Education should go beyond employability
LAST week, I attended the National Education Summit at Prasanthi Nilayam Ashram, Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh. It was hosted by Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vahini (SSSVV), for which I volunteer as a ‘language reviewer’. The SSSVV is the single largest contributor of free educational content to the Prime Minister’s DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) portal. The event witnessed the attendance of many stalwarts from the field of education.
As the world has started to recognise that all children are not the same and that there are many who have latent deficiencies which need to be addressed, a paradigm shift in the mindset of educationists and policymakers who have designed the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 and the National Curriculum Framework is apparent. The NEP-2020 talks about the need for integral education to become inclusive.
Ideas on how classroom content can be adapted so that all ‘children with special needs’ (CWSN) can fit in were discussed. If integral education becomes inclusive, inclusive education will become integral.
The education system should cater to the needs of CWSN. The nuances of education have changed. The focus is not on teaching methodologies — it is on learning outcomes. Whether the syllabus is covered or not, the learning outcomes at each stage/grade need to be achieved.
Years back, some children were labelled as dull, slow, careless, not interested, distracted, etc. But no one bothered to get to the bottom of why the child was what he/she was. Parents thought that these children would grow out of their ‘idiocies’ or, perhaps, did not even notice.
Those who had glaring disabilities got noticed. After the initial despair and disbelief, the parents started to address the problem. If a child has difficulty holding the pencil or forming speech sounds or memorising simple facts or is not able to eat with a spoon, these are regarded as minor disabilities. Early detection by the parents or teachers can lead to treatment that results in cure or improves the quality of the child’s life.
The focus of education has earlier been on how to make students employable when they complete professional degree courses. The emphasis of the NEP-2020 is to make them not just employable but also to empower and enlighten them. Education should not be just a mountain of information that the student has to somehow digest. It has to be information that is implementable. Alongside, we have to teach students to value life and all things living — humans, trees, animals, vegetation, aquatic life, etc. As Sathya Sai Baba said, ‘Education is for life, not merely for a living… The end of knowledge is wisdom.’
