The sign of life is growth. Growth depends on exploring better possibilities and exploiting the same for better future. St Ignatius of Loyola also expresses the same principle of explore-and-exploit when he says: in any field of mission, keep one leg firm in the present work gaining expertise, and keep the other leg raised so that you could launch on what would be better and more meaningful.
We are aware of evolution in our educational system: Uniform system gave way to academic autonomy. Self-financing system came in and now we are at the threshold of university in many forms and formats. And today’s system seems to be a paradox: There is a conflict between the individual uplift and the social transformation as a whole. Our present system concentrates on head-level information, leading to academic excellence. What is received or heard from the teacher in the classroom or the lab is verbatim reproduced in the exam and one’s faithfulness is richly awarded. But there are two other areas to address in the holistic formation of the individual:
Our system of prescribed syllabi does not much worry about formation of heart through imbibing values or work ethics or life-principles. A couple of days ago there was hue and cry in the newspapers to introduce moral instruction classes in schools as violence and substance abuse are becoming rampant in the schools. Further, there is not much room, in our current education, for formation at hand level, which would enable one to initiate appropriate action to create a new world order. Here it might be worth remembering a part of the letter of Abraham Lincoln to the teacher of his son. He recommends the teacher to form his son through a three-stage education:
- To listen to all;
- But to filter, what is heard or read, through mind; and
- To do, after discernment, what he feels good in his heart.
Today, we seem to train our students mostly for industries and corporate world which put profit before people. Our academic formation has failed to bring down, if not completely eliminated, social discrimination nor religious fundamentalism. The dictum ‘blood is thicker than water’ is concretely seen when it comes to vote banks or education in medical colleges, IITs etc. There is also the modern technological stream flowing in, namely big data. Big data collection is done but we do not know how to analyze them as we lack working philosophical or humanitarian principles nor social concern or harmony. We seem to be building our edifice of education without a formidable foundation of ethical values.
Depth and Creativity are the cornerstone of Jesuit higher education. Over 200 Jesuit universities or university colleges are manned by the Jesuits in over 96 countries in the world engaging over 1.34 lakhs faculty members and educating approximately 2.9 million students. In India, the Jesuits run 58 arts and science university colleges, 3 engineering colleges, 12 colleges of education, and 16 business schools engaging around 12,000 faculty members and forming about 3.5 lakhs students belonging to every social class, community, linguistic and religious group. Jesuit education promotes an ever deeper understanding of the human person and the dynamics at work in our world, namely, inter-personal, religious, social, physical, and cultural.
While the world is fast moving in one direction of technological and economic advancement, there is another back-pulling decelerator is introduced. As the world of conventional education is shifting towards commercial learning, which is individual oriented, we need communitarian relevance. This communitarian empowering not as the NEP drags us back to traditional type of work but an education to ensure equality, equity, liberty and dignity coupled with social and religious as well as national and international harmony.
In this context and at this cross road of education, we are wondering what should be our next move for us in Loyola. We might need to revisit or revise our vision and we might need to think of relevant and meaningful strategy to make our education relevant, useful, and effective. We have with us today Prof Dr C Raj Kumar, Founder Vice-Chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University. Dr Raj Kumar, our illustrious alumnus, has really put Jindal Global University on the global map of tertiary education. Established in 2009, Jindal University ranks as number one Private University in India and is one of the few Indian universities within the top 200 universities in the world. We are happy to welcome him and we invite him to share his vision and strategy on ‘Envisioning a Future for Higher Education in India’.
I thank the unit heads to make this academic interaction possible and I thank all the faculty members from all our Loyola units for being here today. Let us build the future of education in the spirit of magis – still better and still more relevant and effective. Thanks.
Francis P Xavier SJ
23Apr2022