13 November, 2013, The “National Education Day” was celebrated by the
School of Education of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) on
11th November 2013 to mark 125th birth anniversary of India’s first
education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. To highlight the day, a
memorial lecture was delivered by Prof. Shyam B Menon, Vice Chancellor
of Bharat Ratna Dr. B.R.Ambedkar University, Delhi on “Secularism and
Education: Towards a New Common Sense” with special reference to
contribution of Maulana Azad to Education. The session was started with a
welcome address by Prof. NK Dash, Director School of education and
chaired by Prof. M. Aslam, Vice Chancellor of IGNOU and concluded by
Prof. SVS Chaudhary, Registrar of the university.
Prof. M.Aslam, VC of IGNOU recalled the action and the life of
Maulana as visionary of free India’s educational road map of
development, not only in primary, social but in advanced technology and
applied sciences. In his speech, Prof. Aslam emphasized that under the
leadership of Maulana the first IIT was established in 1951 and UGC in
1953. Besides he shaped many institutions of higher learning in India.
In Maulana’s Memorial Lecture, Prof. Shyam B. Menon linked up the
life of action of Azad in four parts; firstly about the Maulana himself
and the historically critical position as a secular nationalist that he
occupies. The second part of the lecture was about the brief but
chequered career of the phrase “secularism” in the life of the
Constitution of India. The third part was on the two different
interpretations we have been making of the concept of ‘secularism’. The
fourth and the final part of the lecture was the one in which the
complex relationship between education and secularism are examined.
Prof. Menon concluded that we must concede that ours is a limited
comprehension of how education can inculcate secularism. The scene is
much more complex than what appears to us on the first glance. And the
conventional wisdom on this somehow blurs our focus on a more
fundamental dimension of secularism, that is the citizen’s
constitutional rights not to be mediated by his/her affiliation by birth
to one or the other groups or communities. It will be worthwhile for
education to focus on this aspect more.
The Lecture which had an interactive session with the audience was organized at the Convention Centre at IGNOU Campus.
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