Our education system

 Jeremy Bentham, (1748-1832) jurist, philosopher, legal reformer, economist, and utilitarian once said, “There are two types of people in the world- those who divide everything in the world, into two kinds of things, and those who don't.”

Similarly, I believe there are two types of teachers in the world- Those that make a difference in a pupil’s life, and those who don’t. The same goes for schools. 

I had quite a few amazing teachers, whom I remember fondly.  One or two, however, left a lasting impression and made a difference in my life. I guess, what made them stand out is, that they were true to their profession – not necessarily highly qualified, but extremely passionate about what they were doing, and masters of their subject. When they explained something – one understood and never forgot.   Their ardour and passion was truly infectious. 

Now, this is a question I ask so many working people today – ‘Do you love what you do”? It’s something we all need to think seriously about.  I have often heard people say, ‘I hate my job’.

If given the opportunity to start all over again, I am positive I would choose the same profession, because I love it, and it has given me so much more, besides money. 

I started teaching in 1980- have been in education ever since, and still enjoy my job although, unfortunately, I don’t teach anymore in the true sense of the word. I mentor, and coach, while attempting to motivate and inspire teachers and school leaders, but nothing can replace the energy in a classroom of forty-plus pupils, all eager to have a good time! 

 I have worked alongside passionate, patient, intelligent, educators. I have seen energy, engagement, interaction, collaboration, and excellent communication at close quarters.  There have been lifelong learners and really kind, understanding adults who have been ready to listen while answering the vaguest of questions, from inquisitive pupils.

However, like many others, education is a challenging profession where you don’t only have to keep pace as a teacher, but attempt to be one step ahead. You can’t play catch up – you must lead the pack, who will always be hot on your heels. There is no time for slacking, lest you be left behind.

But hasn’t that always been the case? I remember teaching and interacting with extremely intelligent pupils in The Boys High School, Allahabad, The Bishop’s School in Pune, and in both Modern High and The Millennium School in Dubai. When in India, Encyclopedia Britannica often came to my rescue, and so did teachers and administrators, more learned and experienced than me. That helped me to always go to class well-prepared, and in control. Yes, pupils did stump me with tricky questions at times, but I made sure to return the next day with the correct answer. 

I have some questions on my mind …….

How effectively are pupils being educated today?

 There are multifarious things to consider, and times are changing rapidly.

Are parents and teachers still shouting instructions?

Are teaching methodologies changing for the better?

Are the present-day curricula suitable, and are they being modified when found necessary?

Are classes pupil-centric and student-led? 

Is ‘teacher talk’ reducing or at least being kept to the minimum? 

Is progress visible and quantifiable?

Are parents involved in their ward’s education?

What about care and support? Are pupils safe?

Are we conducting background checks on teachers before appointing them?

Do children find time to play? By play, I mean ‘play outside and run, jump, skip, get scraped and bruised’?

What about parents fearing that something awful will happen to their wards if they get into an argument or fight with the neighbor’s children? 

Is play unsupervised? What about ‘helicopter parenting?  

Are we responsible for bringing up nervous, anxious kids?

 Are we in the midst of an epidemic of anxiety?  

 Are music, dance, and drama given sufficient importance in our schools?

Good pedagogy is inclusive - Are our schools truly inclusive? 

Are we getting into a quagmire of over-testing, excessive benchmarking, and comparing?

So much has changed since I first went into a classroom as a teacher forty odd years ago - Has our education system kept pace? Are we educators keeping pace?

Is the entire education system, the world over, crying out for a drastic overhaul? 

Can you overhaul a broken system? Is just tweaking it sufficient, or do we need to take a bold step & reinvent it, to get ahead of the times? 

The questions are varied and many of the probably answers, vague. 

I often read about panels of experts meeting to deliberate on how to improve student performance, but their discussions are primarily focused on benchmarks & test scores. Here is my point – while both are definitely principal indicators of academic progress and attainment, they are certainly not of paramount importance. 

 Universities and Colleges weigh test scores very differently, and no matter which college you're applying to, test scores are more often than not, not the overriding factor. Colleges give a lot of weight to grades and the rigor of your classes.

For decades now, schools have concentrated on the three C’s – Conformity, Compliance, and Competition, although it is a well-known fact, that life is all about diversity! Our planet thrives on diversity and it is the hallmark of human existence.  Human intelligence does not equal academic ability, and while we shout from the rooftops about differentiation, our education system seems to be based on standardization, and thereby hangs a tale. 

Gone are the days when teaching was a monologue – today learning is a conversation.  More personalized, self-paced, and self-directed teaching and learning is the need of the hour. Pupils are even more curious than before. Literally and figuratively speaking, they have the world at their fingertips. Our one size fits all curriculum, on the other hand, does very little for creativity. “If you look at a list of skills and content areas that teachers are expected to cover, creativity rarely gets top billing, although research is showing, that creativity isn’t just great to have, it’s an essential human skill — perhaps even an evolutionary imperative, in our technology-driven world”. 

It motivates pupils to learn, lights up the brain while spurring emotional development, often ignites a spark in hard-to-reach and easily bored pupils, and is an essential job skill for the future. One distinct and visible positive that is being seen more frequently now, is forward thinking schools, led by enlightened leaders, that are moving away from the transactional methods of instruction, toward a more relational approach to teaching & learning, with flexible classrooms, paired with ever more robust and immersive virtual environments.

Talk to pupils at random, and one strand is usually perceptible in the underbelly of the conversation- ‘they feel stifled’. 

It’s not that they don’t love to learn- it’s not that they don’t love their school or their teachers – it’s just that they are definitely not enamoured the system. They don’t find it student-friendly, it does not motivate or inspire them, it’s impersonal, artificial, and tends to cramp their natural instincts.  No wonder, a few million pupils drop out of school every year – alarming, to say the very least.   

We need to put kids in a real-world, authentic learning environment during the school day, and provide them with the tools they need, to be successful.   Technology is the language children of today speak, and something they thrive on and enjoy. 

I vividly remember attending a leadership program at The Tuck Business school at Dartmouth, a few years ago. A learned speaker picked up a mobile phone and asked as to how many of us allowed pupils to carry phones into the classroom. No hands were raised. He said he was utterly surprised, and predicted that in a few years the only things pupils would take into classrooms and lecture halls would be mobile devices – prophetic words indeed.  

I doubt anyone expected the ‘internet’ or the world wide web, or even thought about something like this a few decades ago, and here we are today, with it impacting every facet of our existence.  So, what are we predicting for education thirty or fifty years from now? Frankly, no one has a clue and that’s no surprise!

In one of his famed Ted talks, Sir Ken Robinson tells us about a chat he had with Paul McCartney of The Beatles fame. Paul told him that he was in the same school as George Harrison, and the music teacher thought they had no talent worthy of note! 

When the incomparable Elvis Presley was in school, he applied to join the ‘Glee club’ and was rejected, as they felt his voice was not suitable.   

The same thing continues to happen even today – very often our “normal” educational system fails to see and feed a student’s potential.  In fact, far too often, the potential is practically squashed and brilliance goes abegging.  

So where do we go from here?

“While there are certainly inherent benefits of traditional rote learning and using standardized benchmarking & testing as a measure of performance, we know the next generation will need far more abstract and interchangeable skills; from fighting climate change to keeping up with the global digital revolution, the future generation of problem solvers will need to overcome some of the world’s toughest obstacles, by thinking in new and creative ways with bold ideas and the determination to challenge the impossible”. UNESCO study.

One thing is for certain, and this is no rocket science – If schools leave pupils with a neutral or negative footprint, they have no chance of success, and future generations will have every reason to complain, that they were shortchanged by the system.

Today, as educators, we are ethically obligated to serve the learning needs of all children. Hence, in order to do the same,d  it becomes  our moral duty to fight for change, or go down the drain with the flow.