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Speeches at Pabna
[1]
The subject of National Education, which has been recognised by the Indian National Congress as one of the main planks in its platform, received a further impetus in this year’s Bengal Provincial Conference which was held in Pabna in the second week of February last. The resolution on the subject adopted by this year’s conference has been a considerable advance upon those adopted at the previous years’ conferences by the addition of the phrase “to establish and maintain National Schools throughout the country” in the following wording of the resolution:— “That in the opinion of this conference steps should be taken for promoting a system of education, literary, scientific and technical, suited to the requirements of the country on national lines under national control and to establish and maintain national schools throughout the country.” The resolution was moved by Srijukta Aurobindo Ghose, B.A. (Cantab) of the Bengal National College in a short but inspiring speech. He said that national education was a work which had already been accomplished and was already visible in a concrete shape to the eyes of the people. There was the Bengal National College at Calcutta and there were about 25 secondary National Schools at work in the mofussil under the direction of the National Council of Education. There were besides some three hundred primary National Schools, all seeking the aid of the Council, which in its turn should be more liberally supported by the whole of Bengal in order to enable it to do its sacred work. The National Schools will train and send out workers who will
[1] Resolution moved at the Bengal Provincial Conference of the Indian National Congress at Pabna on 12 February 1908. Report published in The Dawn and Dawn Society’s Magazine in April 1908.
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[2]
Srijukta Aurobindo Ghose pointed out that the University system was defective in its aims and methods intended only to serve the purposes of the Government, not the requirements of the country. It turned out machines for administrative and professional work, not men. The national system of education was intended to create a nation. It must produce men with all their faculties trained, full of patriotism, and mentally, morally, physically the equals of the men of any other nation.
[2] Delivered at an educational conference at Pabna on 13 February 1908. Report published in the Bande Mataram of 17 February.
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