Revamping our schools so that a student can be the best she can be

The only way to convert the liability of having a population of over a billion is to educate them, which, in turn will empower them to dream of building a new India, as it hurtles forward towards a future that can be exciting, as we cannot even imagine.

First, our education system puts our students on a process-line. It is like a car assembly plant, where the same model is produced day-in and day-out. It assumes a standard set of skills and the same competency across the learners—an assumption that is fundamentally flawed.

I dream of an education system for India that would help each student reach her maximum potential, implying that each individual is running a race with himself or herself, to be the best she or he possibly can, to hone the talents she or he has, such that they are empowered with a strong sense of self, and to acquire new skills that will help build as all-rounded a personality, as possible.

This is obviously contrarian to the trend today, with students under tremendous mental stress, having to compete with each other to secure some obnoxiously high marks, to in turn find a place in a premier institute in the country.

Fundamentally, what is needed is an attitudinal shift, that recognizes that a country as large as ours, will have to differentiate, by creating an educational system that has options to cater to the different aptitudes and capabilities of students. A recent incident in Mumbai of a 15-year-old jumping to his death from a South Mumbai highrise, brings this issue to the fore. Does our educational system add as much value as it creates stress for parents and students? Does it equip students with ‘real’ and contemporary skills that can make him a winner in the real world?

Several countries have adopted models that generate options for students as early as during their secondary education days. The result, a more productive and happy workforce that can contribute its mite to the task of nation-building. This calls for a change in mind-set for our society at large, and for parents, in particular, who need to break out of the mould of wanting the more conventional career paths for their children.

The number of career options, by themselves, that are available today, are far more than ever before. The faster our education system is revamped, to recognize this, and the sooner parents accept this, the better it would be for a country that needs every productive mind to work at its optimal best.

What is urgently required to implement this—an education system that differentiates, and one that gives a menu of options to students to choose from—is a revamping of our system of education at a national level. It calls for a panel of experts who believe in the need to contemporarise our education system, who can put their heads together and create a charter of a system that will be a paradigm shift from the existing one.

A collaborative effort between the Government, the corporate sector and appropriate NGOs, can turn this seemingly impossible dream into a reality. Given their several preoccupations, no Government in recent times has given education a directional change in the way it is required.

The results, undoubtedly, would be astounding. I cannot believe that there can be a better way to empower India than this.