Where do teachers' freedom on how to teach stop?

Hindustan Times

10-07-2025

The authorities can decide what to teach. But the decision of how to teach is the sole responsibility of the teacher. This is one of the unshakable beliefs of teachers. History records the Orientalists' protest against the introduction of the Anglican code of knowledge into higher education during British rule. Similarly, there have been protests for teaching in the vernacular. Orientalists in India themselves were opposed to the inclusion of the Anglican code of knowledge, but there was almost universal agreement among the freedom struggle leaders to use the vernacular. What subjects should be included in the curriculum is still a matter of contention and controversy. Academic freedom is often debated over what to teach. But we still believe that how to teach is beyond debate and within the complete freedom of teachers. Teacher (Hindustan Times (PIC FOR REPRESENTATION))
During colonial rule, the academic freedom of university and college teachers in India was severely restricted. As outlined in policies such as Lord Macaulay's Educational Minutes (1835), there were curricula aimed at promoting European literature and science. There was little room for innovative or critical pedagogical approaches in the educational system for producing clerks and colonial subjects with a disdain for native their literature. The opening of Sanskrit colleges in Calcutta (1824), Agra (1860), and Madras (1906) may be exceptional cases, a kind of cherry-picking in the history of academic freedom of what to teach during colonial India. However, the core questions of academic freedom of how to teach were never raised in these institutions either. There is no evidence that the lack of freedom for teachers to foster critical thinking within the classroom or to challenge colonial ideologies has led to any debate. But this doesn't mean that there are no victims of how to teach in India. A careful examination would help us to locate a few examples.
The colonial government enacted laws such as the Vernacular Press Act of 1878 and Section 124A (relating to sedition) of the Indian Penal Code which restricted free expression. This has significantly affected not only the media but also academic discourse. Expressing views critical of British rule led to situations where punitive measures were invoked. These laws led to the suppression of dissenting voices within educational institutions and acted as a fetter on academic freedom. Not only colonial interests but also the protests of narrow-minded natives led to the restriction of academic freedom. Under the shadow of the existing colonial laws, strong actions were taken against the teachers as well. Henri Louis Vivian Derozio (1809–1831), assistant headmaster of the Hindu College in Calcutta, encouraged his students to think critically and question the content of textbooks and established traditions of the system. His progressive ideas and promotion of free thought led to his expulsion from the college in April 1831 under pressure from conservative sections of society who saw him as a threat to orthodox beliefs, as reported by Joseph Black and colleagues, in their seminal work 'The Broadview Anthology of British Literature Volume 1: The Medieval Period'. Similarly, the experience of James Long (1814–1887) an Irish missionary and teacher who translated Dinabandhu Mitra's Bengali play 'Neel Darpan', into English, which depicts the exploitation of Indian peasants by British indigo planters. Dinabandhu Mitra was Long's student at CMS School, Amherst Street, Kolkata. In 1861, after the play became popular, he was fined and sentenced to one month in prison for attempting to libel the British government as recorded by Geoffrey A. Odie (1999) in his book Missionaries, Rebellion and Proto-Nationalism: James Long of Bengal 1814–87. Educator and activist Ishwardatt Medharti was an Indian freedom fighter who used his teaching as a means of freedom struggle. A teacher of a Kanpur-based school Sri Dayananda Bharatiya Vidyalaya in 1929, he was sentenced to six months imprisonment by the colonial government because of his participation in the Bardoli satyagraha. After his release, Maren Belwinkel-Schemp in his book Ishvardatt Medharthi: Life & Message (2004) notes that he continued his campaigns of civil disobedience and served three years in prison after participating in the Uppu Satyagraha in 1930. Thousands of such teachers, both documented and undocumented, may have been subjected to severe disciplinary measures during colonial times for exercising their academic freedom of how to teach. In India, there appears to be an academic slumber around the broader understanding of academic freedom, one that extends beyond the question of what to teach to include how to teach.
A critical reading of the educational policy documents starting from the NPE 1968 to the NEP (2020) shows that academic freedom has been defined as the right of teachers against unfair disciplinary measures, freedom of speech and freedom to choose research topics of choice. Policy documents envisioned that authorities (NCERT/ Universities) held the mandate to decide what to teach. Even, how to teach is rarely acknowledged as part of their academic freedom, let alone encouraged. We have a situation where the idea of academic freedom of teachers is mistaken for the idea of academic freedom of authorities.
Going a step further, the National Education Policy 2020 advocates that teachers should be given freedom in how to teach as well as what to teach. But NEP 2020, which used the idea of freedom to choose the teaching method of the teachers in the most dominant way, reduces academic freedom to the definition of autonomy, which entangles academic freedom into the snare of culpability of their decisions.
Academic freedom must be understood as the teacher's right to shape both the content and method of teaching through their knowledge and creativity, free from external constraints. Without this, pedagogical creativity becomes a caged parrot confined by institutional frameworks and authority-driven agendas. We need to reconceptualise the idea of academic freedom in India, not merely as the freedom of authorities, but also as the teacher's freedom to decide what and how to teach. Policy documents and the media have a critical role and responsibility in this process.
This article is authored by Amruth G Kumar, professor, School of Education, Central University of Kerala, Kasargode.