A round-table dialogue on ‘Future of School Education’ was organised by Oswaal Books, a publishing house that prints text books for various examination schemes in the country. It was a gathering of entrepreneurs and educationaists in the State to deliberate on ways to move ahead in the education arena. Inaugurating the dialogue on School Education, Tanveer Sait, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, Government of Karnataka enumerated problems that are bewildering the system of education in the State.
Speaking on the approach to be adapted in future, the minister stated, “the government is deliberating on whether education has to be employment oriented, skill-based, talent-based or technology-heavy education system.” Attending these discussions on education for him was to get perspectives that help formulate policies.
The minister said, “we haven’t taken a firm stand on the detention policy, compulsory languages to be taught, regulation of fee in private institutions, minimum age to admit children into schools etc. And to think of the future of education means to first resolve these unsettled areas.”
For Raghav Chakravarthy, an ex-legal adviser who has set up an Ed-start-up in the city, an effective education system has to have three things. ‘Curiosity’ to foster inquisitiveness in children, ‘Context’ to understand and ‘Relatability’ to apply concepts in real-life situations.
“A teacher needs to focus on how to arouse curiosity in children as it helps them explore knowledge. I still remember my father explaining the story behind the naming of ‘Residency Road’. Or it can even be as simple as -- why cars usually enter star hotels from the left gate. These questions are set within a context, emerge naturally and bear a story around them. A lot of information can be remembered if right contexts are set,” explains Raghav who has co-founded Walnut Knowledge Solutions, in pursue of his passion for quizzing.
Commenting on the role of technology, Raghav asserts, “technology can be a tool in the future to help teachers instil curiosity, set context and make connections between theory and practice.” But for many other speakers at the roundtable dialogue, technology was the chief remedial point for innovation in education system.
However, Shukla Bose, founder of Parikrama Humanity Foundation, had problems in associating technology with innovation. She emphatically asks, “why does ‘innovation’ often get clubbed with ‘technology’? Can’t it be done outside the realm of technology?” For Bose, innovation is simply about a new order, breaking down the old. She explains, “innovation is to think of a new idea, communicate it and lead that idea.”
Most of the solutions to pressing problems, she feels, “lie in alternative ways of thinking and doing. Alternate perspectives emerge only when you allow a child to be a dissenter. Therefore a rebel often leads the way towards innovation as disagreement sparks different viewpoints.”
Finally she enunciated, “the approach to be adapted in the system of education must equip children to the state of affairs of tomorrow for which educationists must think ahead of their times.”
Looking at the overrated value given to degrees, Bose said, “degrees must have an expiry date as knowledge of yesterday will turn irrelevant today.”
