What İs PNDK?
What Is The Education System Of A Democratic Nation (PNDK)?
The statist civilization implements its own mentality by distorting the truth and consciousness of society through the education system. From the beginning, the state which has exercised its authority over society has monopolized the social field of education; children, youth and women were, by way of the education system, were defiled and forced to become slaves and spies. It dissolved the centers of thinking which had advanced the principles of natural social education, opposed it, and on this basis imposed its authoritarian and hierarchical mentality as the sole truth of society. The system continues until today in this manner.
The slave state, the first form of statist civilization, in its essence wanted to bring matriarchal society, which was tied to ethical-political society, under its control; it wanted to distort the consciousness and mentality of society, to distort society’s mentality with openly cruel methods, to monopolize the spiritual and physical culture of society and impose itself on society. This this context, the aim of education is to silence society and make them slaves to the military, the state and their families. In the statist civilization, education is essentially based on ideological construction, the distortion of truth, fear, memorization and open violence.
In the statist system, education was carried out in temples, palaces, and military headquarters. Healthy young men, women and children – those with important skills – were taken by force and brought to temples, slave quarters, and some to the palaces. They were usually taken under the cruelest conditions and were worked like slaves until their death. Healthy young men were taken to slave quarters and forced to fight against society; in gladiatorial competitions, they were barbarically crushed for the amusement of the rich. Some women and children put through very harsh training in the temples and palaces and were denigrated, and some of them were made into slaves in the houses of the royals. Those who had existing skills and learned quickly were put through special training in the temples and palaces and made into state clerks, soldiers and concubines and denigrated in this way. The best example of this: society was defiled by the education system of the Sumerian temples; ideological construction of truth was thrown away and in this manner society was turned against itself.
The phenomenon of education is the process of understanding the acquisition of knowledge, learning, comprehension, application and enforcement in a comprehensive way. The program of democratic education participates in the development of the emotions, skills and thought of everyone; it expresses itself freely, attains a personality and mentality, and thinks freely. In order to share information and experience, it requires a democratic, communal and egalitarian environment. In its true essence, education is a way for one to attain goodness, beauty, personality, feelings, thought, perspective, mentality, relations, decision-making, faith, and means of living.
In democratic society, education and teaching is the construction of a free life and democratic socialization. Education should not be used as a tool of enslavement, destruction of nature, dominance, exploitation, colonialism and oppression. Everyone who participates in a democratic education program must apply what they learn as well as learn in a correct way; they must begin from themselves and aim to be an individual who builds a new society.
In every field, great efforts must be made for the organization and advancement of a system of education for the democratic nation. We absolutely must advance and prioritize the education system for the democratic nation in every field of society that is completely liberated. The advancement of society, the individual and free life will be possible through an education system for the democratic nation. Education is life itself, and society must advance its social education as a whole. Society must clean its social mentality of the authoritarian mindset, change itself and advance a new culture; if society does not take on this form, it cannot be a system of democratic education. In this respect, the system of education for a democratic nation cannot base itself on any other education system in the world. We may be able to use some of the existing experience and methods as examples and learn from them, but we must advance an alternative system against the existing one.
Those who want to advance the education system of a democratic nation are obliged to advance an alternative education system, economic system, healthcare system and defense system as well. In other words, however much we think we are against the system of capitalist modernity in theory, if we cannot advance an alternative system, in practice, we cannot stop ourselves from regressing. Knowing this, the education system must be advanced according to the paradigm of Abdullah Ocalan; cadre, curriculum, educational methods must be rapidly developed step by step in every field in order to be a cure for society.
The stages of learning are always active and dynamic. They cannot be limited to a specific time and place. All fields of life must be considered as educational phases. All educational programs must be intertwined with life; they must address the needs of society, find solutions to its problems, make life simpler, more comprehensible, more meaningful and more beautiful.
Rather than presenting all information in full detail, the spirit of the democratic education system places more importance on the methods of attaining information – not with the existing method of memorization and regurgitation; research, investigation, cognition and understanding are the essential methods.
With the knowledge that mentality will be built by education, educational activities must be considered the first and most basic priority for the construction of a mindset in all areas of life and social spaces. The most basic and indispensable work of the education system of the democratic nation is to provide satisfying, liberating, egalitarian educational opportunities on the basis of communal democracy for all members of society. Youth and children who are preparing to rejoin society must evaluate their opportunities in a way clarified by society and be aware of their rights and responsibilities in joining society. This must be the basic responsibility and duty of social education.
The system of education of the democratic nation is the continuous elimination of obstacles in the way of social, moral and political self-expression. The mind and societal mentality must be updated on the basis of a democratic society; it must organize itself in the form of intertwining itself with all fields of life, and in this way it will build itself in the form of democratic modernity. Democratic education reveals the personality, creates the free self, provides social and organizational projects, and pioneers its realizations. In democratic modernity, science, learning and education will be advanced and innovated together with the era of building society anew.
The paradigm of the democratic nation institutionalizes and innovates the questions of society and the individual such as how and why to live. The political dimension encompasses how people will build a democratic society, democratic nation and a free life, how these things will be and where they will start, what methods will be used for this construction and practical work, the organization of social institutions, and the dissemination of the construction of democratic modernity. Scientific educational institutions and social education must be organized in this environment.
The system of education of the democratic nation cannot be built on centralist, bureaucratic, inflexible, unwilling interests, as is the case of the nation-state mentality. This cannot be carried out without complete social aims and goals and philosophical-ideological-paradigmatic viewpoints; without unified institutions, this will be small and have a limited impact. There is not a social educational mindset that can run on organization, institution and curriculum alone.
The education system of the democratic nation organizes and manages itself like a social movement. Only an educational movement of this nature can be an answer to all of its surroundings, groups, and social spaces. The education system that protects society is obliged have the perspective of participation in the work that builds the democratic nation. This relationship can be achieved only with communal and democratic mindset, organization and style. In democratic modernity, the organizations and institutions in the scientific and educational fields are built, developed and functionalized according to the truth that society consists of majorities and minorities, differences and similarities, the individual and the whole, localities and universes, and different cultures and social groups.
The education system is obliged to be democratic and communal in every way. For this reason, as in all other existing facets of life, all members and constituents of society are responsible for building and rebuilding the fields of science and education. Communes, communities and individuals directly participate in the education system on the basis of profound and radical democracy. Society builds its education system under the umbrella of autonomous democracy. On this basis, organization, scientific activities and education are carries out according to the principles of radical, direct and communal democracy and under the umbrella of democratic self-administration.
According to communes, the most basic units of the society in democratic modernity, the fields of science and education are built on democratic and communal language. That is to say, the culture of communal life, activities, and scientific and educational organization are understood to be one. The principle of, “the more democratic-communal organization and culture, the more social science education; the more social scientific activities, the more communal-democratic culture and organization” should be taken seriously.
The sensitive, analytical and problem-solving mentality of the democratic society is reflected in the education system. Educational activities cannot be limited by time, place, or methods. Every moment of life, every place in which society and people exist, every principle and took that brings advantages to society, solutions to problems, every advancement of social enlightenment and scientific awareness, and every activity in life can be reached in the environment of the educational system.
The education system of democratic society, with its planned, periodic, structured academic study programs and according to the conditions, opportunities, potential, and daily and long-term needs of society, evaluates the very rich principles of education. On this basis, campaigns for daily necessities have the aim of solving problems. There should be educational programs and short, medium, and long educational courses, meetings with educational goals, and short and long term educational activities. Written, televised, and radio educational programs and many other educational methods can make education more realistic.
Every job and profession can be attained in the education system. But democratic modernity of this subject is completely different from capitalist modernity. Because the correction, clarification and definition of these jobs and professions make up a society, it will not make the education of the workers and members for industry a priority; it makes the procurement of the needs of society for itself a priority. In this environment, vocational education programs can both take their place in the general education system and be taught in special vocational schools.
In the mentality of the education of the democratic nation, educational programs can, according to differences between cultures, age groups, societies, sectors of industry, areas of life, be a reply to the needs of the inhabitants of society. Educational programs can be developed which advance the conditions and necessities of the people and of local groups. In summary, the more education of a democratic society recognizes differences, the more it sees the whole society and creates an optimal balance in the whole-part relationship.