Relevance of Swami Vivekananda’s Thoughts in Management Education
Management education is a great beneficiary of Indian economic reform, where transformation from state controlled market to free market is imperative. In India, MBA degree has been perceived as a way of achieving assured careers and sound wages at early stage of life. The ambition of Indian youth today is to get a job in the business, industrial or service sectors and settle down well as early as possible.
No doubt management education is needed an infusion of professional ability but the given value to society is equally important. Unfortunately, Management education in India has been so distorted and diluted in its execution as to lose nearly all the social intent.
In whole spectrum, the role of intuition, value and social recognition gets short shrift in the Management education. Emphasis is only on the knowledge content, on which examination is conducted. All other useful knowledge areas and skills are vastly neglected. Like spiritual knowledge does not find an appropriate place in the curriculum. Therefore students have no opportunity to know about their faith, culture and values. The knowledge they gain is mainly bookish and is not backed by practical experience.
About a century ago, Swami Vivekananda had envisioned a vision on education and had categorically pointed out that true education is not the amount of information that is put into one 's brain. The human mind is not a bottomless dry well, which has to be filled in with buckets of information by the teacher. He had said that education has more to do with assimilation of ideas and developing 'a mind of the same material as that of which the thunderbolt is made '. He suggested, was to be done with the help of 'Western science coupled with Vedanta … and faith in one 's own Self '.
What type of management education will provide this enlightenment? According to Swamiji, 'The training by which the current and expression of will are brought under control and become fruitful is called education
No doubt management education is needed an infusion of professional ability but the given value to society is equally important. Unfortunately, Management education in India has been so distorted and diluted in its execution as to lose nearly all the social intent.
In whole spectrum, the role of intuition, value and social recognition gets short shrift in the Management education. Emphasis is only on the knowledge content, on which examination is conducted. All other useful knowledge areas and skills are vastly neglected. Like spiritual knowledge does not find an appropriate place in the curriculum. Therefore students have no opportunity to know about their faith, culture and values. The knowledge they gain is mainly bookish and is not backed by practical experience.
About a century ago, Swami Vivekananda had envisioned a vision on education and had categorically pointed out that true education is not the amount of information that is put into one 's brain. The human mind is not a bottomless dry well, which has to be filled in with buckets of information by the teacher. He had said that education has more to do with assimilation of ideas and developing 'a mind of the same material as that of which the thunderbolt is made '. He suggested, was to be done with the help of 'Western science coupled with Vedanta … and faith in one 's own Self '.
What type of management education will provide this enlightenment? According to Swamiji, 'The training by which the current and expression of will are brought under control and become fruitful is called education
References: * Kulandaivel, K (Jan. 2006) Education for Enlightenment Prabuddha Bharata,, An English Monthly Journal of the Ramakrishna Order, Advaita Ashrama , Kolkata * Swamy, N V C (Sept, 2005) Learning: A Lifelong Process Prabuddha Bharata,, An English Monthly Journal of the Ramakrishna Order, Advaita Ashrama Kolkata * Tadananda, Swami (Sept, 2005) Education: Cognitive Objectives and Vedanta, Prabuddha Bharata, An English Monthly Journal of the Ramakrishna Order, Advaita Ashrama Kolkata * The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 9 vols. (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1-8, 1989; 9, 1997), 3.105.