प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

166 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA [Ch. It placed a high incentive before the student world. It afforded opportunities to intelligent students to learn the art of teaching, and thus indirectly per- formed the same function as the Teachers' Training Colleges discharge today. It increased the efficiency and decreased the cost of the school by affording intelligent and free assistance to the teacher. It is well known that Bell and Lancaster had based their Monitorial System on what one of them had observed in contemporary Indian schools. Conclusion : It will be seen from the above discussion that the method of teaching followed in ancient India was on the whole the best suited for an age, which did not enjoy the advantages of paper and printing. It developed the powers of memory, a faculty which is being sadly neglected in modern times. It did not however encourage cramming, bacause the texts that were memorised were well understood by students. Reflection and analysis was also encouraged especially in the case of those students who had taken logic, philosophy, poetics or literature. Lucid exposition was a forte of Indian teachers, for which they were well known all over Asia during the first millennium of the Christian era. Debates were a normal feature of higher education. Individual attention was paid to the needs of students, which naturally ensured good results. The student must however have intelligence.¹ Hindu educationalists have pointed out that the best

1. वितरति गुरुः प्राज्ञे विद्यां यथैव तथा जडे । न च खलु तयोर्ज्ञाने शक्तिं करोत्यपहन्ति वा ॥ भवति च तयोर्भूयान्भेदः फलं प्रति तद्यथा । प्रभवति मणिर्बिम्बोद्ग्राहे मणिर्न मृदां चयः ॥ Uttararāmachairt, Act, II.