Concept of Self-Reliance :: Part 1
8th General Conference, Liangmai Naga Students' Union

Dr. K. Paochunbou *

The 8th general conference 2015 All Liangmai Naga Students' Union
Topic: Concept of Self-Reliance

Liangmai is marching ahead in nearly every conceivable area of endeavour and we are marching to our goal of standing on our feet. It is not just a question of self-reliance. It is basically our concept of live and let live Management education should have well-defined aims. In brief, management education has come into being globally. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle the Greek Philosophers have basically emphasized on educational aims to ensure prevailing political, social and economic conditions. The aim of education is to dispel error and to discover the truth-Socrates.

Scientific and technological interventions have ensured vastly increased food production but food security at household level among the majority of Liangmai Community is decreasing due to lack of empowerment. Livelihood system is constituted by available resources and occupations to fulfill the basic necessities for living. Its security is dependent on potential and distribution of its resources and extent of stress on them. Rural livelihood system is primarily based on agriculture among the Liangmai.

Other constituents are wage earning from biomass based income generation activities which are much less comparatively among the Liangmai due to lack of technical inputs. Most of our people are not adopting the concept of self-reliance due to ignorance thereby speedily denuding our forests leading to huge environmental losses.

We need education, we need professional, scientific and technical expertise. The concept of self-reliance is to be developed in a clearer perspective to ensure sustainable livelihoods for hundreds of our people in our own environment and without disturbing the ecological balance. This model is to fulfill the criteria of economic viability, equitable income generation, efficient resource management and ecological harmony.

In India, there has been a great surge in the demand for private education owing to better infrastructure, courses, faculty, international tie-up, and career opportunities. Future is full of promising. Figuratively speaking, India today has more than 659 universities. As of August 20, 2012, private universities have the figure surged to 107. India is geared up for the next educational revolution with some of the best private educational institutions aggressively gearing up to shape the future of the Nation. Our people still lag far behind many of our competitors in using modern technology.

Self-reliance is rooted in a fundamental belief that you can change your circumstances. That what you do and how you do it will affect your future. The question is, how does one become self-reliant? In the developed world, such as, USA, England, Japan, Canada, Australia, German, France, Russia, China- there are abundant possibilities. Our lives are full of opportunities to learn self-reliance and we are encouraged to go out and make our marks on the world. We learn from our teachers and our study efforts become good grades.

We learn from our encouraging parents and take bold steps in our lives. Our histories are full of innovators and self-starters who invented, researched, created and changed the world. It seems we learn to be self-reliant when those around us model that trait for us and make sure we understand the importance of it. Accordingly, education builds self-reliance in a changing world – Anita Casalina. Clearly, self-directed learning must rely on literacy. All the internet access in the world won't help much if you can't read the information.

In a world that is changing so fast our own elders hardly recognize it, the greatest gift we can give – to the future is a self-reliant population who is equipped to learn and grow with their fast paced environment and ready to embrace change as it comes. In many occasions, many people expressed the belief that education was an essential element in development.

People underlined the need for motivation, a change in attitude, a new approach, an innovative perspective. The old way of looking at life may have been good enough for yesterday's subsistence economy but it will never do if we propose to modernize the economy. As per the Miscem Monthly Discussion Topic, a Moderator proposed two major questions to guide the discussion.

1. How do we educate for self-reliance? What values and attitudes are required in a nation that wants to move in this direction? How do we go about making such a deep-seated change in the inmost part of our people?

2. Should we do this, even if we can? The mindset that is of critical importance for successful development might be at odds with many of the key values that were honoured in a traditional society. If so, then we risk losing some of the most cherished parts of the cultures by making a transition to a modern economy under such conditions, what course should we take?

Our education must, therefore, inculcate a sense of commitment to the total community and help the pupils to accept the values appropriate to our kind of future. Our educational system has to encourage, foster and prepare our young people to play a dynamic and constructive part in the development of a society in which all people share fairly in the good or bad fortune of the group and in which progress is measured in terms of human well-being, not prestige buildings, cars or other such things, assets whether privately or publicly owned. It must stress concepts of equality and the responsibility to give service which goes with any special ability whether it be in carpentry, in animal husbandry or in academy pursuits.

I agree with many people that our community has lost its education philosophy and, therefore, currently needs a clear philosophy which would be translated into education policy and practice. I strongly believe that education for self-reliance is still relevant and highly needed now than before especially when we are going deep into the market economy where labour market terms are going to be very tight. Source: 50 years of Independence: Is Education for self-reliance relevant for Tanzania today – September 20, 2011.

While President Pranab Mukherjee pointing out that there was a dearth of high academic Institutions in India, he had regretted in September 2013 that Indian Universities were not featured amongst the top-ranked universities in the world. "There is not even a single Indian University among the list of top 200". Our academic syllabus is not upto the highest standards as recognized by world universities – Pranab Mukherjee.

Value education is the fine art of moulding the consciousness of children towards nobler and finer living. Value education encompasses the traditional values of moral science and much more. Any quality that a society needs becomes a "value" for it. Hence, value education includes not only universal values, such as, truth, love, courage and faith but also socially relevant values, such as, self-reliance, civil consciousness, environmental awareness, patriotism and tolerance.

While regular academic education is "information" aimed at economic self-reliance, value education aims at "transformation" and emotional self-reliance. Education in Israel is precious legacy. Following the tradition of past generations, education continues to be a fundamental value in Israel's Society and is recognized as the key to its future.

The educational system aims to prepare children to become responsible members of a democratic, pluralistic society in which people from different ethnic, religious, cultural and political backgrounds coexists. The immense importance of education in Israel is publicly recognized.

Our education system is suffering from axiological bankruptcy. It is now a high time to permeate values in our education system. Winston Churchill says "The first duty of a university is to teach wisdom, not trade, character, not technicalities" That means our education system needs a volte-face, axiology versus intellectualism.

To be continued ...