Govt should include education in guarantee list: Baraguru

Dharwad: Noted writer Baraguru Ramachandrappa has called for a sound education policy that fosters equality and demanded that it be brought under the guarantee schemes, ruing that formal learning has not been a priority of successive govts in recent years and.
At a function to mark the conclusion of Karnataka Rajyotsava celebrations at Karnatak Vidyavardhaka Sangha on Sunday, Baraguru said providing quality education is pivotal to making a society developed. "But unfortunately govts are not according due priority to quality education," he said.
Recalling the lasting impressions his teachers left on him, Baraguru said teachers like Nagabhushana Rao, Ramalingappa, Seetharam, HS Biligiri and Chidambar Dixit inspired him towards secularism. "None of them belonged to my caste, yet they taught with love, encouraged study, recognised talent and provided employment," he said and emphasised the need for such teachers today.
He remarked that the word ‘teacher' signified respect, while ‘professor' signified position. "Currently, there are more professors and fewer teachers. We need respectable teachers, not just professors with positions. The education sector is deteriorating, and all govts are creating confusion. There is still no decision on where knowledge-oriented education ends and employment-oriented education begins," he lamented.
He said the "excessive intrusion" of technology in classrooms has disrupted the relationship between teachers and students and called for classrooms to be democratic spaces where a good relationship between teachers and students is fostered.
He warned against excluding philosophy in the name of technology and recommended using technology only as necessary. Expressing his concern over decline in interest in the study of humanities, Baraguru said without knowledge of literature, history, sociology, and political science, one cannot become a good engineer, doctor, or technologist. "Cultural interests shape us as humans," he said.