This is about the education system prevalent in India.
Current setup
The current system has emphasis on learning by-heart. The kids are asked to read and reproduce the same in exam after exam. They are asked to remember what they have learnt/taught line by line. There is no thinking about the applicability and concepts.
Take my own example, the school taught me the subject in a very theoritical fashion. I was good at remembering the things and was getting through the exams pretty well. What I did not realize at that point was that it was all memorization.
What helps and what doesn't help?
Memorization helps to know a subject. But it is not sufficient to solve a problem.
I am not talking about the bright minds who have that in-built capacity. We are not considering them for our discussion here. They belong to a separate category who doesn't need much support from the system to achieve greater heights. We will focus on the rest of the section of the students who need guidance and support.
Memorization creates a building block which needs to be utilized to construct something. How to use it to construct a particular form is the applicability of the subject.
This is missing in our education system.
This method of learning is prevalent right from the time a child first steps 0nto the education ladder.
Initially, it is helpful to learn few things as the brain needs to get data before it can process it. But soon, the child encounters a situation where he has to stick to convention. There is no room for lateral/creative thinking involved in his day-day life.
When something is taught, the subject is imparted in a linear fashion with no exploration, to allow broader discussion. This kind of teaching is constraining the creativity in a child to think about different scenarios. I notice this quite often when a kid is memorizing a subject line and is expected to reproduce it, as is/verbatim, in his exam.
As he goes up the education ladder, the tougher challenges need solutions that need to be thought out rather than reproduced verbatim from some place else.
There is no emphasis on practical/project work during the education. The more some one tries to do a project, with a bunch of tools (information bits) available, the more he will learn about their relevance and practical applications.
I don't see this happening in our current education system. I am limiting the scope only to lower/elementary and mid level education. Higher education is a different topic that I will address later.
What is required?
1. Focus on fundamentals/concepts
This is very important to instill the right knowledge to a student. As one learned soul said
'Instead of giving fish as an alm to a man, we should teach him how to fish'
the focus should be to impart the right kind of tools that he can use to build the structures that he wants.
A building can only be as strong as the foundation
This is a key ingredient for any person to succeed in life. This has to be instilled at an early age as this quality cannot be easily acquired over time. This is a key constituent in a successful personality. This has not got the attention it deserves and remains neglected.
As a student, it is imperative that he develops this trait, which helps him to achieve bigger things in life. The confidence can be drawn from multiple sources such as
- Confidence based on can-do attitude,
- Confidence based on knowledge,
- Confidence based on other social factors including wealth.
The first two are required where as the last one is fleeting and counter-productive.
Having a can-do attitude is very much essential to succeed in future. Most people fail as they give up very easily due to lack of this attitude.
3. Teach Life skills
The primary focus in our elementary education has been to learn everything under the sun but ignoring certain fundamentals. A child is supposed to learn so many subjects these days that no priority is given to learning certain skills that are basic to lead his life.
What are these basic life skills?
- Empathy
- Perseverance
- Team spirit
- Initiative
- Patience
- Positive thinking
- Respect failure
- Respect uniqueness
- Responsibility
- Fairness/Honesty
4. Teach morality
In our current curriculum, there is no scope for morals or morality. A society is built on morality as its foundation. If this doesn't get taught, then the society that is based on such individuals is a weak one. Emphasis should be on including this element in our curriculum. The life skills that I mentioned above have a very close kinship with morals.
5. Emphasize on the practical usage
During a class, any subject taught without its day-to-day usage in our surroundings is hard to grasp. This is especially true when this gets taught to kids. The focus of teaching should be on imparting how it is relevant in our life.
6. Allow creative thinking
Push the kids to experiment and derive their conclusions. The more they explore, the more they learn to think in different ways and understand success and failure.
7. Allow Physical Activities
These days, kids are so much involved in their studies, they hardly get time to go out and play games. It is essential that kids play games as it improves their physical and mental health.
It will help them to learn how to interact with others and the need to adjust in life.
Benefits
An overhaul in the education leads to healthier minds and healthier society.
Who needs to change
Schools, Teachers, Parents, Government
Scope of change
-
Areas that need attention (for investment)
- A curriculum designed to address the new method of learning.
Create new text books that address this ideas. Currently, I assume there are already enough players who are developing these books. Success in this approach is tied to the implementation, viz school.
- An institute that trains the teachers on this methodology.
This is more practical. The institute needs marketing and the concept should be sold to parents, teachers and schools. The institute should maintain a standard and get recognized by public.
Each school should send their teachers to the institute for training and should give preference to the ones who get the training during their hiring process.
- A school that focuses on this principles.
This needs more investment and should be handled after getting recognition through the institute as mentioned above.
