With the onslaught of European culture and the new education policy introduced by Lord Macaulay, two different systems of Sanskrit education came into prevalence - the traditional and the modern. There is a supposed dichotomy between the two. The colonizers created an artificial divide to keep the pundits out of touch with the modern tools and acumen and to create a class of modern educated youngsters. An artificial compartmentalization between tradition and modernity was thus sought to be established the British rulers, which was in the interest of the `Raj'. They succeeded in this and this success lead to the erosion of traditional educational systems and values. Prior to that no such divide existed in our tradition. Sanskrit and its educational systems that have been in vogue till 18th century in our county have always been refurbishing themselves by adopting new concepts and methodologies.
The chasm between the traditional education and the modern systems has ever since been widening. Sustained efforts should be now made to demolish the divisive structures designed by the colonial mentality. Modernization of the traditional institutions without in any way affecting their identity is a desideratum. Students of pathashalas should be trained in modern technological devices computer software and programming with a view to create a corpus of Sanskrit literature for e- learning.
On the other hand, the uniqueness of guruœiºyaparamparâ should be maintained and be cultivated. The Sanskrit students from the so called modern stream should be given exposure to the traditional methods of textual readings and interpretation, leading to a hermeneutics of diverse disciplines under Sanskrit learning. .
Focus should now be on networking of the libraries, computerization, availability of modern equipments, developing language laboratories in the institutions of Sanskrit learning.
Primary and Higher Secondary schools form the foundation of our educational system. In the realm of the so called traditional Sanskrit education, the pathashalas are the pillars of whole system. The Sanskrit Universities should also create liaison with schools and pathashalas in their region. This was one of the recommendations made in the conference of the Vice Chancellors of Sanskrit Universities organized by the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan in August 2009.