Demystifying Knowledge

Demystifying Knowledge by Sauvik Chakraverti 

Friday, April 10, 2009 Liberty Institute, India 

The market economy functions on the basis of what Friedrich Hayek called the “fragmentation of knowledge.” We not only trade goods; we also trade knowledge. This has serious implications for Education, especially that of poor kids. They need hope and encouragement. They should be told that they need to learn one thing only – and that they must find a real guru for the purpose. This will give them the inner strength they need. Free schools and mid-day meals offer no hope, no strength and no real knowledge either, writes Sauvik Chakraverti for the Liberty Institute.

That all our opinion makers, without exception, consented to Manmohan Singh’s “education cess” is a sign of their fatal ignorance. It means that they all agree not only that The State is in possession of knowledge, but that they must be given the resources to transmit this vital knowledge to the children of the poor. Their central proposition is that the children of the poor cannot survive without injections of knowledge from The State.  Note how this thinking fits in neatly with central economic planning, which Manmohan Singh champions, and which is also based on the assumption that The State can centralize knowledge and thereby “plan” all economic activity: “rational socialism.” Manmohan and Montek are busy putting an 11th Five Year Plan into effect. And this planning includes “education.” But do they possess the Knowledge that poor children need to succeed in the market economy?  The market economy functions on the basis of what Friedrich Hayek called the “fragmentation of knowledge.” Each and every person who trades in the market economy does so with a tiny fragment of knowledge all his own. We not only trade goods; we also trade knowledge. This knowledge is in many cases uncodifiable, and cannot be transmitted through books and classrooms – like how to drive a taxi, how to play a violin (a fretless instrument) or how to harvest coconuts. This has serious implications for Education, especially that of poor kids.  The first implication is this: the children of the poor need just one fragment of knowledge in order to succeed in the market economy. But the schooling system that has been unleashed on them is generalized, and myriad bewildering “subjects” are being taught. Such generalized education is of no use to poor kids. Rather, it is a burden. This is why they themselves prefer to opt out of schools – hence the high “dropout rate.” The State is trying to reverse this by offering free meals in schools. Yet, this is simply pouring good money after bad. We might as well close down the schools and open up government kitchens everywhere to feed the kids. This would save money; it would also leave the kids with enough free time during which they could pursue the acquisition of real knowledge – that which will enable them to succeed in market trades – by apprenticing themselves with motor mechanics, tailors, goldsmiths, beauticians, carpenters, weavers, chefs, musicians and the like.  In other words, there is no “knowledge problem” that requires State action to solve. Real knowledge is transmitted through people who practise various trades. And the fragments of knowledge that each individual needs are – with progress – getting smaller every day. In an earlier age, a village child would need to know the crops and the seasons, how to build a mud house, how to look after and milk cows, and so much more. In the modern world, a child needs only to know how to do one thing well, like play the guitar. If he succeeds as a musician in a city, he can hire a cook, a chauffeur, an architect. He can rely on the fragments of knowledge that others possess.  Amartya Sen and Manmohan Singh are therefore dead wrong when they say that The State must have a major role to play in the education of our kids – and that too, in a closed economy. If the economy were open, more knowledge would be available for all. A kid who has learnt how to be a motor mechanic can now learn how to repair a Mercedes. Free international trade, which Manmohan’s anti-commerce minister, Kamal Nath, doggedly opposes, would bring in more useful knowledge than all the government schools put together. Sen and Singh believe in central planning and state education in a closed economy. Theirs is a prescription for disaster.  Indeed, this disaster is already upon us. If we look around, we will find that we are suffering most in all those areas where The State has a monopoly – like electricity, roads and water, the bijli, sadak aur paani that all our people are crying out for. Whatever is “planned” is a failure. Why should government schools be any different?  The conclusion: The State is an ignoramus. It does not possess any worthwhile knowledge. All government schools, colleges and universities should be closed down. All government teachers should be fired. They are all, in any case, propagandists on behalf of The State. Schoolteachers in villages are all political party hangers-on. That is why every chief minister is only too happy to hire lakhs and lakhs of “teachers” – all party workers. What do they know that they presume they can teach?  I think it would be a great idea for The State to open a school on road traffic management. But even for this simple subject, it would need to import professors from abroad. The Indian police and the Indian PWD do not possess this knowledge. In this simple area too, basic to its own functions, the Indian State is totally ignorant.  What poor children really need is hope and encouragement. They should be told that they need to learn one thing only – and that they must find a real guru for the purpose. They should be told that this is not a hugely uphill task. They should be told stories of the innumerable people who have become rich and famous without going through formal education – from Bill Gates and Dhirubhai Ambani to The Beatles to the chaatwallahs ofDelhi and Bombay, many of whom are millionaires. This will give them the inner strength they need. Free schools and mid-day meals offer no hope, no strength and no real knowledge either. Nor, indeed, good nutrition.  Friedrich Hayek titled his last book Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism. We in Indiamust now see The State as a conceited entity. The political elite, the civil servants – they are all prize examples of this “fatal conceit.” They should not be allowed to teach. They should be asked to learn.  Note: A shorter version of this article was published in the magazine Education World in April 2009.

This article was published in the Liberty Institute on Friday, April 10, 2009. Please read the original article here.

Author : Mr Chakraverti is the author of "Antidote: Essays Against the Socialist Indian State" and its sequel, "Antidote 2: For Liberal Governance". He blogs at www.sauvik-antidote.blogspot.com.