Aurobindo Ghosh Education System and Its application in Current theorization of NCF 2023
Abstract
As a prolific thinker, spiritual leader and nationalist, Sri Aurobindo noted a vision of Integral Education, in which education is not henceforth limited to an intellectual development but a full blossom of human potential, physical, vital, mental, psychic and spiritual. It takes into account the inner development of learner, learning by doing, value education and attainment of deeper self and is a philosophy that is also rediscovering its importance in the modern context of educational reforms.
Together with the NEP 2020, NCF 2023 aims at introducing a learner-centred inclusive, competency-based, and culturally rooted system of education. It focuses on the holistic development, mother tribute based multilingual education, socio-emotional learning, creative expression and Indian heritage-based values. The structure also promotes the teacher as a facilitator to experiential learning and promotes an integrated curriculum developing ethical consciousness and life skills, which were many of the central visions of Aurobindo.
This research uses a qualitative approach through the textual study of primary and secondary writing as well as policy papers and interviews with expert opinions, which help to find similarities between the Aurobindo approach to education and the major hypotheses of NCF 2023. Results show quite a high level of convergence: the two models are similar in placing the importance on the holistic development of the learner, promoting experiential and inquiry learning, preserving the aspect of cultural and spiritual values and putting an emphasis on the empowerment of the teacher. In particular, the focus on psychic and spiritual development advocated by Aurobindo can be complemented by the objective of bringing up ethical, self-aware, and responsible citizens, so typical of NCF.
The work draws the conclusion that the vision of education developed by Sri Aurobindo is still extremely topical and can contribute greatly to the enhancement of the philosophy of the NCF 2023 to emerge richer and deeper by providing it with the much-needed philosophical foundation of educational transformation in India of the 21st century.
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