I would put forward here certain facts which motivated us to launch the Durgapur Public Institute which would start functioning from 2006. Before outlining other details, I am presenting before you “an extract from a speech delivered by Lord Macaulay in the British Parliament in February 1835 – the time, when the British were striving hard to take control of the whole India Lord Macaulay, a historian and a politician, made this historical speech in the British Parliament, commonly referred to as the Minutes, which struck a blow at the centuries old system of Indian education. His words to the effect: ” I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen people of such wealth, such moral values, such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native self culture and they will become what we want them to be, a truly dominated nation”. It is not difficult to see from our present day attitudes, not only in the field of education but also in overall mental frame, that Lord Macaulay and his successors eminently succeeded in achieving the objects they had set for themselves. Taking lesson form Swami Vivekananda, who said -“Education is the manifestation of perfection al-ready in man” .To me the very essence of education is concentration of mind, not collecting facts. If I had to do my education over again, and had any voice in the matter, I would not study facts at all. I would develop the power of concentration and detachment, and then with a perfect instrument, I could collect facts at will.” We are to take care of some good aspects of GURUKUL HERITAGE and transform it in proper objective attitude to take on the challenges of the times and find a place of pride and respect in any profession on a global sphere. In the above background, all of us as a team worked hard to start admission in DPI at present from primary levels only which will be gradually upgraded to 12th standard with CBSE affiliation. We have also planned to make it a residential school from class V onwards. We are determined to run the school on “no loss no profit” basis so as to make it away from a structure of commercial house. There will be opening for economically poor meritorious students with adequate scholarships. Any excess of income arising after meeting all essential expenses will be utilized only for development of the Institute. We sincerely fee 1 that in course of time if we can place at least fifty properly educated youngsters to the society, it will be considered as our repayment of debt to the society. By the next 5 to 10 years, it is expected that our endeavor will take concrete shape of an outstanding institution and thereafter, we shall hand over the reins to a suitable Education Trust for carrying the assured Mission in the years to come.Most part of our life we have spent in psychometric research and studies. During our research studies and providing services in the related areas we often came across situations, which made us think seriously about the future generation and future society. It is very painful to note that the youngsters very often fight each other in the name of competition to reach the top without becoming concerned for people and society; and we feel all these are happening due to upbringing of the youngsters in a social environment where all relevant aspects of the environment are not taken care and not given proper consideration. We are planning to set up a model school in West Bengal at Durgapur, a city which is fast growing in various sectors. The school will, as we are planning, be of residential type (from class V onwards) and admission will be restricted mainly at the primary levels. We want to impart training in all related areas while taking care of their psychological and socio-cultural development. We want to create an excellent, academically good individual without sacrificing the all-round development of the person concerned. We want to see individuals performing their best in the academic areas with all virtues and qualities that a society needs for its wholesome development. The school will be up to 12th standard with CBSE affiliation and the medium used would be English later on. If we can present around 100 mature individuals to the society every year, it will be repayment of our debt to the society. Again, as far as the school economy is concerned, we will run it in a more or less “no loss no profit basis” and keep some free seats for economically poor but meritorious students. Left over margin of the income would be utilized only for development of the Institution.
It may not be out of place to state, at this juncture,that we are in the field of education, career guidance & counselling and large scale objective testing for MORE than HALF CENTURY and have not yet failed to this date in whatever we have undertaken in the past and on that count we also hope to succeed in this current endeavor of ours.The feeling of hatred, malice, lack of sympathy for the suffering of the people or attitude of underestimation towards a section of people can be traced to the early formative years of the individuals. If properly nurtured by providing the right soil and other relevant surrounding inputs children will develop compassion, be devoid of meaningless vanity and would have the desire to see all those around them well prosperous and happy.The man made sufferings brought about by wars, devilish atrocities, desire for unwarranted domination over others would be reduced to a great extent by inculcating the right attitude and love for all during childhood training.During our long experience in schools, colleges and also at the recruitment stage in diverse areas and levels, we have seen that by the time individuals proceed to adulthood, much harm has already been done. The core of human personality crystallises during the first four or five years of life and whatever changes that take place later years are woven around this core. Hence, if individuals are to be included with the right attitude, right resolve and to seed them with sympathy, love for humanity and a desire for the betterment of all, one has to catch them young and build them up from the scratch so to say. With this idea, we, with our experience with children plan to devote ourselves in a “man making” project within the ambit of our very limited resources and opportunities.Someone said that no good work could suffer from lack of funds, the truth of which we have ourselves observed from our experience of developing the Indian Institute of Psychometry some twenty eight years back. The Institute was started with zero capital and with a group of persons who worked on a purely honorary capacity and what has been so far achieved is an all round development, a good name for the quality of the Institute’s products and credibility and unimpeachably renowned for integrity. For all these year (1978-2006) and earlier too (1952-1978) some of us have worked on honorary basis and, have contributed all our efforts, leisure time and all our available resources. This has taken shape as the present Indian Institute of Psychometry which celebrated its twenty fifth anniversary on the 18 July, 2003.As indicated earlier, we want to catch the children much early and start from the kindergarten stage (Montessori system) and from Class V onwards we plan to make residential arrangements for them.Our aim is not just to stuff the children with information (Montessori system) and from Class V onwards we plan to make residential arrangements for them. and knowledge but to inculcate all round development of physical, mental, moral, spiritual (inculcation of humanism) with debates, carefully planned physical and mental development and etc . While providing guidance to individuals, while selecting them for professional courses, while screening them for recruitment purposes, while doing follow-up studies, we have observed children and individuals from every close quarters and have been able to see for ourselves the weak spots, the areas to be developed further, wrong attitudes to be weeded out and on the basis of knowledge thus gleaned, we have carefully drawn up a scheme of developing and teaching them properly. Considering the encouragements we received from the local people of Durgapur, we felt motivated to acquire a plot of land there and to launch our new venture “The Durgapur Public Institute”. Here we plan to give shape to our ideas and if all things go well we hope to start the school by the end of March 2006. By the next 5 to 10 years is expected that The Durgapur Public Institute would get fully developed with all facilities that we dreamt, then we shall hand over the reins to a suitable Educational Trust for carrying out the mission further. The first generation student admitted may not do well initially, not because of lack of ability but due to lack of suitable background, we propose to spot out such cases and build them up through special methods rather than debar them from the opportunity to study.
In course of our long experience in the field of education, selections, admission to various courses etc., where we had to deal with the young generation of India, we have come across many youngsters with high level of intelligence, smartness, ambition for success etc., etc. But it was painful to observe that all their thoughts and efforts center around self. ‘My success’, ‘my achievement’, ‘my career’ etc, occupy their entire thought process, without paying least concern about those who are members of his world, his family, his neighbour, his classmates or colleague. This is rather a bitter pill to swallow and we feel that we should try to introduce some changes. We want to inculcate the culture where everyone will be concerned about the members of his family, members of the society, his countrymen. Then and then only the progress of the nation will be confirmed. Based on this realization, we feel that such ideas should be placed before our youngsters from the very beginning and with our limited resources, but with correct objective we should start a school where children would be admitted at the time when their mind is fresh, not vitiated with the idea of defeating others by any means. No doubt there should be healthy competition but at the same time the spirit of accepting the supremacy of those who are really better than others should be cultivated. These ideas may sound a bit idealistic but in the long run it will pay to our society. DPI’s mission is based on these ideas. Let us see how we can progress towards our mission and make DPI an example for all.
