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Education in the 21st Century
Objective
Education should be a process of teaching and inspiring the Child how to understand the Environment, Culture, Society (both local and global), of which he / she is a part of and to enable him/her (even as a Class VIII dropout) to learn to function competently in the world he/she lives in, by developing the skills and knowledge to gather whatever information (facts, figures and historical examples) needed, and be able to transfer the learning appropriately to take the right decisions or actions, to interact with or improve on his / her existing environment or circumstances,figures and also to frame and ask the right questions of the search engines and even of the AGI, and understand and, if necessary, reframe the questions, and to then act appropriately as required.
“Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience” – Albert Einstein
(Hence, education must not be only rote learning but learning through practical experience).
“It is more valuable to ‘know how’ than just to ‘know what’.” – Anon
“The point is to acquire the skill of… critical thinking which is inherently skeptical. The best students are the ones who raise sharp questions, challenging authority figures, defending novel points of view.” – Barbara Ehrenreich
In these times, when information is easily available and complicated computations quickly and conveniently possible, education is certainly not intended to make the Child’s brain a storehouse of facts and figures, though memorizing some fundamental facts and figures will still be useful and should be encouraged. What is really required to be taught, is a methodology of learning how; to recognize problems or situations requiring solutions or amelioration, to think up ideas to resolve the issues, to be able to access the relevant facts and figures, and to then act appropriately as required.
Allowing children to carry and use a tablet, or laptop computer, with proper books and Apps uploaded, would do away with the necessity to carry the heavy school bags they do today.
“Coaching classes) provide readymade solutions, but educators provide ways (by which) one can find solutions for one self… the output of a (Coaching class) is a closed system of thought, closed to external influences and not subject to change; the output of an educator is an open system of thought, open to external influences and subject to change.” – Russell Ackoff
“Once upon a time teachers taught and students learnt, now teacher’s trade and students consume.” – Dr. Debasis Chatterjee.
“Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching kids what counts is best.” – Bob Talbert.
As Stephen.R.Covey advises- We can raise a generation of leaders by teaching children to recognize in themselves their innate worth and goodness, by helping them to see within themselves the great power and potential they have.
Teach them integrity, resourcefulness, self-discipline, the win-win way of life, and the concept of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (The world is one family) and the principles of ‘Ubuntu’ (I am because we are) the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. Also, to take time to prepare themselves, to first ‘sharpen the axe’, to never cease growing and learning.
It is true that knowledge and practice of proper moral, ethical and social values is essential for the well being of Society. It is also, true that such knowledge encourages a proper sense of empathy and altruism that is the essence of our humanity. However, it is also true that today’s scientific advances, and the technologies derived from them, have greatly impacted our lives. In the olden days the changes were not instantaneously affected, being implemented only over periods of time that allowed for a gradual assimilation, thus most changes were not really disruptive across the life spans of the people then. The last two centuries have however, been increasingly different; the rate of change has been increasing exponentially. The introduction of new technological breakthroughs, based on rapid advances in Science, have now become so frequent that we barely have begun to understand one before the next arrives, in a mostly disruptive manner, impacting our lives considerably and continually. It was estimated in around the year 2000, that the sum total of human knowledge was doubling every 4-5 years. Now consider what the rate of change would be today with AGI/GAI.
“Customs and traditions and the mythology that gives rise to them, obviously have some evolutionary collective wisdom, otherwise they would not have survived as long. But when the situation or circumstances change they may no longer fit in and also, if applied outside their domain can result in things going very wrong.” – Nassim N. Taleb.
“Since we live in an age of innovation, a practical education system must prepare a man for work that does not yet exist and cannot yet be clearly defined.” – Peter Drucker.
When the next generation comes of working age, they will face a life and prospects of a career in an environment where the B-G-N-R & A.I & G.A.I Technologies (Bio, Genetic, Nano, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence and Generative Artificial Intelligence) would have enforced transformations far greater than what the I-C-E Technologies (Information, Communication and Entertainment) have already done and are even now still continuing to do.
Infact the potential of the new ‘additive manufacturing’ (by depositing material through nozzles in micrometer layers, like a dot matrix printer, and sintering / gluing them, or by hardening each such micro layer using lasers etc) allows for more efficient manufacturing, and lays a premium on the understanding of design, physics, chemistry and material sciences. Since such additive manufacturing uses far less raw resources, and needs far less capital to setup, and can produce ‘onsite’, thus avoiding the handling and transportation costs etc, it is likely to attain a major share in manufacturing within a decade or so. Such 3-D Printing methods will also, move into food and, even into bio-tissue and other fields, with an even greater impact especially where customizing and not mass manufacturing is what is required.
‘Additive manufacturing’ will result in a ‘regime shift’ in our way of life at least as much as did computers and mobile phones. So will the increasing augmentation of all sorts of human abilities with Artificial General Intelligence and Data manipulation.
All this requires us to revise our basic education / vocational training system to prepare our next generation for it.
In such an environment we need to ask ourselves, – ‘Is our System of Education, based as it is on historic methods of learning on how to live and work in the environment of those days, capable of instilling in our students not only the capacity to live in and function competently in our present environment, but also, to understand the new Technologies that will arise tomorrow and to use them to attain to greater levels of development and implementation?’ The answer is obviously NO!
We therefore need to urgently and rapidly revise our Education System right from the play school level, to the school (upto Class -XII Level) to enable the students to live and function competently in such an environment and also, at the technological vocational skill development and technological educational levels.
When the ‘Rishi’s’ of ancient times finally accepted writing, and reading there from, as a means of learning, their disciples then were no longer required to show their skill at memorizing the Vedas etc. before they could even begin understanding and interpreting them; more importantly, they could sooner get on with developing their Analytical and Interpretational abilities. So too today, we need to understand that in an environment when almost all information is easily and reliably obtainable as needed, our emphasis should shift, from memorizing anything more than the fundamentals, to learning how to access, collate, digest and use the information intelligently, discerning patterns therein and being able to process it logically, for finding the solutions required.
The present School syllabus does not impart such abilities. It teaches what is more suited to the 18th Century with the aim of converting simple agricultural labourers into clock conscious docile and disciplined workers for routine assembly line jobs in the then factories, or as clerks in the British Administration, and not for jobs in the 21st Century. Thus increasing the Educated unemployable. Rote learning and repetitive operations must give way to understanding the fundamentals and encourage innovative and imaginative thinking.