Rote learning, rigid classroom atmosphere, social insensitivity and negative attitudes are but a few of the shocking criticisms leveled at leading schools in India’s major cities. The Wipro-Educational Initiatives Quality Education Study, as highlighted in this publication (EW February), paints a depressing picture of a dreary emphasis on textbooks and examinations. This scathing report suggests little has happened to raise the bar even in the best of Indian schools, and that performance falls embarrassingly short of international standards.
The real tragedy is that this dismal recitation hardly comes as a surprise. It’s not the first time that accusatory fingers have been pointed at longstanding problems. And therein lies the rub — patients in hospital aren’t cured by clutching x-rays to their chests any more than India’s education system will be fixed by the publication of one dismal diagnosis after another.
Resisting the temptation to add to the laments of despair, I turn instead to the only thing that really matters in a morass of diagnosis overload — the cure. As the old saying goes, “When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!” Simply put, what can be done to unwind this vicious spiral of decline and set school education on a more positive trajectory?
Recommendations in the report include increased teacher support, debates to question widely held beliefs on learning environments, awareness campaigns and quality benchmarking. The-re’s no denying these are all valuable suggestions. But the Wipro-EI study’s recommend-ations offer little more than a new hair style for a patient needing heart surgery — they don’t go far enough to address the deep systemic issues underlying visible symptoms of decay and degeneration.
A disheartening history has accumulated around decades of so-called innovation in Indian education. Managerial jargon, production line terminology, bland corporate agendas of economy, efficiency and effectiveness have started to invade education with narratives which do little to inspire. Functional, clinical and essentially arid, these influences have at best marginally rearranged agendas across the education landscape.
Talk of a cure must surely begin by being clear as to what exactly we mean by education. There are two simple ways to look at it. One is technical, the other, philosophical. The technical view sees education as a problem of the means through which limited but necessary objectives are attained. For example, organisation, curriculum content, assessment, qualifications, finance and administration, etc. For many schools, these technical challenges are the only problems to be tackled and great leaders are individuals who can successfully master these challenges. But this mastery is not the essence of education. It is embedded within questions of philosophy and the reasons why we do what we do.
To be an effective school leader, it is important to be a capable administrator dealing with the means of education. But that’s not enough. Leadership must include the capability of being a story teller. I don’t mean in the sense of actually narrating stories, though there is nothing wrong with that at all! I mean what American leadership studies guru Warren Bennis implied when he said, “People begin to lead at that moment when they decide for themselves how to be.” We lead from who we are. We lead from the stories which give our lives meaning and purpose. Our technical competence as leaders is of limited value unless the stories and philosophy that drive us, inspire deep meaning and purpose in us and in those we lead. Without visionary leadership, education is reduced to mere technical competence.
And this brings me to the heart of the matter — together with the calibre of leadership, the selection and training of teachers is critical for revitalising education. What is taught and how it is taught means little unless we attend to those who do the teaching. The essence of good teaching cannot be reduced to a technique. It comes fundamentally from the identity and integrity of the teacher.
The evidence is clear: those who cultivate quality relati-onships with young people and inspire them beyond textbook pages, truly educate. In the final analysis, it is our ability to inspire which will turn the tide, for teaching must be an imaginative and courageous act of hope.
Without serious efforts towards developing visionary leaders in education and inspirational teachers, our tinkering with education will only produce what philosopher Henry Thoreau described as an “improved means to an unimproved end”. Of course, knowledge is important, but more so is the wisdom to use it wisely. Most important of all is what people believe, what they believe is good or bad, whether they have clear values and the determination to live by them.
These things matter more than politics and economics or even opportunity and privilege. Until we have some idea of who we are and how we should live, these are merely points of detail. In the absence of the right vision and inspiration, the educational by-products of knowledge and exam success are shallow and approaches to education, superficial.
(Dr. Jonathan Long is principal of the Woodstock School, Mussoorie)