Music (Quadrivium), which in the modern era correspond to History, Literature, Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences. Data and information are synthesised into knowledge and wisdom. The approach allows individuals to learn a combination of their choice of disciplines and at their pace. This enhances their curiosity to explore various fields before making any decision. The learning provides knowledge from related fields, which leads to sharpening of their overall understanding, enhancing their decision-making ability.

While the modern notion of Liberal Arts finds its roots in 14th century Greece, the ancient Indian Gurukul methodology of learning (not teaching) was based exactly on this concept. The approach involves training the mind by exposing it to many knowledge fields, bringing about the nuances of each field while focusing on the interconnectedness across fields. The basis of the approach lies in integrating the left-brain with the right-brain. According to Nobel laureate Roger W Sperry, the proponent of this thesis, left-brain is considered to be best at tasks that involve logic, analytical thinking and language, while the right-brain is considered to be adept at tasks that involve expression and creativity. A Liberal Arts education (or our old Gurukul system) facilitates this coordination.

Intellectuals like Babasaheb Ambedkar, Lokmanya Tilak, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and many other visionaries gained knowledge through a Liberal Arts approach, albeit in an informal environment. Unfortunately, the Indian education system in the post-colonial period has successfully produced managers, engineers, teachers, etc., who can only become followers, but have we not failed in creating ‘critical thinking leaders -- Rajarshi’? As Rancho (in the movie 3 Idiots) puts it: “Kaabil bano…Kaamiyabi zhak maarke pichhe aa jayegi…” (Become capable…success is bound to follow!) Thus, Kaabiliyat is the goal that can only be achieved through the Liberal Arts route under NEP.

(Dhume is Professor and Interim Associate Dean, School of Liberal Arts, Alliance University, Bengaluru; Deshpande is former director, ISEC, Bengaluru)

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