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The Ramachandran Ikeda Award 2005, the year celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of Dr G. Ramachandran and the 75th year of Soka Gakkai’s foundation, was presented to the Kerala Harijan Sevak Sangh for its contributions in its activities in making young boys and girls of the socially backward segment more aware.
The award was presented by Kerala University’s Vice Chancellor Dr M.K. Ramachandran Nair to Kerala Harijan Sevak Sangh chairman Prof N. Gopalkrishnan Nair at the function held at Victoria Jubilee Town Hall in Trivandrum on January 28, 2006. Prof Nair said, “The Kerala Harijan Sevak Sangh is very honoured to receive the award of G. Ramachandran and Daisaku Ikeda, both great personalities contributing to the world peace.”
He also said that the Sangh has been working for the last 75 years for the welfare of most underprivileged people in Kerala, and added, “Our organisation has given scholarships to the poorest of students to continue their education.” One of the students who received a scholarship to complete his education was former President of India K.R. Narayanan.
The award ceremony followed a one-day seminar on the theme ‘Towards a Humanistic Education: Review of Experiments in Education’, organised by the Indian Council of Gandhian Studies (New Delhi), Bharat Soka Gakkai and the Madhavimandiram Lok Seva Trust founded by Dr G.
Ramachandran.
In the first session of the seminar, two schools made presentations on ‘Experiments in Learning’. Representing the education experiment, the Principal of the ‘K.P.M. Approach to Children: Sri Atmananda Memorial School (AVEF)’, Ms Tarla Nanavati, introduced the six principles to which the school is committed:
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Children need to feel valued, encouraged and supported.
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Children need a foundation of self-worth and confidence to facilitate their integrated development.
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Children have a natural love of learning that needs nurturing.
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Children learn best when they are genuinely interested.
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Children need the right guidance from adults they trust.
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Every child has the right to grow up in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding.
She said that the K.P.M. Approach to Children (Malekkara) [K.P.M. comes from K. Padmanabha Menon], is to transform education into a process that (1) nurtures the development of the individual, (2) benefits the world and (3) recognises that everybody has a stake in education.
Dr Ouchi spoke about the work of the Soka Gakkai’s Education Division. The legacy of educational challenge established by brilliant educationists Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Josei Toda has been realised by Dr Daisaku Ikeda as the Soka Educational Movement, as “human revolution” and as the international network of Soka educational institutions. He explained that a large number of teachers who belong to the Soka Gakkai’s Education Division have been struggling all over Japan to create a society based on sound educational principles work, and they always keep the following mottos in mind:
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‘Be a Courageous Teacher to Pursue a Humanistic Education!’
- ‘Create a Harmonious Movement for Peace and Humanism!’
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‘Contribute to the Local Community as a Shining Example!’
The movement is practical and its scope is tremendous; it is not restricted to institutions which can adopt the principles of education but empower individual teachers to experiment with the humanistic education in their classrooms. The model teacher within this movement is one who is …
- a compassionate educator who can tap the potentiality of all children
- a wise educator who will polish own personality and teaching ability
- a community educator who can strengthen the educational power of the family and the local society
- a trustworthy educator who can develop friendship and learn from the world.
The teacher’s attitude towards and trust in young people become key points in the educational activities. The foundation of the Education Division under ‘Our Belief on Youth’ is based on the follows guidelines:
- All children are the hope of the world.
- All children have great power to live.
- All children have immense creativity.
- All children have power to communicate of the world. They are the world citizen.
Keeping this in mind, teachers belonging to the Education Division of the Soka Gakkai have written up 50,000 “experiences” as a record of their educational activities.
Another educational experiment in Kottayam, Pallikoodam, by the Pallikoodam of Corpus Christi Education Society, was introduced by the Pallikoodam [school] Vice Principal June Jones. This experiment emphasises the benefits of group study activities, based on mastery of the students’ own mother language.
Sister Mythili, managing trustee of the Madhavimandiram Lok Seva Trust, introduced the work of Dr G. Ramachandran, who studied at Santiniketan under Rabindranath Tagore, became a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, established Gandhi Gram Rural Institute, Deemed University, and began the Shanti Sena movement.
Secretary of IIT Alumni Society Asiti Verma read a paper on ‘Gandhi’s Nai Talim and Makiguchi’s Soka Education’ prepared by Dr Namrata Sharma of the Institute of Education, University of London. Lecturer of the Soka Ikeda College of Arts and Science for Women Dr Karpagam spoke on the educational programme for empowering women conducted at the college.
Finally, President of Rangaprabhath Children’s Theatre Kochu Narayana Pillai spoke about the experimental theatre activities of the RCT which have led to the social transformation of the rural community. [This group has been awarded the G.D. Birla International Award for 2005.] The education-plus-theatre activities of this theatre group, which started 36 years ago, led to the wonderful development of participating underprivileged children from Kerala villages. Most of those children have grown up to become teachers themselves. The theatre programmes are regularly presented by children to adult audiences in the village. The presentations carry a strong message of principles and morals, to motivate the adults for the betterment of their families and community.
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