How Has Teaching Evolved Over Time: A Brief History of Education in India

Today is September 5, 2020. Go on, text your teachers a Happy Teachers Day!

Done? Cool! Do you know how teaching has changed as a profession and in practice over time? India has a rich history in education that expands over four millenniums. Right from the Vedic gurukuls and Buddhist monasteries and through the different Islamic empires and the industrial revolution to the present, the profession of teaching has tremendously changed over these vast periods of time. So has been the education system changed, reformed, and unified.

Some of these changes were good. Others have had their side-effects. There is yet a remarkable continuity in the influence of a teacher onto the lives of their pupils up until the colonial period. Their status began to change (for bad) following the standardisation of education. Standardisation itself was necessary and based on egalitarian principles. It only had a really poor effect on the profession of teaching.

In simple words, a teacher has absolutely zero command over the process or the outcome of her teaching. As a consequence, the learning outcome of an average child in a government school in India has remained poor over the past decades.

For all the very right reasons, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan had asked for the greatest minds to be invested for the role of teachers. On the contrary, the profession seldom attracts the best of us. This article details the evolution of the profile of a teacher through the 4000-years long history of education in India. In doing so, it attempts to present a case for a restoration of the autonomy and respect for our teachers within the framework of a common education system. It is perhaps only through a restoration of the status of our teachers that our country may restore its educational heritage.

Gurus, Monks & the Maulvis: How Teaching Changed Through the Times of Vedas, Buddhas, and Under the Islamic Rule

There is a remarkable continuity through the Vedic, Buddhist, and the medieval Islamic period in the influential role that teachers played in the lives of their pupils. In fact, little changed in terms of the profile of a teacher and the profession of teaching over these three periods of time. In the Vedic gurukuls and Buddhist monasteries, the gurus (or monks) were directly responsible for the health and learning of their disciples. During the Islamic period too, education was sacred and the profession of teaching considered a religious duty. The teachers were thus answerable to God and had greater accountability towards their pupils. The profession also drew from the best of society.

Learning was however limited to a minor elite throughout the three periods. In the Vedic period, education was first monopolized by the Brahmins and later also by Kshatriyas and the Vaishyas. The Buddhist monasteries, for the first time, opened their gates to everyone regardless of caste.

The Buddhist monasteries required a similar sacrifice of worldly life as gurukuls of the Vedic period. Pupils were required to live in the monastery and seldom met their family for the duration of their education. Stringent requirements as such made it difficult for the expansion of education during these two periods. Later, Islam took out the sacrificial part of education and made education much more acceptable among the general population.

During the Islamic period, teachers continued to enjoy high degrees of influence on the lives of their pupils. It was often on their patronage that a pupil would be taken into the state administrations. The profession also continued to draw from among the best of society and teachers felt accountable to their pupils.

Dawn of the Industrial Revolution

Expansion of education remained gradual, however. A vast majority of the population had little access to education and so did most women during the earlier three periods. In fact, education received its great push only later a demand for skilled labor emerged following the industrial revolution. It was however long ago before the dawn of the first industries that notable attempts to make education more widely and readily available can be found.

One notable and a worldwide system of mass education (before the famous Prussian reforms) existed in the form of a Monitorial System of Education. You might have heard of this as the Bell-Lancaster (named after their inventors) or the Madras System of Education (since it originated near Madras, India).

In the Bell-Lancaster model, teaching took place in large warehouses that housed hundreds of pupils. Grouping of children took place based on their reading proficiency (and not according to their age, as in the present). Abler pupils assisted the teacher in imparting information to a large number of pupils. The model was cheap and was thus adapted worldwide.

Our present system of education derives much from the Prussian model developed around the early 19th century. It is this model that is often touted for being “the factory model” of education and that needs to be replaced now that we are past the industrial phase. Audrey Watters has a different understanding, stating that “the ‘Prussian model’ [in fact] superseded an education system [the Bell-Lancaster model] that actually did look like a factory.”

Standardization of Curriculum: How it Changed Teaching Over Time

A debate on whether the Prussian model catered to the needs of the industries is out of the scope of this article. What you do need to know is that these modern reforms did bring their own challenges. For instance, the Prussian model (for the first time) grouped children based on their age and not on the proficiency or requirements of those of a child. This was probably based on egalitarian principles rather than to cater to the industries. Prussia was not industrialized in the early 19th century, anyway.

In the meanwhile, the United States formed the Committee of Ten in 1892 headed by the then president of Harvard University, Charles Eliot, to take stock of American schools and recommend policies for future practices.

The problem before the committee was a set of competing curricula followed by different school administrations. This led to huge gaps among the skills that students had when they left high schools. Consequently, the committee recommended for the development of a common curriculum that more or less came to be adopted worldwide.

These reforms were based on egalitarian principles and necessary for the development of a globalised world. In the meanwhile, they also completely changed the profession of teaching as it existed. These reforms robbed the teachers of their autonomy and made them accountable to the system (before their pupils). Too many teachers today are concerned with “completing the syllabus” than catering to the individual needs of their pupils.

Contemporary India & her Teachers

The crisis with our education system today is multi-faceted. There are administrative failures and social and economic issues that are beyond the scope and/or power of a teacher. On top of these, the fact that an Indian government teacher spends 80% of her time conducting surveys and in poll duties is further discouraging.

On the other hand, the complete collapse of public education across most Indian states invites private players to invest in the commercialisation of education. There exists a private school to suit the budget of every parent. Typically, the lower-end private schools employ mediocre teachers on a grossly insufficient salary. In fact, state governments have also tended to employ temporary faculties of mediocre standards to fulfill huge vacancies within the public schools.

In conclusion, teachers do not have the same command over the learning and lives of their pupils. Should we then hold our teachers accountable for the failures of our schools? Of course, yes! But, we must first reimagine the role of our teachers within a common reformed education system.

The profession of teaching has changed (for bad) over large periods of time in our history. The new National Education Policy recognises these changes, fortunately. It also apparently wishes to restore the status of teachers and allow them the possible autonomy within the framework of a common education system. Whether these are plain rhetoric or if the NEP does offer practical measures to achieve so remains a question for another blog.

Teachers’ Day Gift

In the following book, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan explores the philosophy of yet another of our favorite personalities, Rabindranath Tagore. You can read this book for free on Kindle Unlimited (else, for a price of only ₹49).

Your Call!

Did I miss something important? Got any piece of history (or present) incorrect? Please enrich the discussion by adding your valuable comments in the comments section below.

If you found this essay valuable, do tell us so and share it with your teachers, peers, friends and family. If I ran short to making this read worthwhile for you, tell so in the comments too.