Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c7.49.2

c7.49.2

It is noteworthy that among the five things which the teacher is urged specially to look after are the meanings of words and the revision of the former lesson. Akbar evidently intended whatever was done to be done thoroughly. The injunction that ‘care is to be taken that he (the pupil) learns to understand everything himself, but the teacher may assist him a little,’ sounds almost like a quotation from a modern textbook on education. While, however, we must be careful not to read too much into this or any other statement of this document we can say at least that it shows that Akbar saw the need of intelligent co-operation on the part of the pupil in the work of education, and that true progress can only be made when the pupil is learning to think out his own problems. The curriculum which is put forward as suitable for ‘every boy’ must evidently be intended for the *madrasah* rather than for the primary schools. Even so it is a very wide one. It is to be noticed that in the earlier portion of the document Akbar laments the fact that a great portion of the life of students is wasted by making them read ‘many books’, and yet he here recommends the study of a very large number of subjects. But the two things are not inconsistent. The former statement evidently refers to the reading of many books without understanding them, or of books which his majesty would not consider of much practical use, as, for example, the vapid *belles lettres* in Persian.