Analysis of Maulana Abul Kalam and his Indian education system design.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Birth:11-11-1888 in Makkah

Maulana Abul kalam Azad was a descendent of a lineage of Islamic scholars called Maulanas. Azad’s father was a Maulana(Islamic relegious scholar) of Afghan ancestry, who lived in Delhi later settled in Mecca. While his mother was Sheikha Alia bint Mohammad, the daughter of Sheikh Mohammad bin Zaher AlWatri, a Maulana from Medina in Saudi Arabia.

EDUCATION:
Maulana Abul Kalam was taught at home, first by his father and later by appointed islamic teachers in different elements of islam.
He was  trained in the Mazahibs of Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali fiqh, Shariat.
He learnt languages of Arabic, Persian, urdu with islamic principles.
He learnt English, world history, and politics through self study.
Abul Kalam was trained and educated to become a muslim priest a ” Maulana “!

HIS WORKS:
He wrote many works reinterpreting the Quran
Started weekly Urdu-language newspaper in Calcutta, Al-Hilal – “The Crescent”
Monthly magazine “Nairang-e-Alam” in 1899
worked as editor of a weekly Al-Misbah in 1900
In 1903, brought out a monthly journal, Lissan-us-Sidq, which was popular
Azad compiled many treatises interpreting the Qur’an, the Hadis, and the principles of Fiqh and Kalam
There is nothing academic or connected with technical or institutional management in his work profile.

He is commonly called as Maulana Azad; the word Maulana is an honorific meaning ‘Our Master’, it is title for a isalmic priest.

He started as the first Minister of Education for India in 1947, he was a 59 years, then. He was in the position till his death in 1958. The educational structure put in place by him is still in practice today in 2020. Ofcourse there is no relegious line in teaching but, somebody who never attended school was responsible for designing the education system of india.

How would he know the about educational framework required for managing education in a national scale from early school, developmental school syllabus to requirements of higher level courses of varied professions which make students industrially employable, the educational policies spanning the nation, teaching methodoligies which develop the childs minds and do nation building !! Any professional researcher will tell you, our education system, is just a copy of education system made by the British to make clerks, office staff and other useful order taking employees.

He was not knowledgeable in the sciences or modern social structures because he never learnt them, which teach children about the society and administrative structures and make them ready for their role, take responsibilities, live life in a organised society. The lack clearly shows in the disconnected feeling between the youth and the administrative system now. Even after years of exposure in the society the adult general population too feels disconnected to the social administration.

Indian students who finish their masters in America, working there are innovators, tech leaders in major corporate companies, productive  contributors in america. Very successful in maths & allied fields, life sciences & computational  research with many  patents.  Whera’s their performance though in proportionately larger numbers in india is nothing like that !! Except IIT’s, IIM’s and B-Schools which produce a miniscule number of refined, skilled contributors compared to the large numbers coming out. The number of patents for innovation is a fraction of indians in America.

What is the difference in education given, management structure? If it is question of management, why dont we have such effecient managers, leaders comparable to other  developed countries, why do we have second grade management systems in india . . ?

Why arent there enough enterprising managers, leaders coming out of universities who are efficient  in real situations to change management systems since last 70 years ? American universities are consdidered the best in the world. 70 years of indepedence and we dont have one university in the top 100 of the world.

It is true india’s education system is  way behind education systems of developed countries and is considered outdated !! How many improvents have been made in the education system made by the British who just wanted to have clerks, office staff and order taking collectors coming out of it.

Why havent any worthy changes been done till now ? With this educational structure in globalised, interconnected modern world, what development, nation building are they expecting in the country ?

by Prasoon kumar