Education should go beyond employability
... we have to teach students to value life and all things living, be they humans, trees, animals, vegetation, aquatic life etc. Because as Sathya Sai Baba said, “Education is for life, not merely for a living ... The end of knowledge is wisdom.”
I was fortunate to attend the National Education Summit at the Sai Hira Global Convention Centre, a 1000 seater, State of the Art Convention Centre in the holy precincts of Prashanti Nilayam, Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh. The summit was hosted from July 5-7, 2024 by Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vahini, where I volunteer as a ‘Language Reviewer’. SSSVV is the single largest contributor of free educational content to the Prime Minister’s DIKSHA portal. There was a conglomeration of stalwarts from the field of education there.
As the world has started to recognize that all children are not the same and that there are many who have latent deficiencies that need to be addressed; there is a paradigm shift in the mindset of educationists and policy makers who have designed the New Education Policy-2020 and the National Curriculum Framework. The NEP-2020 talks about the need for Integral education to become inclusive.
Today the world recognizes that there are ‘Children With Special Needs’. Ideas on how classroom content could be adapted so that all CWSN could fit in, were discussed. Integral education needs to become inclusive, for Inclusive Education to become integral.
The education system needs to adapt, to cater to the needs of CWSN. The nuances of education have changed. The focus is not on teaching methodologies. The focus is on learning outcomes and achievement of the same. Whether the syllabi gets completed or not, the learning outcomes at each stage/grade need to be achieved.
Years back there were children who were labelled as dull, slow, careless, not interested, distracted etc. But no one ever 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 parents did not even notice.
Those who had glaring disabilities like deformities or impairment in the eyes etc. got noticed. After the initial despair and disbelief on the part of the parents, they started to address the problem. If a child has difficulty in holding the pencil or in forming certain sounds or in memorizing simple facts or is not able to eat with a spoon, these too are minor disabilities. Early detection by the parents or teachers can lead to treatment that results in cure or at least improves the quality of life of a child.
The focus of education has earlier been on how to make students employable when they pass out of professional degree courses. The focus on 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, be they humans, trees, animals, vegetation, aquatic life etc. Because as Sri Sathya Sai Baba said, “Education is for life, not merely for a living ... The end of knowledge is wisdom.”
This article has been published in The Tribune on 13.07.2024. It can be viewed here:
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Just adding that I was blessed to be felicitated by the Managing Trustee of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, Sh. RJ Ratnakar and the Director of Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vahini, Smt. Karuna Munshi, for writing the lyrics of the Anthem of SSSVV. The anthem was sung and composed by Sai Vignesh, a well known Indian playback singer and Musician and Nisarg Baxi, who were also felicitated.
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