Schools should be like a top which takes you round through the basic and necessary all-round development that enforces and builds you continually so that one day you’re able to stand up strong, take well-informed decisions and be a functioning member of the society.

Before I begin to talk about what could be better with our education system, you must understand how utterly paramount the education that you get is. Most of your character traits, dreams, direction, attitude and your personality are molded in your childhood and in your teens; the age during which you’re spending most of the time in your education. You might know that the Japanese football fans stayed after the match in World Cup 2018 to clean up the stadium. Why ? Because they have been groomed like that in their schools.

There is a saying in the language of Kannada : “ಗಿಡವಾಗಿ ಬಗ್ಗದ್ದು ಮರವಾಗಿ ಬಗ್ಗೀತೇ” which roughly translates to a rhetorical ‘If a plant cannot bend, how do you expect it to bend as a tree?’

“It is easier to build stronger children than repair broken men” — Frederick Douglass

This post is mainly based on a mail I wrote to The Ministry of Human Resource Development in response to their invitation for suggestions to rationalize the curriculum. Here are my suggestions:

1. Experiment first, explain next.

The current text books and the way of teaching, for the most part, merely states the facts and just ‘feeds’ the information to the students. These methods does not provoke curiosity, active learning or intuition in the students. This leads to cramming up the answers just to pass the examination. The ‘why’ or the motive behind the facts seems to be missing.

So, what do we do about it? I’d like to imagine schools where experiments are conducted right from the primary classes. You’d think that this would not make much of a difference based on the experience you’ve had in your colleges. You’re probably right, unless a very important aspect is considered while conducting the theory classes and the experiments: order.

The order in which theory classes and experiments are conducted is very crucial. It makes a significant difference to have the experiments before you teach theory. Why is this so important? When you have the practicals first, you are naturally curious as to why something behaves the way it does. And you would wonder why it happens the way it does and maybe, even try to develop your own theory to explain it. This gives you the chance to develop your curiosity and intuition. And now, when the teacher explains the actual theory behind the experiments, you can compare your line of thinking to it. If your thinking was in similar lines, or almost the same, you can correlate to the actual theory building your confidence; if your thinking deviates from the actual theory, you shall clarify with the teacher why it wouldn’t work according to your theory. This way you get to the depth of concept and your intuition shall improve. This is much better than just giving the facts and the students taking it for ‘granted’.

The experiments at the lower primary classes shall be conducted by the teacher. For subjects like Mathematics, Civics, Economics, etc., the experiments can be thought experiments so that a motive for the topic is developed. This might seem a bit ideal but experiments that are properly curated taking into account the learning complexity and a step-by-step deployment of the concept shall do wonders.

2. Exposure to the multitude of learning and career paths:

Many people in my personal network wish they had taken up a different career. Yet, they still continue with their current career because of a variety of reasons. Of course, the grass is always greener on the other side. But it is only fair that they are, at the least, sufficiently exposed to the various fields in which they could possibly make a career. To expect a really successful career is too far fetched when you’re not personally interested in the particular field and you’re not giving it your hundred percent.

I would propose to add non-mainstream subjects like photography, music, drawing, fine arts, uncommon sports, etc., to the list of elective subjects. And the electives shall be introduced starting from higher primary classes . The students shall feel free to explore their creativity in their interested fields under the guidance of an experienced professional or an enthusiast in that field. The idea here is to make the students realize their interests and potential and to start them off early in their paths.

3. Career counselings:

Students shall have free/subsidized career counselings at classes 10 and 12. This ensures they take on a career path based on self-evaluation and not based on the popular choice among the major masses.

4. Community service:

Once a quarter, or more frequently if viable, every student shall participate in community service helping the under privileged and the needy. This would bring about basic humanity of kindness, compassion and mindfulness of others.

5. Cultivation:

The students shall be taught how to grow small plants(tomato, beans and other fast growing plants) within the premises of the school. Every student shall do all chores from planting the seed to watering and taking care of it everyday. The teacher shall explain aspects of fertility of soil, crop rotation, water, etc. This ensures that the students feel connected to the nature and can appreciate the importance of agriculture and the challenges faced here. This also shall bring a sense of consciousness about the environment and realization of the effects of pollution. When you realize all this, you will automatically take steps to protect and preserve the nature.

6. First aid:

Students shall be taught how to perform first aid. And this shall not be just telling them ‘what’ to do but ‘why’ as well (in the context of blood vessels,

arteries, veins, bones,etc). This shall be application of the knowledge they learnt in biology. When people apply what they have learnt, they realize the

importance of such subjects and pay attention to them.

7. RTI(Right to Information):

We are a democratic country and democracy is by the people, of the people and for the people. It is important for the citizens to actively engage with the government to express opinions and guide the functioning of the nation to the extent of their capabilities. In this direction, the first step would be to learn to file an RTI. The schools shall teach the method of filing an RTI, maybe within the subject of Civics. Also, an RTI shall be filed per class on a current relevant topic agreed upon by the whole class. This will make us feel as a part of the government.

8. Transgenders and the rest of the LGBTQ spectrum:

Kerala becomes first state to open a school for transgenders. Uber hires transgenders as drivers. These are wonderful news, but I still see that the transgenders are still not fully accepted in our society. Kochi metro offered jobs to transgenders. But unfortunately, many resigned owing to the indifference expressed by the general public.

Why are we conservative about these communities when we are living among them. We study in detail about the bodies of the male and the female; why not them ? I would propose to have a chapter on LGBTQ in biology. Just as the gender formation of male and female is explained, this chapter shall explain the formation, the hormonal aspects and the body differences of LGBTQ communities. This, I believe, would be some step in the path of the general acceptance of these communities.

9. Physical education and nutrition:

Physical education classes shall also teach the importance of food and nutrition and how they affect the health. The class shall try to bring correlation between physical exercises, nutrition and biological aspects learnt in biology.

All these suggestions might seem far-fetched but with an appropriate deployment at the appropriate classes it is definitely doable. And because principles and attitude formed early in your childhood will stick strong and principles formed at adulthood is likely to be shaken and violated easily, I strongly believe that every single point would bring about a drastic change.

After my primary and high school, I took up the stream of Science(PCMB) in my 11th and 12th (classes 1–12 under Karnataka state syllabus). Then I opted for engineering in Electronics and Communication (in an autonomous college affiliated to VTU, under AICTE). This is my background of education and the basis for the suggestions I make.

And don’t forget to check out the Draft National Education Policy 2019 formed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.