Lord Macaulay's System of Education in India.
- December 21, 2023
- 564
Lord Macaulay, the founder of our education system, was born on October 25, 1800. He was an essayist whose essays on the historical and socio-political topics of his era were sensational. Macaulay held the post of "Secretary of War" during the wars of 1839 and 1841. During 1846 and 1848, he also performed the duties of Paymaster General. He had also written a book on the history of England, but in the subcontinent, he is best known for promoting English education and western ideas.
As for Lord Macaulay, he had the right to influence whatever policy he wanted to implement. When the English Education Act was made in 1835, Macaulay insisted that the people of India should be taught English literature because, at that time, the British themselves were also engaged in acquiring sciences related to chemistry, electronics, metallurgy and mineral resources. The British knew very well that science and technology education could lead the subcontinent on the path of economic development, while reading English literature could not lead to economic development.
Lord Macaulay told the British Parliament on February 2, 1835, that he was the first lawyer to serve as a Consul to the Governor-General of the United India. "I have traveled to every part of India." I did not see any beggars or thieves there. I have seen a lot of prosperity in this country. People are rich in morals and values, good-thinking people and I think we can't conquer this country until we break them religiously and culturally, which is the backbone of them. Therefore, I suggest that we change their ancient system of education and culture. If the Indians realize that every English and foreign commodity is better than theirs, they will lose their national dignity and civilization and become, in fact, our conquered nation, as we wish to make them.”.
After this speech, Lord Macaulay was entrusted with the responsibility of designing the education system of India and exactly 22 years later, in 1857, he achieved his goal. People in India started to hate their own language, culture and civilization, and people started understanding the English language instead of their own language as the guarantor of development. This thought is still maintained in Pakistan, but its roots are getting deeper today.
Macaulay is also held responsible for the form of education in our country, although Lord Macaulay passed away on December 28, 1859. Moreover, in 1947, the whites also left this land. More than 70 years have passed since then, but we have not devised our own education system, and we blame Lord Macaulay for the merits and demerits of the current education system. If Lord Macaulay made a mistake by making the English medium of education compulsory, then what is the reason why we have not dared to change this system of education till today? Perhaps it has fallen into our minds that instead of finding solutions to problems, we run our business by cursing other people.
Most of the people in Pakistan seem to make fun of the Urdu language. As for other countries, you can see for yourself that in China, Japan, Russia, Sweden, France, Germany, etc., education is given in their own language and the rate of development and education there is many times higher than ours. These countries have all kinds of science and technology literature and curriculum in their languages, which we lack.
Educational researchers all over the world insist that children should be educated in their mother tongue rather than their national langauge. After the initial education and training, when the child is enriched with thinking skills, he should be taught in English and other languages. With us, the child carries around a heavy bag with lots of books and copies and only tests his memory.
In other developed countries, the kid bag is light, while in our country, the nursery bag is so heavy that the parents' shoulders fall off to lift it. Even today, the child is reading English literature, rotting, passing with distinction marks but not being creative, not cultivating his thoughts. Why? How? Not asking questions. If it is said that the earth is round, he agrees; even if the earth is square, he agrees because the direction of what is being fed into it is being determined, just like Lord Macaulay a hundred and fifty years ago. had hatched a conspiracy and instead of breaking it, we are holding it close to our chest.
