Ara Aman is an 18-year-old girl from Chandigarh who did not attend a conventional school or college. She does not hold a secondary school certificate or higher secondary certificate.
Instead, at seven-years-old, she attended a community institution in the city called Coveda, where she chose the subjects she wanted to learn.
Educating selves
At the age of 15, Aman impressed the faculty of Brockwood Park School and headed to the United Kingdom to study. She is now set to attend Bennington College in the US in July where she was not asked to submit any academic certificates.
Aman’s idea of acquiring selective and unconventional education set the theme for discussion on ‘Conscious Learning’ at Gurugram’s 20-year-old Gnostic Centre on Thursday. The sessions there included those on conscious cooking, meditative pottery, music and dance.
“We need to change the way education is structured in the country. We need to have practitioners instead of teachers. The concept is to allow people to educate themselves the way they want, things they want to learn and study,” Ameeta Mehra, Chairperson and Founding Trustee of Gnostic Centre told The Hindu .
She added that in India, the concept may or may not become a part of the social fabric at the moment but “can be a two-day or 10-day program where people from all walks of life can discover themselves in this hectic life.”
Participants included faculty or office bearers of mainstream education institutions.“I desperately want my children to be grounded in the right way of living because it leads to less stress,” said Dr. Anjuna Dhir (46), one of the participants.
