On 'Sri Aurobindo Ashram School'
On Education:
Sri Aurobindo Ashram School - I
The history of the Ashram school – now known as the International
Centre of Education – can be probably divided into four periods. The
first period is from 1943 to 1950, the second one is from 1951 to
1958, the third is from 1959 to 1967 and the fourth one is the
period after that.
This article will deal mainly with the third period – that is to say
from 1959 to 1967. However, the first two periods will be briefly
touched upon.
Before the 1940s children were, as a rule, not permitted to live in
the Ashram. But when, during the war, a number of families were
admitted, it was found necessary to initiate a course of instruction
for the children. Consequently, on 2 December 1943 the Mother opened
a school for about thirty children. She herself was one of the
teachers. The number of children increased gradually over the years
to around 150 by the year 1950.
The first striking feature of the school in those early days was
that almost all the students were children of devotees or disciples,
most of whom resided in the Ashram as sadhaks.
Another feature was that the Mother was in constant touch with the
teachers and students, guiding the teachers and following the
students’ progress. All students and teachers would meet Her at
least once a day and the teachers would submit reports about their
classes regularly. Sri Aurobindo too was kept informed of all the
developments in the school, although he did not interact directly
with the school.
On 2 December 1946, the Mother came for the first time to the
playground to see the demonstration of Physical Education. From then
onwards, the Mother started coming regularly to the Playground in
the evenings.
In 1950, Sri Aurobindo left his body and from 1951 the Mother
started taking classes in the playground for the children (known as
the Wednesday and Friday classes).
On 24 April 1951 the Mother presided over a convention where it was
resolved to establish an "international university centre", and on 6
January 1952 she inaugurated the Sri Aurobindo International
University Centre. In 1959 this was changed to the Sri Aurobindo
International Centre of Education.
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In December 1958 the Mother stopped coming to the playground on a regular basis and the classes too were stopped.
The first two periods from 1943 to 1958 may be called the luminous
seed-time and a period of enthusiastic effort guided by the direct
presence of the Mother. That was the time when most of the basic
ideas and concepts on education were expounded by the Mother and Sri
Aurobindo. This was done through the classes, their interaction with
the students and teachers and Their writings in the Bulletin. As a
matter of fact, the Mother was constantly in touch with both
students and teachers and intervened whenever She felt the need to
do so.
However, the outward organisation was not too different from other
schools. No doubt, the teachers and the administration were
distinctly aware of what the Mother wanted but this was not
translated in the organisational structure. The Mother’s direct
presence and involvement obviated the need of any such
organisational structure. She was there to look after everything in
its smallest detail.
Even though, the Mother stopped coming to the playground on a
regular basis from December 1958, contact with Her continued through
letters or through interviews. Indeed, the Mother kept a constant
watch over the school and playground activities from Her room.
During this period, 1959-1967, certain experiments were made which
were to have a great bearing on the future development of the Centre
of Education.
Firstly, some tentative experiments were made in organising the Free
System of education with a small section of students and certain
organisational structures were put in place; all these attempts were
gradually evolving and were to prove very useful in arriving at the
more developed and organised system that was built later on.
But more importantly, from 1959, the overall structure and
organisation of the Centre of Education was laid down. Here are some
of the main developments that took place during this period:
1. The Higher Course was restructured. It was divided into the Art
and Science sections. Earlier, there was no clear demarcation
between art and science courses.
From this point on, like in other institutions, art students and
science students were divided into two distinct categories with
different compulsory subjects.
At the same time, two other courses were introduced, the Common
Course which was compulsory for all students and the Optional course
open to both Art and Science students. In the Common course, both
Arts and Science students had compulsorily to
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study selected books of Sri Aurobindo. There were five books in this course, The Ideal of Human Unity, The Human Cycle, The Foundations of Indian Culture, The Life Divine and the Synthesis of Yoga. These were studied for one year. Thus all students of the Higher course had to study these 5 books spread over the three years. In the first year, The Ideal of Human Unity was studied, in the second year, it was the Human Cycle and The Foundations of Indian Culture, and in the third year, the Life Divine and The Synthesis of Yoga.
In the Optional Course, the same books were studied over a period of
two or three years. This more intensive study of the books was
optional and was open to both Science and Art students. Each one of
these books was studied after a preparatory course; thus for the
book The Ideal of Human Unity there was a course on World History;
for the Human Cycle, there was a course on Sociology, for the Life
Divine there was course on Philosophy, both Western and Indian, for
the Synthesis of Yoga, the course was History of Religions and for
the Foundations of Indian Culture, a study of Indian History was
added.
2. It was also during this period that the Boards for all subjects
were constituted. Thus there was an English board, a French board, a
Mathematics board and so on. A group of teachers was selected to
form the Boards and these teachers overlooked all the details
concerning their respective subjects. Their work was mainly to
define the syllabus, the course, the text books and to monitor the
overall performance of the students and teachers in their subjects.
3. A whole new system of evaluation was determined. This system was
based on the following: Regularity, punctuality, behaviour,
homeworks, class tests and quarterly tests. This last item –
quarterly tests was introduced in 1959. All students of the
secondary and the Higher course were to sit for tests four times a
year, reduced from 1960 to three times a year. These tests conducted
over a period of two weeks, were held at the end of March, June and
October. The tests for more important subjects like English, French,
Mathematics etc were of three hours each, while for the other
subjects they were of one and a half hour each. The results of the
quarterly tests had a great bearing on the evaluation of the
students.
Quite naturally, these tests were a period of great tension for the
students, for the results were given great weight in the final
evaluation of the student.
As I was working in the administrative office at that time, I was
entrusted with the organisation of the Quarterly Tests. My duties
consisted of the following tasks:
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1. Fixing the dates, the timings, the rooms and the invigilators for the tests.
2. Collecting the question papers at least ten days in advance from all the teachers and getting them typed in strict confidentiality and finally distributing them to the concerned invigilators just before the commencement of the test.
3. Handing over the answer papers of the students to the respective
teachers after completion of the test.
4. Getting the results of the tests from the teachers in the form of
marks allotted and computing the final quarterly report for each
student. The report for each student was based on the following
principle: 40% marks were allotted to the Quarterly Tests, 30% marks
were allotted to Class Tests, 20% marks were allotted to Home Works,
and the remaining 10% marks were given to Regularity, Punctuality
and Behaviour.
Evidently, it was quite a complicated exercise and entailed a fair
amount of work and coordination among teachers and the
administration.
This was a period of great tension for most students and slowly and
in a sense, quite inevitably, certain tendencies started manifesting
themselves right from the beginning in 1960 and began to take
serious proportions in the later years.
These included copying from notebooks, which the students smuggled
into the test room, trying to find out the questions before the
tests, and sometimes even tearing whole pages from the textbooks
which they managed to smuggle into the test room.
In 1967, while invigilating a class, a student was found copying. I
just tapped the boy on his shoulder but did not chide him or speak
to anybody else; instead, I wrote a letter to the Mother. Here is an
extract from the letter:
(Concerning cheating in tests)
What should I do? Must we do what is done outside— put three
teachers in a room to invigilate? The teachers do not like doing
things in this way here in the Ashram.Or should we abolish tests? I find this proposal doubtful, since the
same thing happens with homework and essays.
In any case the problem exists, and in order to find the real
solution we should understand why the children behave like this.
Please tell me the cause of this misbehaviour and the solution to
this problem.
Mother sent me a reply immediately reproduced here in full.
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It is very simple. It is because most of the children study because they are compelled to do so by their families, by custom and prevalent ideas, and not because they want to learn and know. As long as their motive for studying is not rectified, as long as
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they
do not work because they want to know, they will find all kinds of
tricks to make their work easier and to obtain results with a
minimum of effort.
June 1967
She also added that a prayer should be repeated each day by all the
students. Here is the prayer.
To be repeated each day by all the students:
It is not for our family, it is not to secure a good position, it
is not to earn money, it is not to obtain a diploma, that we study.
We study to learn, to know, to understand the world, and for the
sake of the joy that it gives us.
June 1967
Later, She wrote to me another letter regarding the Quarterly
tests. We reproduce it in full.
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The whole question is to know whether the students go to school to increase their knowledge and to learn what is necessary how to live well or whether they go to school to pretend and to have good marks of which they can boast.
In front of the Eternal Consciousness, a drop of sincerity has more
value than an ocean of pretension and hypocrisy.
We reproduce below more letters on Tests written by the Mother in
answer to teachers. Most of these letters were written during the
period June- October 1967 with the exception of the first one.
Sometime I would like to know ,Mother, Your intentions with
regard to regrouping these classes in the new year, whether with an
examination or without.
I consider an examination as quite necessary. In any case there will
be one in French.
My love and blessings.
29 October 1946
It is not by conventional examinations that students can be selected
for a class. It is only by developing in oneself the true
psychological sense.
Select children who want to learn, not those who want to push
themselves forward.
29 October 1965
The only solution is to annul this test and all that are to come.
Keep all the papers with you in a closed bundle—as something that
has not been—and continue quietly your classes. At the end of the
year you will give notes to the students, not based on written
test-papers, but on their behaviour, their concentration, their
regularity, their promptness to understand and their openness of
intelligence. For yourself you will take it as a discipline to rely
more on inner contact, keen observation, and impartial outlook.
For the students it will be the necessity of understanding truly
what they learn and not to repeat as a parrot what they have not
fully understood. And thus a true progress will have been made in
the teaching.
With blessings.
21 July 1967
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I find tests an obsolete and ineffective way of knowing if the students are intelligent, willing and attentive. A silly, mechanical mind can very well answer a test if the memory is good and these are certainly not the qualities required for a man of the future.
It is by tolerance for the old habits that I consented that those who want tests can have them. But I hope that in future this concession will not be necessary. To know if a student is good needs, if the tests are abolished, a little more inner contact and psychological knowledge for the teacher. But our teachers are expected to do Yoga, so this ought not to be difficult for them.
22 July 1967
Naturally the teacher has to test the student to know if he or she
has learnt something and has made a progress. But this test must be
individual and adapted to each student, not the same mechanical test
for all of them. It must be a spontaneous and unexpected test
leaving no room for pretence and insincerity. Naturally also, this
is much more difficult for the teacher but so much more living and
interesting also. I enjoyed your remarks about your students. They
prove that you have an individual relation with them—and that is
essential for good teaching. Those who are insincere do not truly
want to learn but to get good marks or compliments from the
teacher—they are not interesting.
25 July 1967
The immediate impact of these events and remarks made by the Mother
was a radical change in the attitude and organisation of the school.
Briefly, the consequences were:
All quarterly tests were abolished once and for all.
The secondary classes were restructured as the consequence of some
interaction with the Mother by some teachers
The Higher Course organisation was radically restructured.
These topics will be covered in a subsequent article.
Kittu Reddy
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