The Nature of Education

I think that henceforth whenever I bring up anything about President Kalam, I will have to prefix it with "I love President Kalam". I think he is one of the most visionary leaders India has had, and I hope that his ideas will be able to change things. During the Children Science Congress, a part of the Indian Science Congress at Hyderabad, he addressed 750 children and emphasized on the need to be open to new knowledge, to encourage and praise hardwork, to be righteous and grow up with the good and moral values, to have the courage to think differently and explore and solve problems, and most importantly, he gave them a homework to read five books.

Empires of the Minds by Denis Waitley is how to galvanize your career by constantly adapting in today's dynamic world of rapid changes, how to recognize your passion, how to build teams, and how to develop healthy personal relationships. An essential guide to survival.

Journey into Light by G. Venkataraman, andThe Best of Indian Physics by B. Siddharth, are about C. V. Raman's life story, and the achievements of Indian physicists respectively. Essential to make you proud of your heritage and get motivation.

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, and Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku, are about how the universe evolved, and what lies ahead. An essential guide to display the power of imagination, creative thinking, and the perseverance for a search of explanations despite any kind of disabilities.

I could not have come up with a better list that is not only exciting to read, but valuable as well, and helps inculcate the importance of science, technology, and values among the children.

What was missing though is what I had emphasized in an earlier article on additional roles of the people. It is not only important to have the desire and capability to do new and good things for our fellowmen, but to also realize our political responsibilities which can help in creating the right environment to nurture and sustain those of us who are doing new and good things. I was apalled to hear that the Maoists in Nepal and Islamic fundamentalists in Bangladesh vehemently opposed micro-financing because it empowered the women. Satyendra Dubey was murdered because he dared to make public the wrong-doings of the beaureocracy and political system. Honest IAS officers were transfered into positions of demerit just because they did not bend towards the corrupt demands of politicians. There are countless such incidents, all of which point towards the fact that our governance system is not functioning properly. The world has chosen democracy as being the right way to go and I will not challenge that belief here, but democracy must function correctly for it to live up to the vision. And this can only be done if you and I realize our responsibilities towards the nation.

Our responsibility does not just include casting votes, but casting votes rationally. Not just paying taxes, but ensuring that the tax money is utilized properly. Not just giving charity, but being secular and tolerant of others at heart. Not just educating ourselves and our families, but educating the unaware ones on what is right and what is wrong. Not just going to work and coming back home, but noticing the problems that people face and think of solutions. And it is amazing how education sits as the single lone pillar on whose basis all these responsibilities can be built upon. Children should be taught these responsibilities right from school.

Rather than have them write essays on My best friend, 90% of which begin with "I have many friends, but my best friend is...", they should be made to write essays on My neighborhood and The aeroplane and The Universe and How my mother cleans the aquarium... The list is endless, but the crux is to develop creative thinking, knowledge acquisition, and acute observation abilities.

Rather than have them rote the 12 duties of the prime-minister of India for the Civics exam, they should be asked to bring back a write up of the problems on sanitation, drainage, and environment near their homes, and what steps are being taken to solve these problems. They should be taught from day one that they have to raise issues if they want those issues to be solved. If tools like Viplav gain popularity, they should be taught to start using these tools right from when they are kids.

For the SUPW (Socially Useful and Productive Work) period, rather than move chairs from one classroom to another, they should be taken on field trips into slums and villages where they can observe the living conditions of the people there, and contrast that situation with their own lifestyle. Different schools can very well schedule visits once a month at different days, and lo and behold, you have a new school for the village!

Not just that, new curriculums should be devised that teach children about the day to day functioning of the country. I never learnt anything in school on why people pay taxes, and that is the fundamental reason why so many people try to evade taxation by illegal means because they do not understand the social importance and the long term benefits that taxation can have for them. Human thinking is very short term, whereas it should be long term instead. Nobody taught me why the democratic system was designed the way it is and what it is supposed to ensure, and that is why so many people do not cast their votes at all. Nobody taught me about the need for renewable energy, even though I was told everything about what the photovoltaic effect is, and that is why nobody thinks twice before buying large cars and swinging them around in the neighborhood when they could have bicycled or just walked instead. Nobody told me about the problems in weather prediction, but instead I was taught about monsoons and El Nino as if everything was supposed to work like clockwork. Nobody taught me anything about how drought can (and does) spoil fields after fields and trigger famines, but I was told all about the process of rice cultivation, which is why very few people do not waste their food and most people do not care.

Most of all of the above that I personally learnt was through my parents, from the television, and books that our school librarian suggested to me to read. But is it not time to change? Is it so hard to realize that our education system is stagnating? Introduction of new subjects in computer science and teaching Java instead of C++ is not the only way to symbolize that the system is adapting to the world. In this age of increasing globalization where you cannot just worry about yourself, kids should be shown the big picture first, and how all the different things fit in together that can make the world a better place. A top-down system of education should be designed instead of the bottom-up system that is prevalent today, especially when it comes to science, history, geography, civics, and politics, because all these subjects are based on logical reasoning and have a pattern behind the individual pieces that constitute them. You cannot teach A, B, C... to nursery children and assume that they will figure out how A-P-P-L-E is spelt. You actually start from the big picture first, that is, show them what an apple is, and then breakdown the spelling into alhpabets. It is the same top-down approach that is needed for all the subjects as well. I really wish somebody could rewrite all the textbooks to convey knowledge in the right way. Another more interactive way could be to design innovative games that help children understand better the way the world works. Probably then the children will be able to make even better sense of the books suggested by President Kalam.

Revamping the education system will surely make students aware of their responsibilities towards the nation and give them a better perspective of why to how to select their goals in life. Better facilities will make them more capable of inventing new things and solving old problems in new ways. However, another important role of education is that it enables students to dream and helps them move up the social ladder. This will be one of the subjects of my next article.