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The need for education systems dispensing globally accepted knowledge and skillsets is too well-known to bear reiteration. The emergence of a global marketplace for high order critical thinking, analytical and communication skills, the blurring of national boundaries in relation to life-and-death matters such as terrorism and environmental degradation, rapidly rising standards of educational achievement around the world, are but a few of the drivers of global education systems worldwide.
Considerable amounts of time, money and effort are being expended in the US on developing global systems in school education. However, much of this effort seems to be driven by the fear of economic competition from a resurgent China which is close to acquiring superpower status in the new millennium. How far is the US experience relevant for India? And what in the Indian context is ‘globalised education’?
Let us first look at the basic building block of all educational systems — the curriculum. In India curric-ulums, by and large, and in spite of brave efforts of the NCERT, tend to be heavily “content-based”, requiring accumulation of a huge body of facts understood as synonymous with knowledge.
On the other hand, education institutions in the US are steadily moving away from a content-heavy to skills acquisition curricula which develop critical thinking, analysis and problem solving skills. The rationale of this education definition change is that contemporary societies require youth equipped with initiative and problem-solving capabilities.
While there is much merit behind this mindset change, it is equally true that youth develop these skills only after acquiring a solid grasp of the basics. The Indian school education system, for all its faults, builds a strong foundation as testified by the success of our students in universities abroad. The solution therefore is to develop syllabi which blend content and skills. And in doing so we must not forget (as American educators seem to be doing) that education is not just about producing professionals and workers capable of competing in the emerging global marketplace. It’s definitely about producing artists, poets, dreamers and philosophers as well.
Admittedly, over-emphasis on rote learning will kill creativity. But the power of recall should never be undervalued, especially when one has to make quick decisions. After all, let’s not forget that the most important component of the computer is its memory! Consequently, the disturbing tendency to debunk all memorised knowledge in the US is ill-advised and could have far-reaching and deleterious consequences for American society.
Nevertheless it cannot be denied that a great infirmity of Indian school education is exaggerated respect for tutors and mentors which discourages questioning in our classrooms. The reason is partly cultural (respect for elders) and partly logistical (too many students in classrooms). But it’s also true that most teachers are not equipped to encourage creativity and curiousity. Indian students who reject this cultural and logistical baggage transform into global gladiators competing with the best of the West.
Undeniably the american focus on students leading the learning process, a hallmark of current educational practice in the US, is innovative and laudable. But very often it allows teachers to get away by doing precious little, seeking refuge in the new role of ‘guide by the side’. Although it’s all to the good that teachers encourage students to probe, question, analyse and evaluate themselves, this radical pedagogy shouldn’t negate the leadership role of teachers in the teaching-learning process. That fine balance between being ‘the guide by the side’ and ‘sage on the stage’ is necessary for effective learning outcomes in all education systems.
The use of technology in classrooms is yet another area which bears examination. No one can seriously question the efficacy of technology in contemporary education. But technology (and particularly, ‘googling’) can never substitute the value derived from original sources or communication and linguistic skills acquired in the process of presenting research output in cohesive, comprehensible formats. More so, when one bears in mind that communication capability is one of the most critical skills for success in this day and age. Unfortunately, when technology invades classrooms, the fine line between entertainment and education is often traversed.
As Indian educators in the world’s most populous democracy learn lessons from the world’s strongest democracy to design global school education systems, one hopes they will learn from the American experience and strike a judicious balance between content absorption and cognitive skills development as also between work and play, individual excellence and teamwork, technology and old fashioned research. There’s more to developing and delivering global education systems than putting up signboards proclaiming ‘international’ on school gates.
(Dev Lahiri is a former headmaster of Lawrence, Lovedale, Welham Boys, Dehradun, and currently with the Wasatch Academy, Utah, USA)