This write-up is a response to the article by Col Asthana the NDA that is available on the following link
This response is in four parts. The first part has been published in the Mission Victory India site and can be accessed in the link given below. Parts 2, 3 and 4 follow.
Part-1
Part-2
So that brings us to an interesting question the author raises about the domains of Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes and the techniques of instruction being different for each of the domains. In leadership studies it is mostly a mix of Skill and Attitudes he says, and that of use of lecture sessions to tackle education in the field of leadership is not appropriate.
Indeed, it is now seen as part of excellence in most finishing schools that the focus must shift to ‘experiential learning’. And these methods are now further being promoted way down to the Kinder Garten level too. Facilitation techniques include the use of case studies, practical sessions, hands-on training, apprenticeship, visits and projects. All these are added into pedagogy so that the students’ learning is accelerated. But the use of lecture as a tool of instruction has its own importance and will never disappear from the scene.
Would a lecture session add nothing at all? The take off point for those that promote experiential learning is the figure of 10%; this being the absorption rate for learning through lectures. That speaks about the capacity of a student to absorb knowledge that is vocalized to him, and surely that 10% would be an average over a cross-section of students including some of them who sit in lectures and never register a word of it in their minds as their minds remain distracted throughout. Despite that figure, there is too much knowledge that is transferred through lectures. And lectures as a pedagogy will stay, because they are still available when there is nothing else and can indeed be used to transfer knowledge. That brings us to the question of lecturing about leadership. Just because, in leadership, knowledge is not very important in comparison to skills and attitudes, should we omit lecturing as pedagogy for the subject?
Every bit of knowledge is extracted from practical life. Extracted knowledge gets documented as words and images and these in turn are a powerful means to communicate that extracted knowledge to large populations spread over space and time. And ever since writing gave way to printing, and all the way down to the present multi-media, knowledge that is recorded in words, images and now videos, can be transferred from one to many with great ease. And huge amounts of knowledge has been made available through words. So, when a student sits in a lecture he must work backwards, take a careful look at the knowledge that is being made available, and gain insight into the real world. And a lot depends on both students and teachers to achieve that connection with real life. For example, Bernoulli’s theorem and gyroscopic motion are taught in basic physics classrooms across the world. But it takes a keen student-teacher combination to apply that when trying to curl a football in the air or trying to swing a cricket ball. So also, the available knowledge regarding leadership is a valuable recording of the experiences about leadership of people who have lived in the past, and it is up to the teacher and the student to make that connection from the knowledge back to practical reality. The cadet does listen to a few lectures on leadership and maybe many more are required, but learning can happen through such lectures.
There is another hassle about leadership though. There is too much ambiguity involved in the study of leadership. Conclusions about it can even vary from it being an inborn trait that can never be trained if someone does not possess it,to it being something that can be easily trained. Others hold that it is a mix of both, some trainable qualities and others that cannot be trained. Still another ambiguity about leadership pertains to it being a science in certain aspects and an art in respect to others. And to complicate matters the arts dimension can only be grasped through a study of the spiritual nature of human beings. Spiritual content usually comes through religious sources and religions must be kept out of our classrooms. And so, with knowledge about leadership having such ambiguity, it becomes a difficult balancing act to address the fundamentals of leadership through classroom lectures. In fact, it is very difficult to even draft a comprehensive syllabus on leadership given this art based, spiritual, metaphysical nature of leadership studies. Setting up a proper syllabus to lecture about leadership in an NDA classroom is not easy.
To tackle the ambiguity, most authors and teachers of leadership focus on empirical observations of characteristics of leaders to derive their points on leadership. And therefore biographies, case studies, enumeration of leadership traits, attitudes and characteristics, are the kind of things used in most leadership classrooms. As for handling the spiritual aspect of leadership, the scholars at the Naval College of Leadership have skirted the problem of keeping religions out of classrooms by using an ingenious approach. They use case studies drawn from various religious sources as well. By this they successfully derive good from both worlds, religious and scientific. And they do this without flouting secularism as a principle.
Be that as it may, NDA must evolve its own methodology to transfer knowledge, skills and attitudes relating to leadership to the cadets and it does a reasonable job. One can look at what Gp Capt Chacko has shared in the following article to understand how it happens at a practical level in the NDA.
Not that the methods are perfect but maybe, as Col Asthana points out, should the NDA not be an institution that has a lot more focus on the study and training of leadership?
Part 3
And that takes us to one other point which the author raises: the relevance of the NDA in the present scenario.
When seen from a national perspective, is the intense amount of resources being spent at the NDA really worth it, or is NDA an institution that has outlived its mandate?
The NDA has evolved over time and so also has the justification for its existence. We can take a broad look at several milestones along its journey which can be related to the justification of its existence. And we can also mark out several things that pertain to its internal evolution over the times. And in the end of that consideration, the pertinent question can be asked as to whether the NDA is a necessary condition for officialdom of the Indian Military, or whether it can be re-modelled to deliver better, or then, can it be dispensed with completely?
At its conception the national dynamics dictated the need for this temple of modern India. The British Indian Army, which the nation inherited, was essentially led by the officialdom consisting of British officers and a few Indian ones. At the point of independence, the question arose as to who will replace the British Officers in the Indian Army and there was need for the natives to fill the gap. This called for a bridge institution that would produce ‘cosmopolitan’ candidates to fill the void and therefore an institution, which would train Indians to fit into the shoes of the British Officers came into existence. This, as we can see, was an institution that needed the personal attention of the Prime Minister himself because of its relevance to the Nation. The NDA was, therefore, conceived as a training institute that attracted some of the best educators in the country. This was done by offering up to one and a half times the average teacher’s salary at that time. This was achieved through an NDA special allowance. The principal who was appointed was an educator of high stature and was handpicked for the job. And providing the cadets with the best educators available at that time, the aim was to convert natives into educated officers.
To this concept of it being conceived as a bridge institution there was an idea of ‘jointness’, added to it and so NDA became a feeder institution to all three, IMA, the AFA and the Naval equivalents providing these training institutes natives who were schooled through the British system of education.
The next bit of evolution happened when over the years the 500Rs NDA special allowance remained constant though the value of the rupee fell. At the start 500Rs was half the basic salary of a teacher. When the basic salary went up to several thousands, the special allowance remained the same. There was no incentive left for those teaching at the NDA. And the status of the civilian trainers fell. How far down it came can be seen from an event that can be seen as a landmark: a teacher who joined the NDA, who had come taking leave from his earlier institution, eventually went back to teaching 12th class students at his earlier institution because he saw no promise in continuing to work at the NDA. So much for the elite status of the NDA trying to attract top talent to teach at the NDA.
The next milestone happened when after the 1971-72 war, the leadership realized that it was difficult to place injured officers, or those that left the armed forces, into civilian roles. This was primarily because officers did not have a formal degree. True that the armed forces train a soldier for the responsibility he is expected to take on, and that learning would be substantial. However, without a formal degree it was easy for an external agency to call them 12th std pass. It also created status problems between the officers of the Indian military and the IAS lobby. And then, without a degree admission into relevant post graduate degrees was difficult. This resulted in the introduction of a degree at the NDA and a deal was signed with Jawaharlal Nehru University for this purpose. Interestingly the Naval Academy has a tie up with the local Goa University and academics are more rigorous there. Their cadets must appear for a university exam with question papers set up by external faculty members. In comparison NDA has a relatively autonomous status.
The next phase came in at the turn of the century with the introduction of the UGC norms to govern the academic faculty at the NDA. Earlier the teachers were educationists focused on training cadets and were meant to help them transform into candidates fit for officialdom. But with the new norms in place, their promotions and perks depend onexcellence in academic research. And research, incidentally, is difficult to pursue for the faculty at the NDA. The consequence of this is that it becomes easier for external academicians to get selected directly into higher academic posts in the academy, and once these new incumbents arrive, they also get into the NDA routine and end up in a disadvantageous position when the next round of vacancies isannounced.
The next shift happened recently when the Navy asked for the naval cadets in the academy to graduate as engineers.
Then again one more twist was added when the Supreme Court has decided that NDA will also train girl cadets.
And finally, the New Education Policy recently promulgated by the Central government is expected to bring in more changes at the NDA.
It is also apt to note that the military training aspect has undergone changes over the years. For example, the Rovers camp is supposed to be the toughest camp for cadets of that age across the world and it is in competition with an equivalent Chinese camp, and one wonders which holds the top position currently, as changes are made from time to time. And then again AirForce cadets now train in Super Demonamotorized gliders instead of the earlier non powered gliders. Then again syllabus for jointness and for specific services does try to keep up with the times. Drill has changed from being done without a rifle to with a rifle. There is also a change in the number and depth of participation in troop and other games over time. But overall, the jury is out that it is all addition and no subtraction to the training which the cadets undergo.
One interesting factor that pertains to DS at the NDA is that the initial design was that ‘Instructor’ grade officers get posted into the NDA. It was a privilege then. But today, while the Army DS consider it a privilege, the DS from the Navy and Airforce find out that they lose out on their sailing and flying time as applies respectively and therefore now tend to consider NDA a punishment posting and may not be as enthusiastic about it. It is only the sense of service that must motivate them.
Then we can consider Tradition. Traditions have evolved over time and not all of them can be termed as healthy. In the enthusiasm to take on informal or unstructured training, the training pattern has reversed from the official 70-30% education to training ratio to unofficial 30-70% or may be worse. That cements the notion of ‘official something and unofficial something else’ in the minds of the cadets even before they get to their respective training academies. As things stand now, it can be easily said, and the ex-NDAs will themselves agree that there are as many independent commands in the academy as there are squadrons. So much for learning centralized command. Things had gone so bad in certain squadrons that they were completely disbanded, by sending the cadets away to the other squadrons and re-populating the said squadron with cadets from other squadrons. But somehow the tendency is to get back to square one. The interesting exception is the intervention of a Sports Medicine Specialist at one of the squadrons. He was able to drive into the heads of the cadets that things had to change, and their traditions were adjusted. And for maybe six or eight terms consequently after that, this particular squadron, Golf, won the inter-squadron competition banner.
Finally, and most important of all, is the intake. At NDA’s infancy the intake consisted of natives alright, but on a very broad basis it can be argued that they were mostly from the elite among the natives. There was a time even when the children of royal families were trained at the NDA. Have no doubt that the value systems of the native elite, decided by the training that happens in childhood within a family and caste, is of a higher order targeting them at excellence needed for their elite roles in society. That is not the case now. Education is widespread, and talent that can clear the entrance test followed by the SSB can be found from families that are not very high in the caste hierarchy. The family and caste training during childhood in such cases may not necessarily be one that is tuned to excellence at important positions in society. And though it is a taboo subject because of the politics of the last two centuries, in an honest inquiry which in turn is inpursuit of excellence, this must be factored in.
Another change in the input relates to the fact that once upon a time, the Civil Services and the Military Services were considered way above the other careers for preference and honour. As of today, the best talent is attracted to various other professions. True that there have been cases of students giving up their IIT seats to join the armed forces, but these are exceptions and not the rule. We are indeed not getting the best of the best because the idealism has changed.
More startling is the fact that Officers’ children seem to be opting out of joining the NDA and are choosing other careers instead. And in contrast there are greater numbers of cadets who are children of NCOs and JCOs. The report about these candidates is that the children of officers who train at the academy are extreme; on one hand they are either excellent or on the other they are extremely bad in their output. On the other hand, the children of JCOs and NCOs are known to be largely in the excellent category.
And of course, with the change in technology over the last sixty years, and especially with the coming of computers, the internet, multimedia, hand held devices and such other there are great changes. The physical attributes of the candidates have changed, their approach to life is influence by a diversity of value systems from across the world, social adjustment could be a challenge, the influence of nuclear and electronic families with minimum siblings imparts them with a different characteristics as compared to those coming from joint families of yore.
And therefore, we can summarize that though NDA has been adapting to the changes over the years, a thorough study addressing the changes in the input candidates, the changes in the training system, and the changes war fighting over the decades remains to be done.
So that is how the picture has evolved over time. And if we are serious about allocating our rare national resources properly, we can ask ourselves a question as to whether NDA must continue to exist, or then we could re-allocate those resources to create the NDU instead. Or maybe invest those resources in obtaining modern armaments for fighting future wars.
The initial requirement of training native candidates to fit into the British Officer’s shoes is not important now because education up to the Higher Secondary level is quite widespread and there is already a large pool of cosmopolitan-educated youngsters from which the nation gets to choose. But maybe if our aim is to address even the 60% or so population that lives in the agriculture-based hinterland and the slums of the cities, the funnel consisting of the SainikSchools with NDA as an important connecting link must continue to exist. Provided the funnel truly serves this purposeof serving that 70% population. If the Sainik schools’ intake is not targeted at this population, then this whole edifice can be done away with.
Then again, the jury is out on the concept of jointness. It’s true that we were the first in the world to implement this concept. And surely it helps when an NDA alumnus finds his fellow alumni in the other services when they interact across the services in their work later, but does it really help in jointness? It is a difficult conclusion to come by, but maybe some people could be tasked to research this.
The possibility of converting the academy into a serious Military University could be studied, where academic research on all military matters can be commissioned and pursued with focus, and that should include the subject of military leadership too. And then in that ambience NDA could be a part. There was once a proposal that the academic faculty at the NDA should get commissioned as uniformed officers of the services. Would that help if it were implemented today? Or maybe we could separate education and training into two different phases in the academy so that both are pursued to excellence without too much mutual interference. Unstructured training can be completely stopped during the education phases. And more of the military training can be left to the finishing academies where the whole thing is repeated anyway.
If we go by the adage of ‘catch them young’ then NDA does get to select from a large pool of talented youth from across the country. If they are rough un-cut diamonds when they come in, do they get a good cut in the academy; so that they can shine in the future for the nation? Now that women have been inducted into the academy, this adage of converting ‘boys to men’ must be done away with. And on a lighter note, with females amongst cadets, the joke about converting males into Fe-males (Iron-males) also does not hold. So, what are we transforming them into here? Col Asthana argues that even leadership training is inadequately pursued here, which of course we cannot entirely agree with as brought out by GpCapt Chacko. And I am sure the verdict on this is also not out yet. Is it possible that we are taking diamonds and charcoalizing some of them by subjecting them to unstructured training under un-trained ‘seniors’?
Are we driving in wrong concepts by entertaining the practices of ‘sham’ to escape the ‘ragada’, only pals given lift, do the minimum to pass out, beg borrow or steal but manage, survival focus rather than duty focus, kick start rather than self-start?
May be lack of unity of command as perceived by a cadet, who finds ever Tom, Dick and Harry senior ordering him around, is preventing the cadets from learning the proper balance between nurturing and commanding. Everyone seems to be left to his own means.
Sometimes it appears as if things are in shape just because the intake is remarkably talented, and their personal value of compassion is allowing for the academy to sustain with majority of the cadets surviving for three years somehow. The cadets fare well because of this compassion and not because the systems are designed to add great positive value to them at the academy, which in any case can be added elsewhere in the system. Over the three years there is growth in the cadets alright, but there is correction needed in the system if it must deliver outcomes that are worth such huge investment of the resources of the nation.
Part 4
And finally, the author’s take on Seva Parmo Dharma, is an example of how a fine inspiration could be lost on a Cadet if he never gets sensitized to the idea of what it really means.
Equating ‘Sewa’ to the service of the kind a waiter provides to a patron with the sole purpose of earning a livelihood, or a nurse to a patient even if perchance she has no great passion for that work, or a subservient person doing something personal for a boss to please him, would lead to the wrong conclusions about what it means. But if ‘Sewa’ were seen in the context of Jesus Christ washing the feet of his apostles then it would mean something else. If the boss, Jesus, was washing the feet of his followers, then he was showing them that what he was sharing with them in their earlier three-year association, as their friend, philosopher, guide and leader (commander), was in fact service.
And this is not too farfetched an idea for application in a military context. If one is aware, the young British officer of the erstwhile British Indian Army would do something similar. After he and his platoon returned from a foot march, the officer would get his men to line up with their shoes off. Then he would take each man’s foot in the palm of his hand and check for blisters or other injuries… every one of the soldiers. Now one should realize what impact this would have on the relationship that existed between the commander and the commanded. It is in the celebration of this relationship that the concept of “Seva Parmo Dharma” must be seen.
Besides this, Seva Parmo Dharma is also an indirect reference to the fact that it is not for personal gain that a soldier does his thing. The motto is to rise above selfishness. True soldiering is about doing one’s duty. It is the ethos of the land where the Sindu flows that the people live and die for the sake of ‘Dharma’. The mission statement is about “not pursuing ‘rights’ but about pursuing ‘duties’ and finding fulfilment and contentment in it alone”. It is about pursuing an ethos where performing one’s duties leads to everyone getting their rights rather than each one pursuing his rights and therefore doing his duty on that behalf.
It is a paradigm shift. And maybe Col Asthana is right in spotting that the environment at the NDA fails to reflect this sentiment in its portals. Maybe this is what ails the NDA. If the entire system is focused on duty and Dharma, then the need for a cadet to develop a ‘survivor’ mentality may not arise at all. May be every rough diamond would then be a work in progress to become true shining diamonds of the future. And I guess this attitude benefits every cadet who personally follows (has followed) this principle—Seva ParmoDharma. The academy must genuinely rise to its motto in all its dealings. Service first… duty first… serving in command.
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