The Shifting Goal Post of Education

Every school student is pushed to his limits to clear is High School - saying it is the greatest exam he will ever face and his success in life depends on how much he can prove to society of how productive he can be. 

Assuming he comes off in flying colours, he enters college to pursue his 'education', where again he is told that he will have to clearly exhibit his grasp of what is employable and productive skills. His prospects will actually now depend on how well he performs these 3-5 years. 

After jumping through innumerable loops, he completes his 'education' and again he is told that what he has learnt has little to do with his real employable skills and has to undergo training to suit the needs of that particular industry. He is left wondering, what has he learnt all these years. 

From a students' perspective, his journey is like running to a goal post that is ever shifting. Yes. Learning is a countinuous process. But to push our students to sprint to each goal is the mistake we all make. We should let them understand that they are in a marathon and must prepare themselves to keep jogging down the journey of life. 

Why is it necessary to say this today? 

Well, go to any college and you find atleast 30-50% of the students disinterested in studying. Creating ruckus. Even in IITs you find that students do not find the motivation to keep moving ahead, because they are tired from running a sprint for their high school graduation. Having cleared that, they feel they have earned their due and waiting for society to heap rewards. Only a select few find the motivation within themselves and keep pushing themselves to excellence even in college. A few more students falter here and once they graduate, they find it very hard to pursue 'knowledge'. For them, their 'education' is over. 

In every system across the world, education is practised as if it is a result of discipline and hardwork. That is why we give importance to Attendance. Uniform. Term papers. Conformity. Rules. Silence. Order. We somehow value that education that is a result of Discipline.

But true education happens only when there is curiosity. A right answer supplanted at the right moment of curiosity from a child makes a learning for life. And it is this curiosity that our system has failed to ignite in the minds of the children. 

How difficult is it for us to talk to children, students and parents and explain that they have to take a different view of education. 

Education is a Nourishment

I would ask the parents and teachers to draw the analogy of how education is also another form of nutrition. You can't cram it in. You have to gradually keep digesting it. Daily. For the rest of our lives. It is as joyful an experience as it is to keep finding tasty dishes that exhilarates our palates. Imagine telling our children, 'what you eat today will define what you are for the rest of your life'. 

Today we gladly ask our children to eat a whole lot of crap and ask them to regurgitate them to check if they have eaten properly. This has to stop. We need children to be fed. Not force fed. 

Children are by nature inquisitive. By just fanning this curiosity early in life and keeping them engaged in this habit can help the child be a knowledge seeker for life. 

Yes, all we need is a culture of celebrating Knowledge - where education happens by putting the child at the centre of the process, rather than putting education as a goal at all.