What are the defects of the education system?

Beloved Osho, at the gates of universities in india, it is written, "education is that which liberates." today in india everyone agrees that the education system is a mess, but no one tries to change it. What are the defects of the education system in india? What kind of education can be helpful for the inner and outer growth of the individual so that the new man and the new society can be born? What subjects are needed for the right type of education?

So there should be a special examination for a professor -- that means, whether he is articulate, whether he can speak well, whether he can express himself adequately. And secondly, the Indian Educational Service should have every year at least a one-month refresher course for every professor of the country, so that they are made up-to-date. Knowledge is exploding so fast and to remain up to date is an absolute necessity, at least for the professors; otherwise the whole country will remain backward. Refresher courses are needed. Or, if it is felt necessary, then before entering the examination of the educational services there should be a certain training of three months, six months, where they are taught how to teach. This is strange: school teachers need training for teaching; they have to have a Bachelor's degree in teaching. Strange: primary school teachers have training -- and university professors have no…

Osho, what is your idea of true eduction?

Education has to serve revolution. But ordinarily it serves the government and the priest and the church. In a very subtle way, it prepares slaves -- slaves for the state, slaves for the church. The real purpose of education should be to subvert outmoded attitudes, beliefs and assumptions which no more serve growth and man, and are positively harmful and suicidal. An interviewer once asked Ernest Hemingway, "Isn't there any one essential ingredient you can identify which makes a great writer?" Hemingway replied, "Yes, there is. In order to be a great writer a person must have a built-in shockproof, crap detector." And that's what my idea of true education is. The children should be trained, disciplined, so that they can detect crap. A really intelligent person is a crap detector. He immediately knows, the moment he says something, whether it is significant or just holy cowdung. The evolution of…

Do you feel, Osho, that present institutions or universities can fulfill the aim of our education in love, nonviolence, and beauty?

Difficult. As things stand today—whether in universities or in schools—without changing the entire structure, it is difficult. Because that whole structure itself is part of the same game of cunning, hatred, ambition, violence, lust for position, inferiority, superiority. Our university is not something separate from our society. It is a small replica of our society. That is, the university is a factory that keeps reproducing society’s old structure in new children—nothing else. It is not truly a university; it is a factory whose job is to transplant the old social framework into fresh minds. There too the teacher is running in the same race in which the politicians are running. There too the vice-chancellor is afflicted by the same inferiority from which politicians and ministers suffer. The same race continues there. And it is these very people, caught in all this racing and madness, who are initiating the new children…

Osho, the slavery in the field of education is immense. Even after being selected in an interview as a lecturer in philosophy at Wadia College in Poona, I was not appointed because I refused the condition that I should not wear saffron robes and a mala (beads). Now, again, after being selected in an interview at Poona College, before appointing me they want a promise that I will not wear saffron robes, and that if I wear a mala I will keep it under my clothes. A teacher does not even have enough freedom to live in his own way! And such a slave teacher is entrusted with the burden of shaping th

This educational system, Anand Satya, will create obstacles for you. If you want to be a teacher you will have to make some compromises. If you do not want to—my advice is: don’t. Because what will you gain by compromise? You will get bread and butter. Bread and butter can be earned in other ways too. One need not sell one’s soul for bread and butter. But these hassles will come. You cannot have laddus in both hands. Either you can be a man of the soul, or you will have to make some compromises. I do not tell you what to do. I only make the situation clear. It is this clear: if you want to be a professor in some school or college, you will have to compromise. Keep the mala inside! For now, slowly start wearing white clothes, then little by little begin to tint them. Once…

Osho, do you feel, sir, that a new education could bring about a revolution that frees the individual and creates a beautiful society?

Two things are certain: 1) First, we must save new children from the old. Half of education’s task should be to protect children from the stupidities of the past. At present, education initiates them into those past follies—it inducts them. The foolishness that has gone on for thousands of years, we teach to new children too. The primary work is to save them from the errors of the past. 2) Second, where the past went wrong, we must do the opposite. Instead of fighting sex, sex should be known and understood. Instead of fighting anger, it should be recognized and known. This knowing will operate on two planes. One: there should be laboratories where such experiments are conducted on a large scale. And two: each person should become a laboratory himself, continuing his own experiments. Just as we eat every day and sleep every day, so too every day we…