By UD Tmar
It is common knowledge now that most parents who have school going children are in a state of confusion, disgust and totally lethargic at the affairs of how ‘online classes’ are conducted and imposed. Parents from economically weak backgrounds are in dire straits to pay the school fees and equip their children with a smart phone and internet connectivity. I know of someone who does not have a stable job, but has to pay from his savings for a smart phone costing Rs 12,000. We also know there are schools that need the fees, to support their teachers and pay their salaries. There should be certain guidelines or policies as to what fees are needed to be paid. What about the poor who do not have proper incomes? There are certain schools that have asked for the entire school fees to be paid like in normal times. The Education Department needs to spell out the terms because parents are in confusion. Education is a public utility and welfare, not a private monopoly.
What are we doing to education and to our children? How much burden can we put on families that cannot even provide enough food on the table, due to this crisis? There is a serious misunderstanding of what education is. Education is not merely getting a degree and passing every year. Failure too is education. School is not the only medium of education we cannot equate schooling with education. There are many good examples of people who have done badly in school but succeed well in life. We cannot judge children as empty vessels that need to be filled, since we think they are sitting idle at home. But we cannot judge them wrongly. They are not sitting idle; they are dreaming, imagining, playing, creating etc. Playing, imagining day dreaming, are also crucial for a real education. To add a Chinese Proverb, “Everybody knows the use of usefulness but none knows the use of uselessness” Edward de Bono a prolific author and philosopher, taught us the importance of ‘Lateral thinking.’ Playing helps creative and innovative thinking.
Most of our misjudgement and pre-conceived notions that children don’t learn if they are not in school or taught, is a reflection of our narrow understanding of education despite having degrees. Children learn everyday and every night from dawn till dusk. Education begins with the cradle and ends with the grave. Give children the right exposure, tools and environment, and they will learn by themselves if they find certain things interesting. Children are more curious, creative and have the willingness to learn than adults. The term ‘School’ comes from the Greek word ‘Schole’ meaning leisure, and to the Greeks leisure means many things, and mostly associated with the freedom to pursue knowledge. Ask children if they like school or are having fun learning. In most cases they will say ‘NO’. Do we allow our children the freedom to pursue knowledge, experiment and learn by experience? Let us not make online learning and assessment mandatory for every child to participate in so that they don’t miss their ‘education’. Education should follow the principles of democracy, not authoritarianism. Democracy promotes healthy conversations, of opinions, ideas etc, which is the core of real education.
Effective online education requires the live participation and interaction between pupil and teachers. It should focus more on learning rather than on teaching. Our approach should be student-learning ability centric. Right now there are a few families who can’t even afford good internet access and a laptop or desktop. So how can we judge students’ performances when there is a digital divide among various income groups? If we are serious enough, this is the time to set up infrastructure for digital education system, pruning and redesigning of syllabus, rather than imposing on students to perform despite these inadequacies. We don’t want school to be a factory of learning; especially rote learning. We want them to be a republic of innovation, creative thinking and diversity of knowledge and information. We want our children to be people, citizens with confidence in themselves, who have the ability and the creativity to adapt to changes, persons with good emotional intelligence and skill sets.
The future is more different than we thought it would be. As a matter of fact our present education system is obsolete, has no relevance to what the future has in store. The future is in the freedom of thought, expression and pursuit of knowledge individually or collectively without imposition of any deadlines or activities, In the future ‘world of work’, we might need more philosophers, singers, entertainers, rather than engineers, doctors etc. Most of the kind of works that we know now will be obsolete in the future.
Why don’t we give our children a break? Why pressure them during this crisis? When I was in Class VI (Mawkhar Christian Sec School) in 1987, I remember our school(s) shutting down for half a year due to the Khasi-Nepali conflict and all of us got promoted without having a single class or exams. And of the friends I know, some of them have gone on to be productive members of society. Some have become doctors, engineers etc. That one year of inactivity, or idleness had done us no harm. In fact it helped us to think creatively, play, meet friends etc. We all remember those days clearly, for our mind was free.