February 2010

There prevails a lot of confused thinking on what is the fundamental purpose of schools? Most schools take pride in advert izing their high academic scores. Several studies have been conducted on the role IQ plays in an individual's success in life? You m ay be surprised to know that it is as low as between 4 to 11 percent. Success comes more through one's emotional quotient, both of which are direct byproducts of human experiences.

While considering what should be the purpose of education, I would like you to reflect upon two key considerations - the unpredict ability of the future, and the challenges of our planet's sustainability. Our answers must inevitably lead to a review of the exist ing curriculum, that prepares children to pass examinations and not succeed in life.

The future is unknowable and cannot be predicted. A child who joins school today will retire in 2065 and ca n be expected to live upto the age of 85. The challenge for schools is starting us in the face. How do schools prepare a student for a future that cannot be predicted, with jobs that do not exist, with technologies that have yet to be invented, and solv e problems that have yet to be identified? Academic achievements alone cannot equip a student to face the future.

There is another challenge that has already arrived at our doorsteps - the challenge of ensuring the sustainability of the planet that is under frontal attack by poverty, climate change, religious fundamentalism, violation of human rights, and conflicts.

In order to prepare children as future citizens who will be competent to deal with an uncertain and c haotic future, and also help in ensuring the sustainability of the planet, schools need to seriously introspect on t wo issues: the very purpose of school education, and what new literacy is needed beyond the traditional 3 Rs?

It is my firm belief that schools must have a social objective. In the 21st century this must be the world less u nequal, less unsustainable, less stable, more respectful, and more compassionate. Schools should, therefore, look up on themselves as agents of change, and not as repositories of knowledge. Teaching how to be good is not enough, schools must be seen to be doing good. For that value-education will be critical. Values cannot be taught in class or through book s; they have to be experienced. To know about the Upanishads and to become the Upanishads are two different things. To know ab out (and that is what all schools do) is to be inquisitive, to become is transformational, experimental. The respons ibility of schools will be twofold: to provide these social experiences outside the school campus; and secondly, to help ch ildren reflect upon what they have experienced because experience without reflection is meaningless.

The second major reform for schools will be to go beyond the traditional 3 Rs - reading, writing, and arithmetic, by enabling children to acquire new literacy. New literacy will include competencies in higher purpose and vision, how to be creative, ho w to think critically, and how to be lifelong learners. While a fair proportion of these new competencies will be learnt in outreach community programmes - the extended classrooms of the 21st century, curriculum should also include the teaching of the following: higher purpose and vision, how to be creative, critical thinking, and lifelong learning.

A new paradigm shift is taking place in learning. Students will now be centre-stage. The responsibility for learning is shifting from the teacher to the student. This is the meaning of empowerment through lifelong learning. Each one of us is responsible for o ur learning, with teachers facilitating that process. Students will become their teachers and teachers will become their students! In order to make this new reality happen, teachers and students will need formal training in who to access information rapidly and mak e it relevant in present and future context, how to think and not what to think, how to unlearn and then re-learn, and the power of questioning.

These challenges leave no options. The imperative for schools is to extend their claims to excellence far beyond academic benchmarking. The need of the hour is to motivate and train our children to think; to think, both with the head and the heart. Or else, their future will comprise just a series of crises, not a life of growth and fulfillment. Let us give then a future to look forward to.