Page 32 - Education World Dec 2021

Expert Comment

Quality education:

new definition

GEETA KINGDON

S INDIA’S EDUCATION SYSTEM FROM pre- Today education has to prepare young
primary to university begins to find its bearings
after the longest lockdown of education institu- citizens to address contemporary
Ations worldwide, it’s important to devise ways and health and climate change challenges
means to rejig the system for the post-Covid pandemic era.
In addition to legacy problems of the past, education sys- and harness new technologies
tems worldwide are confronted with daunting new chal-
lenges.
• Climate change that presents humanity with frightening kutumbkam — the whole world is one family, a cultural
scenarios tradition often emphasised by prime minister Modi. The at-
• Global pandemics undermining health security tributes needed for accepting the whole world as one family
• Evolving technologies that are rapidly changing the nature are: empathy, care, compassion, justice, inclusivity, lack of
of work, and to which humans are (perhaps unwittingly) prejudice and respect for diversity.
ceding agency and autonomy That India’s ancient value of vasudhaiv kutumbkam is
The plain truth is that our education system is woefully appropriate for the contemporary globalised world is en-
unprepared to confront these formidable challenges. dorsed by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs,
Against this background, it’s a tragedy that in the third which were adopted by all world leaders at the UN in 2015).
decade of the 21st century, access to acceptable quality They include ‘Global Citizenship Education’ as one of the
education is still denied to a massive number of children indicators within the Education Goal (Goal 4). By recom-
in India. Even the modest Millennium Development Goal mending that all schools worldwide impart global citizen-
which mandated that all elementary-age children will com- ship education, the SDGs seek to cultivate the values of em-
plete eight years of education by 2015, was missed by a mile. pathy; equality (gender and economic); care for the natural
Moreover, even among children who do complete elemen- environment; appreciation of and respect for diversity; and
tary education, millions don’t have adequate reading, writ- lack of prejudices of colour, race and nationality.
ing and numeracy skills. n this context, it is encouraging that India’s National Edu-
However, in this day and age every child being literate Ication Policy (NEP) 2020 highlights Global Citizenship
and numerate after five-eight years of schooling is still a Education (GCE) in three paragraphs — 4.24, 6.20 and 11.8.
very limited concept of what education can and must do. By insisting that schools teach GCE, NEP 2020 endorses
Today, education has to be far broader in reach and scope to the importance of inclusivity inherent in the vasudhaiv
prepare young citizens to address contemporary health and kutumbkam precept. This means that school curricula,
climate change challenges, and to harness opportunities in- teacher training and pupil assessments of the future must
herent in emerging new technologies while circumventing include GCE.
their downsides. In sum, education needs to be redefined At the recently concluded COP-26 conference in Glasgow,
so that it enables new millennium children to develop new in a session ‘Schools Teaching for Climate Action,’ every
skills and capabilities. In this context, what type of educa- distinguished speaker emphasised that to address climate
tion do we need? change effectively, educating children about this phenom-
Foremost, redefinition of education to free it from its enon and raising awareness is not enough. Attitudinal and
largely economic context and acknowledge its transforma- behaviour change is also required.
tional role in individual lives and society. Latter day prophet In sum, good education must not only provide knowl-
Abdul Baha whose death centenary we commemorate this edge and skills but also inculcate values and attitudes that
year, wrote: “True education releases capacities, develops enable individuals to become conscious promoters of their
analytical abilities, confidence in oneself, will-power and own growth, and evolve into responsible participants for
goal-setting competencies, and instils vision that will en- the progress of society. An individual with such rounded
able a person to become a self-motivated agent of social education won’t be a passive bystander but a pro-active citi-
transformation.” zen, concerned about affairs of the age, and contributing
Human beings essentially have three qualities: material, her share towards resolution of problems confronting the
human and divine. For a child’s balanced development, ed- community and humanity.
ucation must develop all these qualities. Arguably, during Education based on such principles is capable of play-
the past decades there has been overemphasis on material ing a transformative role in individual lives and in societal
at the cost of human and spiritual education. To improve progress and reorganisation. This needs to be the new defi-
outward behaviour, inner condition must be improved first. nition of ‘quality education’ today.
This highlights the importance of values based education.
One valuable tenet of India’s ancient culture with pe- (Prof. Geeta Kingdon is chair of Education Economics & International
rennial relevance and utterly necessary today is vasudhaiv Development at the Institute of Education, University College London)

32 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2021