IT TOOK A PANDEMIC TO UNSHACKLE OUR AGEOLD EDUCATION SYSTEM.
“Change is the only constant in the world”. This, however, is not true of our medieval education system. The present Education system of our country could not have been farther more from the truth, as we have managed to carry on the same education system thrust upon us by one Thomas Babington Macaulay in the year 1835 in his famous “Minutes of Macaulay”. A man who was drenched in the imperiousness of his beliefs, and who very snobbishly quoted “A single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia”.
His perception of education was not to educate masses rather to educate a few upper middle-class Indians, through whom education would trickle down, also known as “Infiltration theory”, to put it bluntly, education for a handful. To create a workforce only educated enough to push papers at a desk. A workforce of educated youth who are good enough to perform what they are told to do. According to an ANNUAL EMPLOYABILITY SURVEY 2019 report by Ignited Minds, 80% of our engineers are not fit for any job in the knowledge academy. Almost two centuries later, we haven’t tried to deviate from the core of this philosophy other than some superficial changes to our education system. Our education system still caters to a minority in each classroom, students who are already intelligent, diligent and attentive enough to perform well. The majority of the class is left to fend for themselves. Our education process being so archaic has no room for inclusive growth. It provides no outlet for children who might need a helping hand, teachers being completely helpless here, as they are forever time bound to complete the prescribed syllabus. Understanding takes a back seat to completion. Thus, producing educated youth who would “do what they are told rather than think for themselves”.
This current unprecedented covid-19 crisis that has befallen mankind today, has in a single sweep forced the educators to make changes to our archaic education system and our teaching methodology and for the first time in huge numbers think to adapt to the ever-changing time that we live in. Educators in our country were in a precarious situation for the past decade, where they were teaching our youth of today, using the methods of yesterday to prepare them for tomorrow. But this compulsory closure of education institutes, during the lockdown, has forced all of us to look at our education system in a different perspective and amalgamate modern technology with the current system to help our youngsters to an organic transformation.
Change is always hard to acknowledge, but as a famous saying reveals “Secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new”. We, as educators, should take this unforeseen crisis to bring about the much called for changes in our academia focusing more on making our youngsters think and enabling them to take their own decisions, instead of waiting for the teacher to do all. One should always remember “Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions”.
Technology could be our ally in bringing this educational transformation. Today technology has made it easy for all to learn and acquire whatever knowledge and skill one wants. Geographical hurdle is completely nonexistent. A sea of knowledge is available at the fingertip of most of our children throughout the country eclipsing to a much larger extent the wealth disparity in our country. The emergence of web portals, such as, Edx, Khan academy, Byjus, Coursera etc, have brought the world’s best classrooms at every child’s doorstep. We, the educators need to work on the way to merge these changes with our classroom teaching making learning not just informative but also intuitive.
The monopoly of knowledge that teachers had for ages does not exist anymore. As teachers and educators, we must realize that we are facilitators to our children helping and guiding them to make their way safely through this repository of knowledge at their fingertip and ascertain that they make the best use of it.
As educators, we should always remember “The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one”.
