IVAN ILLICH(1926 - 2002)

IVAN ILLICH(1926 - 2002)

INTRODUCTION:

Ivan Illich didn’t believe that school problems could be solved by increasing funding or setting higher standards. Ivan Illich's lasting contribution was a dissection of  these institutions and a demonstration of their corruption. Institutions like schooling and medicine had a tendency to end up working in ways that reversed their original purpose. Illich was later to explore gender, literacy and pain. However, his work was the subject of attack from both the left and right.

LIFE HISTORY OF IVAN ILLICH:

          Ivan Illich was born in Vienna in 1926.  His father, Ivan Peter, was a civil engineer. This meant that Ivan Illich, along with his younger, twin brothers were able to live comfortably, attend good schools and travel extensively in Europe . Illich was a student at the Piaristengymnasium in Vienna from 1936 to1941, but was expelled by the occupying Nazis in 1941 because his mother had Jewish ancestry. From this point on Ivan Illich became something of a wandered - travelling the world and having the minimum of material possessions. He completed his pre-university studies in Florence, and then went on to study histology and crystallography at the University of Florence. At this point Ivan Illich decided to enter and prepare for the priesthood. He went to study theology and philosophy at the Gregorian University in Rome.  In 1951 he completed his PhD at the University of Salzburg.  On completing his PhD Ivan Illich began work as a priest in Washington Heights, New York. He was there until 1956. His congregation was largely Irish and Puerto Rican.  He was the vice chancellor of ponce Chatolic University till 1960.

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY OF IVAN ILLICH:

          Liberating the children from the clutches of school education is called deschooling.  Ivan Illich is of the view that school education has no link with requirements of the society.  Only that education acquired by attending school regularly is valued.  The symbols of present-day education are attendance, Examinations and certificates.  Ivan illich is against this.  Ivan Illich asks the question like this.,

1)    Has the curriculum been changed in schools according to the changing time?

2)    Can the personal growth of students be measured and evaluated?

Ivan Illich also says that school education instead of removing the social disparities an equalitrian society, only widens the gap.

THE PROBLEM WITH THE INSTITUTION OF SCHOOLING:

The problem with schools, according to Illich, is that they force ownership over the very idea of learning. They make people believe that learning is the domain of schools alone. “Don’t attempt this at home,” they seem to say. “Your learning must be supervised by a credentialed professional.”

When schools fail, people see it as a further indication that learning itself is an insurmountable challenge:

“All over the world the school has an anti-educational effect on society. School is recognized as the institution which specializes in education. The failures of school are taken by most people as a proof that education is a very costly, very complex, always arcane, and frequently almost impossible task.”

Not only do traditional schools diminish students’ ability to learn on their own, they take students away from the situations where learning readily occurs: the workplace, the political arena, the home, and the community.

IVAN ILLICH’S FURTHER STATES:

          Education system with regular shooling has many defects.  They are:

De-Schooling society means the denial of professional status for the second oldest profession, namely teaching.

1)    It is unnecessary to go to school and study for the development of the society.  So the society should cut off its relationship with school education.

2)    The present-day schools, instead of removing inequalities, only increase the inequalities.  When will an egalitarian society be formed? Equalitarian

3)    Regular educational opportunities are only suitable for upper class people.  It is of no use to the poor people.

4)    The lessons and concepts taught in schools at present are not according to the demands of the time.

IVAN ILLICH’S CONCEPTS OF DE-SCHOOLING:

          The concepts of de-schooling is based on three facts.

1)    Education and schooling do not mean the same; they are quite different.

2)    Organized schooling and compulsory education are the stumbling blocks to true education.

3)    Basically children have the inquisitiveness to know ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘where’ of things around us.  Hence they can learn what they like, from the different resources in the society.  Compulsory schooling, graded students, certification of students studying from certified teachers etc. are to be dispensed with.

Educational resources are usually labelled according to educators curricular goals. I propose to do the contrary, to label four different approaches which enable the student to gain access to any educational resource which may help him to define and achieve his own goals:

1. Reference services to educational objects - which facilitate access to things or processes used for formal learning. Some of these things can be reserved for this purpose, stored in libraries, rental agencies, laboratories and showrooms like museums and theatres; others can be in daily use in factories, airports or on farms, but made available to students as apprentices or on off-hours.

2. Skill exchanges - which permit persons to list their skills, the conditions under which they are willing to serve as models for others who want to learn these skills, and the addresses at which they can be reached.

3. Peer-matching - a communications network which permits persons to describe the learning activity in which they wish to engage, in the hope of finding a partner for the inquiry.

4. Reference services to educators-at-large - who can be listed in a directory giving the addresses and self-descriptions of professionals, paraprofessionals and freelances, along with conditions of access to their services.

IVAN ILLICH’S METHODS OF EDUCATION:

1)    He is of the firm view that as an alternative to regular schooling, an open school system of education is necessary.

2)    One should be given opportunity for education when it is necessary for him.

3)    Outside the school, new learning opportunities should be provided.

4)    One should be allowed to learn according to his pace and will.

5)    Alternative education system should promote humanitarian values and develop many skills.

THE ALTERNATIVE TO SCHOOLING SUGGESTED BY IVAN ILLICH:

1)     In every village, “Educational Resource centers” are to be opened throwing access to all without any regard for age and gender difference.

2)     Mass media like television, radio, newspaper, journals and periodicals should be made available in the ‘Educational Resource Centers’.

3)    People in similar age group should visit these resource centers and share their knowledge and expertise.

4)    People of similar interests should form “Learning Groups” to pursue the learning in the field of their interest.

5)    These resource centers should have adequate library facilities.

CRITICISMS AGAINST DE-SCHOOLING:

1)    Illich has a belief that only the elimination of compulsory education will make a good society; but he never discusses the feasibility of good society.  And never tells how his improved society will function without institution.

2)    Through the concept of de-schooling suggested many strategies niceties, yet they are not practical and helpful to all particularly to the backward and poor rural children.

3)    The institutional school, not only, of course, been relevant to producing a ‘desirable word’.  That is why it must be reformed and reoriented rather than destroyed.