Inspiration

Dear Pharmacists,

The educational system in India has faced a basic dilemma ever since its introduction by the British. The essence of this problem was summed up by Mahatma Gandhi in his historic statement at Chatham House, London, in 1931.

The British administrators when they came to India, instead of taking hold of things as they were, began to root them out. They scratched the soil and began to look at the root and left the root like that and the beautiful tree perished. The village schools were not good enough for the British administrator so he came out with his own programme. Every school must have so much paraphernalia, building and so forth. Well, there were no such schools at all — ancient schools have gone by the board — and the schools established after the European pattern were too expensive to fulfill a programme of compulsory primary education of these inside of a century. This very poor country of mine is ill able to sustain such an expensive method of education.”

“Education is of great intrinsic importance with assessing inequalities of opportunity. It is also important determinant of individual’s income, health (and that of their children) and capacity to interact and communicate with others. Inequality in education thus contributes to inequality in other important dimensions of well being. Measuring inequality in education is not an easy task”. (World Bank– Equity and Development, World Development Report 2006)

The above statement makes clear the importance of education in different aspects of development of an individual. We are in the era of knowledge society and knowledge economy.

Education has become the most important event of the individual and national development in terms of social and economic aspects. Even before GATTS application, it has become an international event.

History

Historically India had very strong and internationally acclaimed system of education including higher education. In ancient India there was strong ‘Guru-Shishya’ parampara (Tradition). We also had reputed universities in ancient India like Takshashila in North, Nalanda and Vikramashila in East, Vallabhi in Kathiawad, Kanchi in South and Nadia in Bengal. During the period of invasion, the systems were disruputed and over a long period there was no university system existing in the country or organised education system, for that matter. The newer era of higher education started with the British initiative in the 19th century. Lord Macaulay (1835) through the Macaulay minutes stressed upon the closure of institutions of oriental learning and then a few colleges at different places were established by the British regime.

In July 1854, Woods Despatch had proposed establishment of universities in India. Accordingly, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras Universities were established in the year 1857 which are felicitating their 150th year. In 1882 the first Indian Education Commission under the Chairmanship of W W Hunter was established. The report dealt with indigenous education, primary education, secondary education and university education.

In 1913 the Education Policy was developed by the then British Government, which proposed establishment of new universities within each province. Accordingly, the Central Hindu College was  converted to Banaras Hindu University in 1916 and Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College into Aligarh Muslim University in 1920. Universities were also stared at Mysore, Hyderabad and Patna.

During the post independence period, the First Education Commission was constituted in 1948 on university education. The Commission was chaired by Dr S Radhakrishnan and also known as the Radhakrishnan Commission. This Commission stressed on “autonomous status of universities”. The Commission pointed out that “Democracy depends for its very life on high standard of general, vocational and professional education. The dissemination of learning, incessant search for new knowledge, unceasing effort to plumb the meaning of life provision for professional education to satisfy occupational needs of our society are the vital tasks of higher education”.

As an outcome of these recommendations, the University Grants Commission was established in 1956. In July 1964 Second Education Commission known as the Kothari Commission was appointed to establish well designed, balanced, integrated and adequate system of national education capable of making the powerful contribution to national life.

The Commission emphasized on “expansion of higher education, enhancing quality of higher education and research; and use of dynamic techniques for management and organization”. In 1968, the National Policy on Education was adopted based on the recommendations of the Kothari Commission, which led to the considerable expansion of education facilities all over the country. In rural habitations, schooling facilities were developed within a radius of one kilometer but these did not get translated into detailed structure of implementation.

The National Policy on Education was adopted again in 1986. This was in response to the non-implementation of 1968 educational policy. This policy emphasized on “elimination of disparities, equal access to every Indian of requisite merit, enhancement in support to research and inter-disciplinary research promotion”.

Youth power

Youth has got the power of ideas, ambition, enthusiasm and ability. This resource of the youth is an important building block for development of any nation.

What the teachers’ can give to the students for their growth? In an integrated way it can be said, that an enlightened human being can be created by the teacher through providing two unique characteristics. One is building capacities among the students to inquire, to innovate, be creative, and develop the qualities of entrepreneurship and moral leadership. Second is the development of moral value system. The noble life practiced by the teacher indeed becomes a beacon light to the students. Let us hear the tribute given by the great teacher Albert Einstein to the teacher: “The ideals which have lighted my way, time after time, have given new course to face life cheerfully have been kindness, beauty and truth”. This is the mission of a teacher. It will be a God given gift to the student, to have great teachers who can give and give the learning module and the way of beautiful life.

Dreams

Dear Pharmacists, I have seen three dreams which have taken shape as vision, mission and realization.

I had dreamed of making JSS college of Pharmacy a world renowned college and today it is!

I wanted the pharmacy profession to be able to get recognized as a significant contributor to the country in the health care and today it is.

I wanted our college to become a University and today it is!

Of course these three programmes succeeded in the midst of many challenges and problems. I have worked in all these three areas. I want to convey to you what I have learnt on leadership from these three programmes.

• Leader must have a vision.
• Leader must have a passion to transform the vision into action.
• Leader must be able to travel into an unexplored path.
• Leader must know how to manage a success and failure.
• Leader must have courage to take decision.
• Leader should have Nobility in management.
• Every action of the leader should be transparent.
• Leader must work with integrity and succeed with integrity

For success in all the missions, it is essential to have creative leaders. Creative leadership means exercising the vision to change the traditional role from the commander to the coach, manager to mentor, from director to delegator and from one who demands respect to one who facilitates self-respect.
In this context, Dear Pharmacists, I would like to share with you an inspiring message from Maharishi Patanjali in Yoga Sutra:

"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds, your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, you will find yourself in a new great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be."

I am sure, the pharmacy institutions in the country are in the mission of creating such leaders who can foresee the problems of the humanity and work for solutions much ahead for the upliftment of humanity and sustainable development to bring peace and prosperity with value system.

My greetings and best wishes to all of you for success in all your missions.
May God bless you.

Dr B. Suresh