The Legacy of Vajubhai Patel | Our Founder Member

The Legacy of Vajubhai Patel, Our Founder Member

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
– Robert Frost

The above lines stand testimony to the journey that our founder member and mentor inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s Nai Taleem. Shri Vajubhai Patel, had when he envisaged the inception of INDIAN COUNCIL OF BASIC EDUCATION (ICBE) a Trust on 21st July 1964. The Council established the institute of education on 2nd October 1969, in the birth centenary year of the Father of The Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Since then there was no looking back, inch by inch step by step the institution started programs which had two very clear dimensions:

1. Dissemination of Gandhian Values
2. Making a difference in society through social change.

Born in the family of a businessman he completed his primary education in Dedan. Defying the family dictat he came to Bombay and got himself enrolled into Wilson College.

He was in his first year when the Civil Disobedience Movement started and he got mesmerised by the ideas of the Father of the nation. In the year 1937 he joined H P T Girls High School and taught there till 1947. After that he went to Columbia University, New York in 1948.

In 1954 he became the Principal of Nanavati Vidya Mandir School, Vile Parle. Bombay. Under his able leadership the school started flourishing and prospering, through the dissemination of NAI TALEEM. Slowly but silently this change in the education system was noticed by the Education Department and other professional bodies. So progressive were his ideas that it created a wave of change in the concept of LIFELONG EDUCATION, an idea that was not new to the people but its practical aspect of this still not much known in the field of Indian Education. Vajubhai proved through his programmes and ideas that Life-long Education should be the aim of all educational endeavours. For it is this type of education which ensures harmonious and balanced growth and development in the society. He got mentioned regarding the same in the document printed by UNESCO INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATION, HAMBURG in 1975.

After his retirement from active service from Nanavati Vidya Mandir, he started a Teachers Training Institute in 1969 under the aegis of ICBE and named it Smt Surajba College of Education. He also ensured that the teachers who are trained and prepared here will go into society with a deep and clear understanding of Gandhian philosophy. The teachers ensure that Head, Heart and Hand are developed in such a way that teachers understand the values of truth, non-violence, integrity, honesty, secularism, co-living, compassion and dignity of labour. Being a follower of Rabindra Nath Tagore his vision was far-sighted, he could see that if teachers are not trained and developed with proper attitude and thinking pattern then only a privileged few will reap the benefits of development and progress. SARVODAY can only happen when all people irrespective of their differences are accommodated in the society, only then can we have true development.

THE EXPERIMENTAL SCHOOL
Building castle in the air was not the ideal that Vajubhai followed. When he decided to follow Nai Taleem as a part of educational endeavour at Gandhi Shikshan Bhavan he would prove it to the word that it is practically applicable in the field of education. He started an experimental school in the premises of Gandhi Shikshan Bhavan. Today it has been recognized as Shri I J Patel high School, Gandhi Shikshan Bhavan’s Primary School and Gandhi Shikshan Bhavan’s Pre- Primary School. This school was a testimony for the world to see that even in a city like Mumbai, craft-based, life oriented and human based education can be propagated and disseminated. This school is an excellent example of community- based educational program. Till date we have a core philosophy of nurturance and dissemination of Gandhian values through the school education curriculum.

QUEST IN EDUCATION
After the school undertook the experiments in the various aspects of Nai Talim, it had to be disseminated and documented for reaching the masses. For that Vajubhai Started an in-house research based ISBN Number Magazine called QUEST IN EDUCATION.A four page monthly bulletin named “COMMUNITY SCHOOL”, was launched in the year 1964which carried the work done by ICBE. Later, in the year 1966 a magazine “QUEST IN EDUCATION” was taken over by ICBE from Teacher’s Club which till date publishes the Quarterly Educational magazine bearing ISSN 0048-6434 Till date the magazine is instrumental in publishing new practices in teaching, novel experiments done in the schools and colleges, efforts and research work done by the teaching community in the field of education across the length and breadth of the country. The effort to write about the success and failure of an educational endeavour was initiated by Vajubhai in its truest sense, and he encouraged everyone to take up such novel experiments.

SOCIALLY USEFUL PRODUCTIVE WORK
Socially Useful Productive Work yet another new trend started by Vajubhai. It was basically an offshoot of the Nai Talim but it had certain other accentuating points in it. It was basically for initiating, enhancing and inculcating dignity of labour and equality of status among the young and impressionable minds of the students. Though Government of India made SUPW compulsory in the schools in 1977, after Ishwar Bhai Committee suggested it, Vajubhai started it in the year 1975 in the premises of Gandhi Shikshan Bhavan, both in the school and the college. This was again a great initiative by Vajubhai which is practiced in the institute till date across all sections.

The legacy left behind by Vajubhai is nurtured in the institute till date. Compassion for the less privileged, acceptance of all, regard for truth, justice to all and education for social change is the primary focus of the institute, in all sections under ICBE. The institute still strives against all odds to protect and promote the philosophy envisaged by Vajubhai. The people who join this institute, in due course of time tend to realize that what Vajubhai started was an idea, which has stood the test of time.. It’s neither old nor out of sync, all that he stood for, all that he lived for and all that he worked for in the true sense, is as novel as novelty can be, on the parameters of a GOOD EDUCATION SYSTEM. The ICBE has trained and sent around 5200 teachers who are making a difference in society in their own unique way and capacity.

VAJUBHAI MEMORIAL LECTURE
Vajubhai left the mortal world on 20th September 2013 leaving behind the immortal footprints of making a value based, integrated and vibrant society. The legacy that he left is being extended and practised in the premises of Gandhi Shikshan Bhavan each and every day. Nevertheless efforts are made to ensure, that Vajubhai’s idea of education never fades, never gets lost and never loses its core value. To honour his legacy, his contribution, ICBE has instituted a MEMORIAL LECTURE in his memory on 20th September, every year, since 2014, which has been graced by stalwarts of diverse fields.
To sum up Vajubhai’s life journey we dedicate the couplet penned by the great poet Sahir Ludhyanvi:

LEELABEN PATEL: Our beloved MASI
Whatever is done today in Gandhi Shikshan Bhavan, whatever name, fame and recognition it has achieved today, would not have been possible without the rock solid support of Masi- Leelaben Patel, life partner of Shri Vajubhai Patel. She stood behind Vajubhai encouraging and always whole heartedly supporting, all efforts undertaken by Vajubhai. A very warm personality, with steel like courage and strength, full of love and compassion, enthusiastic to the core, we owe her too, a lot. She was very firm, disciplined and strong, yet very humble and humane in all her approaches to life. Any introduction of Gandhi Shikshan Bhavan would be incomplete without paying obeisance to Masi. Her benign presence will always be missed in Gandhi Shikshan Bhavan.