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Random forays: New education paradigms are in the offing
The need to grab the opportunity which the Covid-19 virus enabled global lockdown has triggered and overhaul a few of our educational paradigms is pressing
The world may or may not change drastically, regardless of what soothsayers and wannabe pundits have been averring these days, but education systems will certainly find it necessary to don new avatars, globally.
Education at the school level in India has often been branded as archaic, rote learning driven and over dependent on the traditional marks system. Not without reason. It is a fact that our schools have not really encouraged sports and creativity in the manner that many Asian and western schools do. We grew up while largely learning to cram stuff, although some of our friends would certainly display sparks of brilliance despite the system.
Nowadays, despite the breakneck speed with which parents tug their wards to tuitions and karate- coaching, hoping to make them all-rounders in some sense, the unidimensional learning model has not really altered. Our schools and colleges do not by and large focus on social emotional learning, creative pursuits and analytical skills for their students. Thus the industry finds that young hopefuls who turn up for interviews are very good at mathematical deduction but unable to carry out a conversation of substance with people from unfamiliar backgrounds.
Therefore, the need to grab the opportunity which this virus enabled global lockdown has triggered and overhaul a few of our educational paradigms is pressing. Teachers across the land are already learning to perform before cameras, much like TV stars, and their camera shyness has necessarily been overshadowed by school diktats to get busy with online classes. Some of these teachers are feeling the pinch in many ways, what with parents joining in the online sessions, albeit surreptitiously, and students often wandering away, unnoticed, when their parents are not looking.
The online world has its pitfalls, of course, and despite being a technologist of some sorts, I have always been a votary of the classroom experience. The whole aura of being a part of a large group of students and growing up rubbing shoulders with peers is unmatched and even vital. A teacher’s stern look or appreciative smile cannot be replicated online and the resultant cringe or glow on the student’s face would surely go unnoticed, anyway!
Yet, blended learning will stay the course, with online modules making their presence increasingly felt even when things such as masks and sanitisers finally recede into the background, which they surely will. Blending the classroom method with online learning is the future and with enhanced software facilities as well as superior bandwidth and webinar technologies here to stay, we cannot just wish them away.
Also vital will be the need for schools and colleges to adapt to the need for minimising the emphasis on rote learning and marks. There has to be a renewed focus on project work, research work and creative writing, as well as enhanced oratorical skills. The finer points of human skills and qualities will have to be imbibed by young students from an early age, if the education system is indeed overhauled in this manner.
Sports too has to remain an integral part of the plan and an hour of outdoor sport should actually be compulsory for all young people of our country, to enable them to sleep on time and stay off their smart phones, well past bedtime!
Teachers and educationists need not worry though. Their basic skills will go a long way in carrying them forward in the new era too. When computers came into being it was thought that thousands would lose jobs. That never happened. The world changed and modified its ways. The same will happen, going forward.
The new normal is not a term I like much, and actor Boman Irani espoused similar views in a webinar recently. What is going to change is the way we tackle challenges and the way we do certain things.
Human experiences would not alter as much as we think. Let us hope that our kids can grow up in an environment of camaraderie and bonhomie, just as we did with our friends. And let us hope that the added element of creative thinking is a part of their school lives too.
