What matters the most in education? I have been coming across this question quite often these days. NCERT is currently running a national survey with academicians to formulate its new curriculum based on their answers to this question. UGC is making and breaking rules, in a clearly failed attempt at answering this question. The New Education Policy boasts a complete makeover of India’s education system towards a holistic and inclusive student friendly method. NEP, is said to have been formulated with this question at the forefront; What exactly matters the most in education? Firstly, what is education?
Education, according to Cambridge Dictionary, is defined as the process of transferring or receiving knowledge. Social science researchers also expand the reach of education to transferring or receiving skills and traits. In the age of information that we live in, it sounds absurd to state that the key purpose of the education system is to transfer knowledge. Though the education system has its grassroots in this core philosophy, it no longer holds ground in the second millennium. Information can be found at the click of a mouse and knowledge transfer at its best can take place from anywhere to anywhere. In this scenario, what purpose do schools and traditional education systems serve to society; especially to the young generations?
Educational institutions across the world are already facing criticism from various walks of life for withholding the most crucial learning years of an individual within four walls. Out of the 72.75 years lifespan of an average individual, schools and colleges are occupying more than 18 years i.e., more than a quarter of the human lifespan, besides, the most energetic and growing years. This makes educational institutions liable to answet this most pressing question of the hour, What matters the most in education? Why does education matter?
My search for an answer to this question ended at another question. “Who are you?” I still remember that question posed by Sr Ceena on our first day in tenth grade. She asked us to write a single para answer to that question. I sat for an entire day with a pen and a paper but failed to answer the question. My struggle with that question continued till the end of my schooling, but it did not end there. It followed me through my college days and still haunts me when I get stuck with difficult questions like the one about education.
A question like “who are you?” has no correct answer. It is a question the answer to which lies in one’s perspective towards society. Everyone has an answer to it but no one can claim their answer to be right. In an age of information, the internet may be overloaded with data, but how would one know what to follow and what not to follow? Communism and Capitalism are ideologies with their own means and ends. The Internet can only give us two viewpoints but how would one understand the balance between both the ideologies? What is right and what is wrong? Who is good and who is bad? Between a naxalite who is fighting for his people and a policeman who is fighting for the law, who is the criminal and who is the victim? Which side should an ethical person take? Or, is ethics all about not taking a stand? There should be someone in the society to be the torchbearers. And these torchbearers are none other than teachers.
Education is not just about transferring and receiving knowledge, but also about transferring and receiving wisdom. I remember Sr Kusuma’s metaphorical explanation of the terms literacy, education and wisdom through an anecdote. You are standing at a cross junction with a sign board showing directions to different paths. If you can read the letters written on the sign board, that makes you literate. If you can understand the meaning of the letters written on the sign board, that makes you an educated person. If you can analyse the right path to take based on the letters written on the sign board, that make you wise. Education is all about gaining wisdom and not just about being a literate or an educated person.
In this context, the key purpose of education changes from mere knowledge transfer to psychological guidance and ethical counselling. Understanding history is more important than remembering history. Analysing political consequences is more important than remembering political theories. Applying scientific methods is more important than remembering inventors and their inventions. Remembering, the first level of Bloom’s Taxonomy for learning, may have lost its sheen but the remaining levels of understanding, applying, analysing, creating and inventing still hold good in any education system. The first step in reshaping the education system should be towards bringing down the burden on memory-building to slightly increase the load on analysing and processing concepts.
Open book examinations and continuous evaluation methods are already gaining momentum in educational institutions. A completely practical based learning with hands-on teaching can boost the learning process. Beyond everything else, imparting values and ethics stands to be the first and foremost purpose of education. Hundreds of youngsters are dying every year due to depression and the lack of a person to listen to them. Teachers have a major role to play in lending an ear to such psychologically disturbed youngsters sharing their concerns and guiding them towards a better tomorrow. In the digital age that we live in, ethics matter the most in education. Without ethics, education is nothing but a mere transfer of databases, a process which AI can anytime soon take over.