Friday, April 23, 2010
Sachdeva favours a system in which all communities have a say in their future

Mysore: Rajesh Sachdeva, Director of the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), on Thursday stressed the need for promoting cultural diversity in education and devising a system in which all communities, however microscopic, had a say in their future.
He was delivering the inaugural address of a two-day conference on “Reorienting higher education for sustainability” here. Prof. Sachadeva spoke on diversity in languages and wisdom and cultural traditions enshrined in them with specific examples of languages of the tribal people But he noted that the education system was oriented towards the dominant language perceived to command power as a result of which lesser-known languages were being marginalised and with them, an entire culture.

He said despite being aware of the importance of diversity, there was disparity in treatment of people with different languages as a result of which many of them felt marginalised in the community.
He attributed the events unfolding in Central India to this isolation and said the ethnic make-up of people was dominantly Gonds and other tribes, none of whom had a say in their future.

The slew of memorandums of understanding being signed by the State with industries to mine natural resources of the area ignored the local sentiments and culture that were enshrined in their natural surroundings, and thus, “we are engineering more violence”, he said.

He called for introspection to improve the education system in which development was not conceived in terms of GDP growth, but would encapsulate social, cultural, psychological and other aspects of society in totality and an education system which fostered democracy wherein all people had a say.

The conference is being organised by the University of Mysore, in association with the Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO, Institute on Climate Change for Sustainability, All India Council for Technical Education, Institution of Engineers and SJ College of Engineering and supported by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.

R.M. Vasagam, former Vice-Chancellor of Anna University, noted in his presidential remarks the imperatives of balancing technology and its application with sustainability and incorporating the same in the curricula.

In his keynote address, T.V. Ramachandran of Energy and Wetlands Research Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, called for integrating environmental and ecological awareness into all streams of profession.

A. Viswhanath, Chairperson of the Department of Studies in Economics and Cooperation of the University of Mysore; Lawrence Surendra, adviser, Education for Sustainable Development and member, Asia and Pacific Regional Experts Group, UNESCO, Bangkok; and Hirofumi Abe, Dean and Professor, Graduate School of Environmental Science, Okayama University, Japan; were among those present.