Now that Artificial Intelligence has become all-pervasive and climate change is threatening our very existence, the need to revolutionise our education system is even more crucial
Last week, I was invited to address my ex-students at the fiftieth anniversary of their graduation from high school. I wonder if there will be such celebrations in the future because many high school students do not attend school: they are now enrolled in ‘dummy schools’ instead.
The attitude of parents has undergone a sea change. Earlier, parents were extremely particular about children attending school regularly. Today, parents casually ask, “Are you planning to go to school?” Or “Why are you going to school today? Do you have a test?” When we reflect on this alien behaviour, we realise that the instrumentalist approach to education is being zealously adopted as early as middle school. By the time children reach the secondary level, they are busy looking for suitable ‘dummy schools’ and tutorial centres.
Instead of combating this dangerous trend, schools are bending over backwards to facilitate specific, career-oriented studies at the expense of a complete school education. Some schools even have a nexus with coaching institutes so that the students can write both the school-leaving board exam and the competitive exam in the same year. Apart from placing inhuman stress on high school students, this results in the dangerous dilution of a sound educational foundation.
Unfortunately, middle-class parents are still trapped in dated aspirations for their offspring, namely, securing futures as doctors, engineers and lawyers, well-paying jobs in the corporate and IT sectors or entry into prestigious colleges abroad. Nobody seems to care about proper education although terms like ‘holistic’ and ‘all-round’ are bandied about liberally. Nobody seems to care about helping the young build a robust value schema or attempting to teach them the difference between right and wrong.
We are frequently surprised that many young people and their parents do something that is blatantly wrong just because ‘it pays off’ and because ‘everybody does it’. Values are derived from home but also from the school community. Some parents don’t understand that the invaluable lessons of life that are learnt in the school environment cannot be compared with mere preparation for exams. School, along with campus experience, teaches the lessons of life which form the kernel of one’s character and personality. Just try to imagine the ghastly world which is peopled by ‘unschooled’ individuals! If school is meant just for exams and certificates, in a few years’ time, I would be surprised if alumni had any special feelings for their alma mater, teachers or classmates. This is because there won’t be any shared experiences of joy, disappointment, fun, trouble and adventure.
This reminds me of the satirical classic, The Saber-Tooth Curriculum, which demonstrates people’s resistance to change even if innovation is the only way to survive. Over the last few decades, innumerable red flags have been raised about the stagnant nature of our education system, including assessment. But it is only after I read Saikat Majumdar’s Open Intelligence: Education between Art and Artificial that I realised how senselessly we have been procrastinating about introducing critical educational reforms. We have been nonchalantly tolerating an obsolete education system that tests stamina and memory rather than creativity and multiple intelligences. The ability to create new knowledge is what is required rather than the meaningless regurgitation of old knowledge.
Now that Artificial Intelligence has become all-pervasive and climate change is threatening our very existence, the need to revolutionise our education system is even more crucial. However, instead of encouraging students to use AI to their advantage and prepare for a fast-changing and unpredictable future, they are being pushed to follow the familiar routine of attending coaching institutes which prepare them for those stale competitive exams year after year.
If we wish our young to be happy and robust and prevent what seems like an impending disaster from nature, man and machine, we must revolutionise our teaching approaches and goals. This requires a fresh look at the meaning of education itself.
Devi Kar
Source: Telegraph India, 6/02/25
