The theme for this year’s Teachers’ Day is “Inspiring the next generation of learners.” If teachers really delve into the theme, and they should, it would entail a lot of sacrifice on their part and an openness to unlearn and relearn. Teaching pedagogy has changed very little. Learning is still top-down; questioning is seldom facilitated and communication skills of learners leave much to be desired. The education system in India needs to undergo a revolution; change and the ability to quickly adapt to that change is also part of the education process. However, humans are largely averse to change, more so adults who are used to operating within a comfort zone. This is what has turned education into a non-productive activity. The attempt by the central government to bring in educational reforms is always delayed by a few decades. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 was introduced without statewide consultation and it came in during those Covid days leaving some states fuming. Nevertheless many states, especially BJP-ruled ones tried to adopt the NEP 2020 even though they did not have the wherewithal especially for vocational courses such as bakery, cookery, and others.
Today many schools are sending their students to intern with different institutions such as banks, municipalities, hotel management institutes etc. How much the students really learn during their internships has not been measured but at least what they know from such exposures are the demands of the world of work. They are no longer sheltered inside classrooms totally unaware of the real world and what it takes to do the work that they have only read about. Coming back to the theme – Inspiring the next generation of learners, this very slogan entails that teachers inspire not just the present set of learners but also train them to inspire the next generation. Why is inspiration needed in the first place? It’s because learning has become a challenge and teachers are competing with several other distractions that occupy the minds of their students. Their attention span has dropped down to about 8 seconds only. Social media, especially Instagram and the quest for ‘likes’ is a major distraction. Attention span is crucial because it directly impacts a person’s ability to learn and retain information. Short attention span means students cannot concentrate on lectures, read books, or process complex concepts. This hinders academic performance and limits their ability to acquire new knowledge.
At the workplace, individuals with longer attention spans are better equipped to stay focused on their assignments, resulting in higher efficiency and output. Conversely, individuals with shorter attention spans struggle to concentrate for extended periods, leading to reduced productivity. Attention span is also linked to effective communication and social interactions. In other words, a person with a longer attention span is able to listen better and absorb what is being communicated and to respond better. But this is easier said than done. Students are almost addicted to their mobile phones and social media. How to inspire this generation to interact more with other humans than with their mobile phones is the eternal dilemma.
