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Written by Sourav Dutta |improjectnomad@gmail.com
Let's start with the big question
Let's start with the big question
What is wrong with our education system?
Basically everything. The existing mass public education in India is rote and obsolete with respect to the time and space we are living in. Let's not go very deep into the matter, cause the entire concept of education is so vague that anyone can realize it if s/he looks into the matter with just his/her common senses. The fact is that we have lost the credibility of using our common sense in due course of time, say like little more than 100 years or so. Look around us carefully, everything has changed, except for the education system. Let me raise some common questions. Try yourself to answer them.
1. Why we go to school for 6 to 8 hours?
2. Why every child is pushed for the same knowledge?
3. Why every school uses a bell(sound) to begin something and to end?
4. Why we stand and even sit in rows?
5. Why we are called in Batches (Batch of 2016 or 2016 Batch)?
6. Why we wear that graduation robe and cap on the final day of our college?
7. Why do we need to bring tiffin from home?
8. Why in a country like India do we wear a tie at school?
There are many such questions. But for the time let us concentrate on the above 8 questions.
Now let us think of a factory powered by human labour, can be anywhere in the world. Do you find any similarity? Yes, from the time we start going to a school, the training begins.
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."
Pablo Picasso
I came across a small segment of Francis Fukuyama's writing on political development and political decay, where he wrote, 'The large urban school, college or university, organized by age stratification, learners meeting in groups, and regulated units of time, was an excellent fit for an industrial society. In effect, we still have a predominantly factory model of educational design, which in large part remains our default design model even today.
Some design models are so embedded in tradition and convention that we are often like fish in water – we just accept that this is the environment in which we have to live and breath. The classroom model is a very good example of this. In a classroom based model, learners are organised in classes that meet on a regular basis at the same place at certain times of the day for a given length of time over a given period (a term or semester).' Ref. opentextbc.ca
Let us not put everything on to the face. Lead your mind to self-research. Do not believe in what I am writing. Do not be conclusive just by reading the above statements. When you convince yourself that yes, there is a need for a new or alternative education then you make a come back and continue reading, because the following is a part of my research on different types of alternative educations, activities, modern and group learning which is happening all around India and outside and their results. In my research I will move from place to place exploring, interviewing, documenting and understanding what new can we bring in. I strongly believe that a nation which has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35 is performing at a very poor level, in every aspect of our life. We can only come out of it once we find the right format of education which in return will help us take our country from a notion of a 'developing country' to a 'developed country'.
It's been 70 years that we are still struggling to become a developed country. We are one of the highest producers of engineers and doctors yet we struggle in the respective fields. India is changing into a chaotic nation. Before we lose it all, we must find a way to save it.
Right kind of education in full force is what we need the most.
Support me in my journey & research. For donation/contribution mail me at improjectnomad@gmail.com
Figure 3.2 Miss Bowls’s class in an unidentified girls’ school, England Date: circa 1905Image: Southall Board, Flickr
What is Project Nomad?
In a nutshell, I am trying to collect a database with research and documentation of all kinds of alternative education happening across India. I want to come up with a community of nomads, who will help each other to build a platform for education in a new form for a better and developed future.
Day 3 Feb 20, 2019
Why named the project as 'project nomad'?
There are basically 2 logics working behind it. Firstly, the dictionary meaning. It's a noun, which means 'a member of a people that travel from place to place to find fresh pasture for its animals and has no permanent home'. In my case, I will travel from place to place to find the right set of education for our children and will have no permanent home as I will be traveling across India.
Secondly, it is the thought process that I believe we all must take in for our good. Start thinking like a nomad, question everything. We need to empty our knowledge which we have gathered over our lifespan because we judge everything with it but unfortunately a major source of it is a part of our rote and obsolete education system.
"It is easier to land a man on the moon than to change the school system.”
― M.Z.Riffi - The Queen of Granada
Observation 1
There is a vast difference in mindset between my parents born in the 60s & 70s, me born in the 80s and my son born in 2016. Although my son is yet to develop his own mindset but what I observed is that even before my son can have his own mindset, we as parents and my parents try our best to give a pre mindset to our children regarding everything about the outside world, which is not the same as the 60s, 70s or 80s. Result? Mindset conflict and drop in self confidence.
Do you agree with this observation? Do you want to add anything to this please write to me at improjectnomad@gmai.com (mention observation 1 in the subject of your email)
An awkward question asked.
Few days back someone asked on our facebook page that what will I do with all these data & research that I am talking about, this kind of work has already been done before. Then why again?
At first, I thought not to answer, but a few days back when I came across the same question again I found the question quite appropriate. So I moved the question in my blog, and now while writing the answer I strongly believe that this is probably the best question asked regarding project nomad.
I don't know who and how accurately the previous research was done. But my idea of research is not so scientific rather more of documentation based, as my background is film making I will try to taste the alternative education in three different ways. Why people are choosing alternative education? This is to get a broader idea on the problems we have with our formal education, what alternative solution they are working on? and what is the success model? If I can get hold of these 3 questions, say from 500 samples across India. It will definitely be a wonderful achievement and enough data for further study.
I strongly believe that if I can get hold of such data then we can create something strong enough for a brighter future. Post my research I will invite all possible people and show them what I have got and what we can do with it. But unless I get hold of the samples I have no idea about the final conclusion. So as of now I am just looking for my samples to study. I hope that answers the question?
Day 4 Feb 22, 2019
Education and Statistics
This section of writing is for those people who believe that other than writing with data, statistics and references everything else is a work of fiction.
"Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole Life Believing that It is Stupid"
Albert Einstein
India ranks 168 out of 234 in literacy rate according to UNESCO INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS. And 130 out of 189 in UN's HDI or Human Development Index. Sounds very bad, isn't it?
But simple comparison with numbers and ranks is not enough. So let's carry out a side by side indepth comparison with the top 5 countries.
The top 5 countries in UN's HDI listing are Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Ireland & Germany. (See the table below)
India in this table ranks 130, according to UN's 2018 data. And the breakdown is as follows. India's HDI Value is 0.640, life expectancy at birth is 68.8, expected years of schooling is 12.3, mean years of schooling is 6.4, and most important the gross natinal income per capita is 6,353. Now take your time and carefully compare the numbers with the above table. Ref. hrd.undp.org
Lets go a little more deeper. Check out the stat charts below very carefully first. If you want to study yourself directly from the site, then plesase click here
Fig 1.2 - Quality of Health (Note the numbers of the top 5 countries)
Fig 1.3 - Quality of Health (India at 130)
Fig 1.4 - Quality of Standard of Living (From the top it is the same countries as in fig 1.2)
Fig 1.5 - Quality of Standard of Living (the red box is India's statistical numbers)
Explanation
The table you see in fig 1.2 is a part of 'quality of human development' statistics called the 'quality of health'. In the top left corner of the figure, you will see 3 different colour demarcations (green, yellow and orangish yellow). These are basically country groupings, where India falls under the category of bottom third countries. The last two figures are also a part of the same but focusing on the 'standard of quality of living'. If you carefully study the above figures, you will feel that our country desperately needs development at ground level. We must learn to walk, then to fly. But unfortunately, our wings of imagination oversees our practical capability in the winds of emotion.
At this point of time, I am curious about the UN's top five countries HDI list and their priority on education.
Norway - The Government has proposed an allocation of just over NOK 3.7 billion for education in the 2019 budget. This is an increase of around NOK 160 million from 2018. These funds will be used to give more children an education, especially girls and children in situations of crisis and conflict. Source: click here
Switzerland - Even such a small country like switzerland pumps in more than 11% of this total expenditure in education and research, according to their public finance 2017. Source: click here
Australia - According to 'The Guardian', Australia is among the highest contributors to education spending in the world, at about 6% of gross domestic product. Source: click here
Ireland - The education budget is set to increase by 7 per cent, or almost €675 million, to a record sum of €10.8 billion next year. Source: click here
Germany - The German Parliament, the Bundestag, has adopted the Federal Government’s 2017 budget, increasing the financial resources available to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research by almost 1.2 billion euros to about 17.6 billion euros. This means an increase of 7.6 percent compared to the previous year and will further strengthen education and research. Source: click here
Now lets get back home and see what our government is doing to counter this international problem on education. Lets not go into the history as it is of no use.
Budget 2019
I personally feel that there was hardly any major or effective announcement made on education during the budget presentation. So the next day I went across the newspapers, as I still have some faith in them, but I came across unhappy statements. And not really effective counter figures from the government to put up a strong fight in the field of education. It is sad and very unfortunate.
Rudra Sensarma (Dean, research at IIM, Kozhikode) also a PhD in economics expressed sadness on the newspaper 'The Indian Express'. The fund allocation for HEFA (Higher Education Financing Agency) has dropped by 24%. In another statement by Rajib Ray, who is the president of DUTA (Delhi University Teacher's Association) clearly said 'the allocations for the education budget have decreased in the last 4 years'. B. Bhagwan Das, dean of economics at Loyola College, Chennai, clearly mentioned that the government need to invest at least 6% of the GDP on the education sector. The professor also mentioned about the lower rank of our country in the UN's HDI ranking. Ref. The Indian Express Article
This is in-fact not the first time that our teachers and professors are requesting the government to raise the investment level for education in accordance with the budget and GDP of our country.
A journal was published on IOSR website by Dr. RN Nadar, who is the VP of Guru Nanak College of Arts, Science & Commerce, Sion East, Mumbai. His journal broadly puts forward the contemporary issues & challenges in Indian education. But the most important part comes at the end of his journal where he finishes with some pointers of recommendation, which says,
1. We need to invest heavily on educational infrastructure and teachers. According to him we must invest 8 to 10 percent of India's GDP on education.
2. Teachers should encourage creativity in students. More exposure to economics, environment and social problems.
3. The purpose of the exam should be used to understand students' understanding of their subject.
4. He suggested, that we must include contents such as ethics in life, value building, understanding society, patriotism, the greatness of leaders, and sacrifice of parents must be made compulsory in schools at every level.
5. Teaching religious subjects must be blocked at school.
6. Quality seminars, conference and workshops should be organised regularly to train the trainers to cope up with changing culture and changing need of students & society.
7. GoI must make sure for quality education to all at affordable prices.
8. Reservation & management quota system has to be abolished. Ownership of educational units by politicians & religious groups should be discouraged.
9. Unwanted competition among the educational institutions should be avoided.
10. Media should become more responsible for education. Every news agency must publish at least one article/journal/show on quality of education & the change required in people for a healthy nation.
11. Lastly, teaching should be the highest paid job in the country. And an uniform salary should be paid to all teachers.
Source: IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) |e-ISSN: 2278-487X, p-ISSN: 2319-7668 | PP 86-91 |www.iosrjournals.or | Click here to download the journal
Conclusion
Today we dispatch our children for schools thinking that they will get a good education for a better future. But we never look into their syllabus and techniques of learning because schooling has become a part of an enclosed business which takes place within the four guarded walls. Today even school names are branded and they sound like an international product. I suppose by now we are well aware of the problems of our education system.
If we look at the human evolution and the key moments in it, like walking on two legs from four, the invention of spoken language from sign language and so on. And if we notice carefully, all the kids do the same, on their own, isn't that amazing?
All kids are blessed with the capability of natural learning. We just need to guide them along. Margaret Mead, an American cultural anthropologist once said and I quote 'children must be taught how to think, not what to think.' One thing that we as parents & teachers must understand that a fixed syllabus or curriculum cannot help our kids learn. Every child is unique, and have their own way of learning. Learning is a natural process that we must accept now. We just have to show them the way and let them walk alone.
Day 5 March 9, 2019
My first experience in alternative education.
It all began when I got connected with Harshad Tathed, from Pune, who is also the founder of Swayambodh Gurukul. He invited me to visit his special school in Bhosari, a small village on the outskirts of Pune. I was excited, and so I just took a bus from Mumbai and reached Pune the very next day. I got down at Wakad bridge and then took a small auto ride to a particular bus stand from where I took a local transport bus to Bhosari, a fast developing village with quite a population where people don't believe in wearing helmets. I saw traffic police but they were inactive. Anyways but I like the spirit of the place. People were in a hurry all over. The sun was down and soon I was greeted by Harshad who took me to his school just a few meters from the place where I left my local transport. To read more click here.
Little & most happiest learners of 'SWAYAMBODH GURUKUL', Bhosari, Pune.
Day 6 March 15, 2019
Update on SOLE and some very intereing alternative education coming soon. Keep visiting.
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