Our educational system is in a mess .We seem to be
totally confused because we don’t know what to do .Do what about, you may ask
?The problem is in the times we are living in .The other day we went to a
restaurant and one look around made me aware of the times we live in .There was
near deathly silence –everyone was
interacting either with their smart phones or ipads .Even while gorging into
the biryani at Gazebo ,people were eating food all the while talking over their
cell phones .The name of the locality in which Gazebo is situated –Dubai Internet City !! Well that’s
the world we live in .But the problem with education is more serious .The
biggest problem in using technology is that if you use technology to improve
the learning outcomes with the present curriculum and the present education
system, then there’s a conflict. A huge conflict .The technology, information
technology, is essentially a nonlinear tool. You can go to the Internet and
search just about any content .You can
skip from one field to another by just typing in the address .However the education system as it exists is a very linear one.Its a throwback of the
Industrial Revolution and is out of sync with the Technological /Digital
/Computer /Space age !!
Education over the years has been fashioned like an
assembly line. Children get placed on a conveyor belt that carries them from
grade level to grade level.As if they all learn at the same speed . At each
stop on the way they are receive the same knowledge as everyone else. Rather
than become problem-solvers, students
are expected to simply absorb the facts provided to them.And the schools do
that by charting a syllabus on a week to week basis and with old fashioned
systems of assessments which fetches you a “zero” if you answer differently
because it is not part of the “marking scheme” or if the answer is not from the
standard explanation of the chapter .!! How dare you say that Indians ate beef
during the Vedic and other ages !!Its not part of the social history Mr Kain
taught you in your 11th Grade !!
But
technology enables a new, nonlinear curriculum, one that emphasizes
problem-solving over memorization. But such improvements are impossible under
the traditional educational system:
When you take technology and place it in the
learning environment, if you make it subservient to the current linear system,
then the power of the technology is constrained and then, to that extent, it is
not affected. Then its effect is only as much as the school system’s effect.
Giving children access to technology is important,
but doing so will only have an effect if we make fundamental adjustments to our
education system. If innovation is going to shape the way the world runs in the
next 50-100 years, it only makes sense to shift how we prepare students to face
that future:
So the important thing is to learn the skills of
learning, to learn cooperatively. The old system says you are going to learn
and you are going to appear for the exam.And in the exam room you are sitting
like a living dead with fierce looking invigilators .You are sitting trying to
cover every millimeter of your answer script and will be lucky if you can lift
your head up for fear of being told you are cheating . The new world is saying you can work in groups and learn
and crack the problem. So I think we need to fundamentally change the way we’re
learning, the way that we are being assessed and certified as well.
You may well ask as to what the hell
am I doing to change all that after being in the field throughout my life .Well
as long as CBSE and other Examining Boards change the way they look at the
childs achievements –we can do very little .The brilliant students are always
going to be the ones who can cram the syllabus written in books by the NCERT !!
And sit in classes packed in a orderly way like sardines !! Good luck .
Kulbhushan Kain
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