Education vs HRD

Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia’s proposal that the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) be renamed Ministry of Education, as HRD is part of education, may not sell with policymakers, but definitely strikes a chord somewhere. For, the word ‘education’ opens up a wider canvas in the mind that includes literature, art, science, history, culture, sports, language and so on. Education has been often described as a form of learning that helps make man a ‘thinking’ being; it is the most powerful tool for changing human lives, society and the world. It helps to ‘inquire and create”, two of the “highest goals of life”, says renowned thinker Noam Chomsky.

HRD, on the other side, gives the impression of education being caged in a set framework, aimed at tapping the “potential capabilities of human resources” and nurturing or developing them. As per Google, the concept of HRD was first introduced by Leonard Nadler in 1969 in a conference in US – “He defined HRD as those learning experiences which are organised, for a specific time, and designed to bring about the possibility of behavioural change”.

Whether ‘behavioural change’ among human resources after getting ‘new learning experiences’ have so far impacted society in a positive way is a matter of debate. However, there is no denying that some of the post-globalisation nomenclature changes are amusing as these give a semblance of respectability to people without making any revolutionary change in their material or work conditions. So, we have the erstwhile ‘personnel’ department as HRD department, cleaning & sweeping staff as ‘housekeepers’, peons as ‘support staff’ and waiters doing ‘food servicing’ etc. And, while vocabulary does evolve with time, the day isn’t far when newspaper reporters may be re-designated as ‘content providers’, editors as ‘content manager!

^{Education is the most powerful tool for changing human lives, society and the world}

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