GURUKUL – Education System redefined

GURUKUL – Education System redefined

The job market is hot, since the placement activities seem to be surging at the campuses of IIT’s and IIMs’. A thought comes to the mind about the corporates lining up for students in these premier institutes as compared to the others which at times are infrastructurally more advanced than these.

Is it the infrastructure, the quality of the faculty members, the quality of the student OR mere the experience of getting enriched in an environment that plays a major role.

If we look at the Commonality between these premier institutes and its performance, mostly all are providing residential education. This digs a thought in my mind are residential schools which were in ancient India termed as GURUKUL have always proven a better way of imparting quality education since it has also been captured in modern India that such systems have nurtured talent in a better way.

The second thought that digs in the mind is then what are the major parameters that impact quality education if we do a comparative analysis other than availability of the guru, and guru’s knowledge is that in a Gurukul, the residents living together are termed as socially equal irrespective of their social standing. This provides a more conducive environment for enrichment thru quality education and thus the outcomes in the form of Arjun at rishi Dronachrya’s Ashram who was his guru in the Gurukul/ashram can now be compared to the honco’s like Satya Nadela or Sunder Pichai, and many more from residential arrangements for the education that they had.

The third thought that paves way is where the gap in residential and nonresidential education is. This leads to a gap analysis did extensively by Valerie Zethaml et.al on parameters that were developed thru a SERVQUAL scale. The Scale has five major dimensions which measures quality of service, here we term quality education as a service. The parameters that Zethmal has considered are 1. Tangibility thru infrastructure of the system. 2. Reliability is the ability to develop the students as per the requirement of the society and industry. 3. Responsiveness is willingness to help the students and provide guidance. 4. Assurance is the knowledge and courtesy the, trust and confidence that is generated by the pupil for the teacher and last but not the least 5. Empathy, nurturing the individuality of the pupil.

The Gurukul systems are assumed to have taken into consideration all the above factors and it’s perceived that the enrichment happens when all these five factors work positively in a learning environment.

A final thought on the quality of education. Any learning requires focus since this is termed as a very important variable in any learning outcome. It has been observed that the residential schools can play a very important role on FOCUS of the pupil since the students learn under a controlled environment where outcomes are achieved since outside hindrances are restricted on a student’s mind, making the pupil a better performer. The environment is conducive for the pupil to find the direction, progress and get nurtured to find the talent and develop the skill. Thus, it can be concluded that our old good GURUKUL system in a modern style of residential education system till date has worked wonders.

-by Dr. Sarita Vichore