- Gurukul Paddhati-A systematic approach towards Personality Development
In today’s world of competition, one needs to have multiple skills to support one’s life. While walking on the streets of India, you will find many signboards saying ‘Personality Development classes’, ‘Spoken English Classes’ or advertisement like ‘Improve your communication skills in 3 months’. People in India are now focusing on communications skills even in day to day lives.
However, in India, communication skills and personality development have been focussed on right from the olden times. ‘Gurukul Paddhati’ was a type of education system in ancient India. The word ‘Gurukul’ is a combination of two Sanskrit words - ‘Guru’ which means a ‘Teacher’ and ‘Kul’ which means a ‘Family’. In Gurukul Paddhati, students used to reside at teacher’s place, study and assist teacher in day to day life including household work. The Gurukul is a comprehensive learning center where the students are taught good habits of respecting the elders, parents and teachers.
The main idea behind this system is enabling the student to develop his / her personality and to develop good qualities of discipline,self-control, social awareness. Also, it is beneficial for preservation of knowledge and culture and helps a student to build his / her character. A student learns team work, leadership, communication skills, etc.
The ‘Gurukul Paddhati’ was the only known education system in the olden times. Though it is not a primary education system in India right now, ‘Gurukul Paddhati’ has been operating in some parts of India such as Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, etc. Institutes there are not only running the ‘Gurukul System’ now but also provide education to needy students living in those areas.
Though Gurukul Paddhati is in practice even today only in few parts of India, the need of the hour is that Gurukul Paddhati should be revived and once again adopted in all parts of India on a large scale. This old system of education is an extremely effective method of developing students’ personality and communication and so the proverb ‘Old is Gold’ aptly suits in case of ‘Gurukul Paddhati’. A collective effort has to be made for revival and adoption of this old education system into our educational institutions.
ICOS India
