“I have given many things to India. But this system of education together with its technique is, I feel, the best of them. I do not think I will have anything better to offer to the country.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Nai Talim promotion is one of the major thrust areas of NCRI, and accordingly, the Nai Talim Centre was created in March 2009 to promote programmes based on Gandhian philosophy of education. The centre’s endeavour is to promote Mahatma Gandhi’s Nai Talim system of basic education by integrating it with mainstream education and to encourage more institutions and schools to adopt this learning system helping in the implementation of the 'education for development' vision. The new generation teachers will be acquainted with this system through a teachers training module in Nai Talim. This can be achieved through a central effort by the educationists and decision-makers.

In the phrase Nai Talim – ‘Nai’ means “New” and ‘Talim’, a Urdu word, means “Education”. The Nai Talim concept of education can be better explained in the words of Swami Vivekananda who said ‘Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man'. Nai Talim was to achieve to a harmonious development of head, heart and hand, based on sound moral principles and corelation with community. One of the core ideas of Nai Talim is child-centric -correlated to the “Swabhava” of the child- particularly the basic and primary education. It is to link knowledge with work for an integrated and wholesome development of child. The methodology of Nai Talim lays special accent on the relationship between the teacher and the taught. There should be a perfect understanding and mutual empathy between the teacher and the pupil. This is possible only when they live together and participate in the learning process. Besides obtaining faith, sympathy and mutual respect between the learner and the teacher the child is not burdened with the idea of learning and education.

Nai Talim education system has 27 tenets and a three-stage programme designed for different age groups starting from 4 to 8, 9 to 16 and 16 to 25 years. The essence of this system is education based on practice along with theory, prioritisation of usage of mother tongue to enable the rural children grasp the subjects easily and quickly, character building and moulding the student right from his childhood as a societal being.

Aim
Our purpose is to develop a policy at the national level and establish an apex body to provide guidance to this system of education.

Objectives

• Consolidate, network and develop institutions engaged in programmes of Gandhian Basic Education or Nai Talim
• New Generation Nai Talim Teacher Training facilities
• Obtaining equivalence for Nai Talim degrees / diplomas / certificates
• Appraisal of conceptual and theoretical approaches
• Use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for effective implementation of Nai Talim
• To mobilise and motivate institutions and Non-Governmental organizations to establish Nai Talim centers across the country
• Provide library facilities to cater to the people involved
• Develope a curriculum that uses principles of basic education in the current context.

Programmes

• Nai Talim sensitisation programmes
• New Generation  Nai Talim Teachers Training (NGNTTT)
• Support to Nai Talim Institution.
• Support to new entrants.
• Nai Talim Orientation & Methodology(NTOM)

Current Activities:

1. Updation of Directory of Nai Talim Institutions and Schools
2. Conducting workshops/seminars to increase awareness among various academic circles about Nai Talim
3. Collection of Nai Talim reference materials from various practitioners, experts, schools and institutions
4. Publication

Events
Formation of the Core Committee of Nai Talim at the National Level
A national level core committee coordinating meeting was held at Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi on 19 May, 2011, to deliberate on the issue of promoting Nai Talim education system in the schools to enable holistic development of the child. It was attended by Nai Talim experts, teachers, grass-roots workers, educationists including Dr. S.V. Prabhath, Chairman, NCRI and Shri P.V. Rajagopal, Vice-Chairman, NCRI. There was general consensus that New Generation Nai Talim Teachers Training programme is the most urgent requirement to successfully impart Nai Talim Education. A research will also be taken up to study the qualitative impact of major Nai Talim Institutions in Gujarat. Nai Talim Education has to be redefined in today’s context was also one of the recommendations of the meeting.

Committee

• Shri P.V. Rajagopal
• Shri Rajeev Vora
• Shri Kanakmal Gandhi
• Dr. Vibha Gupta
• Dr. Sudershan Iyengar

Network with Institutions

1. Promotion of Nai Talim education system.
2. Up gradation of existing curriculum in today’s context
3. For orientation and sensitisation of the community towards Nai Talim education system
4. Holding of workshops and seminars for reorientation and review of the teachers
5. Extending extension services to the community through Nai Talim
6. Preserving the traditional practices through Nai Talim.
7. Establishment of model schools
8. For strengthening this education system with inputs from different domains like rural development, agriculture, science and technology.

Publications
Two books “Perspectives of Nai Talim” in English and “Nai Talim: Naya Pariprekshya” in Hindi are compilation of articles by various educationists, practitioners, experts, teachers of this Basic Education philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi in which they have incorporated their experiences and reflections and its current status in the country.

Contact:
Associate Project Officer
Nai Talim Centre
Landline : 040-23422109, Fax : 040-23212114
E-mail : naitalim@ncri.in