The Problem of Adult Education

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

No nation is able to overcome smoothly the problems that have to be faced at every stage of its evolution. Today, we are in the melting pot, with an indefinite political, social and economic future, forming as it were a vicious circle, the retarder of advancement.

One of the various problems that confront our nation-builders is the illiteracy of the masses. Illiteracy is not present in just one area or two: it is nation-wide, and India stands a very poor comparison with the percentage of literacy in other countries. In our Presidency only 8 or 9 persons out of every hundred are literate, and the percentage of women is still lower. Within South India, Travancore, Cochin and other States have a slightly higher percentage, and when one stops to reflect, one can understand that the cause is mostly due to the efforts of the foreign Missionaries. They have been working there for well over a century and they are carrying on this teaching of reading and writing as an integral part of their mission work. They run parish schools, and as Bibles are translated into all vernaculars, they teach the young and the old to read their prayer book. The vegetable vendor, the cooly woman, the milk woman, the sweeper,–if she is a Christian, she is literate; if a Hindu, she is certain to be illiterate.

What is woman’s part in this movement? How can she, the educated woman, acquit herself creditably of the responsibility that is hers in this social uplift? It has been a proverbial truism that when two ladies meet they discuss only their sarees and jewels. Endowed with the blessings of wealth and education, we have not developed a will to understand the state of the women around us. We have been sent to schools and colleges and given a liberal education and a disciplined intellect to know and understand the world around us. But how many of us have stopped to think that this great fortune is the privileged possession of a very poor number, nay, a miserable percentage of our population? Ninety-two to ninety-seven women out of every hundred are still steeped in illiteracy and gloom. The rays of the light of learning have not pierced their dark and musty huts yet. They remain drudging along like dumb cattle to earn their living by some physical exertion, getting a living utterly out of proportion to their family needs. It is the ignorance of the masses that is hampering the political, social and economic progress of our country. Every citizen has a right to being literate, to know the 3 R’s as it is popularly known, and everyone can put forth a legitimate claim towards this right of his on the Government. It is as important as health, water, or for that matter, any other problem.

The evils of illiteracy are too well known to all of us and I will be carrying coals to Newcastle, if I were to dwell long on them. Deprived of education, the woman is blind, credulous and ignorant. She cannot decipher a letter or a telegram addressed to her. She has neither the eye nor the ear for topical news or what is happening all round her every day. The pawn-broker and the money-lender easily exploit her and she falls a prey to their deceits. The woman’s status in family life is so miserable that she is not able to manage her own affairs. This endless dependence on others for literacy cripples the growth of her mental and moral powers. Today, within the City of Madras, there are hundreds of girls between the ages of 13 and 18 who are illiterate. It is almost inconceivable how such a condition prevails in spite of great efforts to promote compulsory education. They are in this state because they cannot afford the books and pencils required for schooling, and pathetically more so because they have not the proper clothing to attend schools! These women who have managed to enter the world illiterate will become illiterate mothers, and their children naturally will be forced to take the same course. The magnitude of the situation needs no emphasis.

The adult women’s education is a work that women alone can and should handle, if it is to be successful. It is exclusively the educated woman’s duty, for it is she who can reach the heart of her poor illiterate sister. It is no exaggeration to say that a woman’s instinct, inborn and inseparable, is to give to others the best and always the best of what she possesses. As mothers, we preserve for our children the best of eatables the best of comforts and are happy to see the smile of joy and contentment on their faces. We can, and do make sacrifices for our home, and the dear ones. Do we not take pride in making delicious dishes and serving our guests? Real happiness comes in the giving and not in the mere possession. So, if I appeal to every educated woman to extend education to the adult illiterates in her neighbourhood, I am sure it will not be an unnatural or impracticable scheme. Every one of us has a few hours and can spare them once or twice a week. Either through associations,–there are various Women’s Organisations doing social work,–or individually we should get together the illiterates of our locality and teach them to read and write. By conversation they can be told the history of the land they live in, the crops that grow there, the economic problems involved in their little sphere, simple rules of health, hygiene and mother-craft. The adult is quicker than the child in grasping ideas and assimilates them better. She loves to hear of the women of other lands, how they live, dress and work. It stimulates her love to learn more and her curiosity to know how to better her standard of life. Stories of brave mothers and sisters of history, like Jeaja Bai, Rani Sarandha and Lakshmi Bai, will thrill her and elevate her out of her little groove.

To those sceptics who cherish misgivings about the receptivity of the illiterate adult, let me convey this information, that the adult is quick in grasping and assimilating ideas, as she has already a command of the language and ideas. It has been proved by actual experimentation that there is no age bar to literacy,–anyone at any age, even at three score and ten, can become literate. If we make one adult illiterate literate, she will never allow her child to enter the world illiterate. The schools of tomorrow should be schools for adults rather than schools for children. Our compulsory elementary education today is not progressing as it ought to, and will never progress unless we have behind the movement the support of an intelligent and educated adult community.

In spite of their illiteracy they are found to possess as a ground a certain amount of our national culture. Culture is a subjective thing, and they have inherited it from out of that subjective instinct which has governed our civilisation for thousands of years. Without being dogmatic and biased, one can safely say that, to a poor class of people, to show that subjective instinct by acquisition of objective learning is far simpler than we imagine. I can safely vouchsafe for this from my association with that class of people, that wherever I have attempted to teach them, I have found a quick grasp and retentivity. Within three months of tuition they are able to read sentences and write five-lettered words. This is undoubtedly up-hill work, but surely not insurmountable at that, for, unlike social ills, this is not a gnawing disease on the body social. It can be cured with an organised, co-ordinated effort. With compulsory education for our child-population successfully assured, the illiterate adult community becomes limited, and as Prof. Laubach, the pioneer in Adult Education, has propounded, the "each to ten" method will go a long way in solving the question. Each one should make ten illiterates literate within a year, and within nine years we can envisage a nation without a single illiterate man or woman.

Two things are absolutely essential for this work,–man-power and money. As regards the first, man-power, primary effort should be enlisted from those who have immediately benefitted by education, and they, it is obvious, are the great number of students, teachers, professors and educationists. Education has given them all benefits, personal benefits, assets to fit them in society and in the world. The University, by endeavouring to make them honest citizens, bearers of the torch of learning, is also entrusting them with a heavy responsibility. As of the Gurus of old, our modern system of ‘Gurukulavasam’ involves no ‘Gurudakshina’, in the truest sense of the word. The Gurus of the Puranas always asked their disciple to accomplish for them something as a ‘Gurudakshina’ and invariably it was a test of the powers of sacrifice of the ‘Sishya.’ But today the student accomplishes no feat of sacrifice or service to show his debt of gratitude to the Alma Mater. The student population, given the proper stimulus and organisation, can easily accomplish a great portion of this mass campaign. Excursions, historical, botanical, zoological, are a popular feature in the educational institutions. The student is practically a care-free individual, hampered by no responsibility but blessed with energy and holiday leisure. If a portion of the money and energy spent on excursions is portioned out for this literacy work, and if it is taken up by educational institutions and heads of schools and colleges, then great results are sure to be forthcoming. There are certain standards fixed for every academical qualification: the medical student has to attend a certain number of maternity cases before completing the course, the graduate has to put in practical training before attaining the L. T., the botanist has to collect a number of flora from all over the Presidency before submitting a thesis. These are of course useful standards stipulated for those academical qualifications. If this practical social work, this civic help is also stipulated from all students alike, not only will society be highly benefited, but it will also enable the student to get a wider knowledge of the conditions of our villagers and poorer classes, and will be a training ground for the students to become real citizens of the country.

Human energy alone is not enough and cannot achieve much without financial aid. It is not as if it were a hospital or an orphanage or a poor-house and that we could appeal to the sentiments of the generous-minded for funds. This scheme does not come under the scope of philanthropy. Money should come from the Government and the Local Bodies. They should form the co-ordinating centre for organised work.

What money-power can achieve is evident from the Bihar Literacy Committee’s Report. Four and a half lakhs of people have become literate since the campaign was launched in April 1938. Government have sanctioned two lakhs of rupees as recurring expenditure for three years. The ‘whirlwind’ campaign of Bombay towers as an outstanding example for what man-power can achieve. By means of lorry-drives, mass-meetings, classes on maidans and sea-shores, lantern-slide lectures, story telling, reading of news-sheets and Bhajanas, they have proved what student-power can establish, for, within thirty days, in the month of May, 1939, they were able to make nearly 20,000 illiterates literate within the City of Bombay.

May I appeal to every thinking man and woman to give a thought to this problem?