Financing Education in Gandhi’s Thought Perspective

Gandhi’s idea on financing education under the Nai Talim or Buniyadi Talim—basic education was quite original. Cultivating production skills and conducting literary education around the skill or craft was his central theme of education which was christened as Nai Talim. It was education for life. Literacy per se, i.e. three R’s were not very important for him. An attempt is made in the paper to first examine key elements of the concept of Nai or Buniyadi Talim in some detail. The skill or vocation around which literary education had to be developed depended upon the livelihood base of the area and the community. This understanding of Gandhiji led him to argue a cogent case of financing education. In the next section, the paper discusses Gandhiji’s ideas on financing education. Vocation or craft was to be taught not for skill development only, but the education centre was also visualised as production centre. The earnings from production are the finance needed in the scheme. In a sense, Gandhiji talked about private financing. Interestingly, privatisation of education these days is understood as self-finance vis-a-vis State finance. This feature and its implications are discussed in the finals section of the paper in comparison with Gandhiji’s idea of financing education. In concluding, it is argued that in Gandhian perspective financing education rests on producing classes of the society.