Education beyond classrooms

NON-FORMAL WAYS OF LEARNING

It is understood that education is for life as well as living. Education per se enlightens, empowers and reforms people. In fact, social, cultural and intellectual transformation of man—the species Homo sapiens—into a human being is possible only through proper education. Education, apart from the economic perspectives, is the most powerful instrument that can change the world.

Education beyond classrooms truly opens up a new channel called “co-visual learning” (see to learn or see to believe). In the US, admission to world-renowned universities like Harvard and Stanford is governed, in addition to consistently high grades up to IX standard, also by co-curricular activities such as social service, athletics, accomplishments in fine and performing arts, etc.

This system of valuing students’ exposure outside the academic front is something that we need to emulate in our regimen of teaching-learning-training. The rote learning practiced for decades must be duly substituted by ingenious non-formal routes. It is heartening that the draft New Education Policy-2019 has advocated vocational skills, courses and crafts for students from sixth to 12th grade.

In our country, the transition from non-formal (the so-called ‘gurukula’) system of education to formal stream took place a few hundred years ago, especially after the arrival of the British in the late 16th century. The formal paradigm is a well-structured and defined but compartmentalised and restricted variant of learning because of rigid ‘prescriptions’ in terms of text/reference books and framed syllabi. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the complementary role of non-formal pathways in education.

In recent times, schools and colleges have been asked to focus on co-curricular/extra-curricular activities—termed as “co-scholastic pursuits”. Given the adequate attention and support, activities on athletics, fine and performing arts, music, dance, literature, painting, photography, etc will supplement learning to make it more composite.

Unfortunately, most of our schools/colleges do not take these aspects seriously, as a result ending up being ‘tutorials’ or ‘teaching-shops’ that just prepare students for examinations. This indeed is a lop-sided approach that seldom facilitates creative learning.

Healthy practices go beyond the classrooms and outside the examination front. Mother nature, it is said, is a master teacher and a great repository of information for, it is replete with physical and biological phenomena. Children should be periodically taken out of the classrooms, especially during the weekends, to witness the seasonal/ diurnal/ cyclical changes.

For instance, songs and nesting of birds, flowering in plants, hovering of bees and butterflies, soil and water-borne animals, ponds, lakes, streams and rivers, visits to museums, zoos, exhibitions and seeing rocks, varieties of crops, fruits and vegetables, livestock and farming practices, nearby plantations of coconut, areca nut, banana, coffee, rubber, etc, are highly educative.

After short excursions, children should be asked to draw diagrams of objects seen by them. Off the classrooms, students must be encouraged to cut and paste, build images (say from sand and mud), prepare modules and charts because doing is the best form of learning. A conscientious teacher should pose queries like ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘what’, ‘why not’ etc, on the visual experience of the children.

Inculcation of moral values such as respect to teachers and the elderly, discipline, punctuality, cleanliness, personal hygiene, sincerity, truthfulness, must be the essential elements of non-formal education. It must be mentioned that various outdoor activities could be designed commensurate with the level of learning from standard 1 to standard 12. Further, every school must have a catalogue of places, enterprises and avocations for short day-visits.

When children are made to play with education kits and simple tools, they learn better. Education, if imparted beyond classrooms, will have lasting imprints on children’s memories quite unlike the information obtained through rote learning. At the primary level, the message should be ‘know the world around you’.

At college level, education should foster the capacity-building of youths (18 to 23 years) for a fruitful life and career. Due diligence on the acquisition of a measure of confidence and competence will improve one’s scale of performance. The syllabus for a university programme is meant to formally learn the minimum but not the maximum. It is a means but not the end.

Apart from a sound knowledge of the chosen subject, an undergraduate student should possess a set of soft/life skills in communication, debating, leadership, problem-solving, team spirit, analytical mind, reasoning, decision making, conflict and crisis management, etc.

Project works, internship, participating in finishing schools, orientation and skill induction programmes are necessary for preparing a career. Knowledge of environmental hazards and safeguards, climate change and its drastic effects, depleting sources of water and energy is required to understand the perspectives of sustainable development. Marks and ranks do not guarantee good performance in life.

Young graduates-to-be, regardless of their major areas of study, should have glimpses of working of banks, business, industries, legislature, judiciary, executive, public policy and governance. Life’s lessons are generally learnt outside the classrooms.

In the current scenario of information explosion, it is possible to learn a great deal through non-formal routes. For instance, distance learning through Open University programmes has proved to be a boon to reinforce formal education. Time spent in pursuing a degree in a college (3-4 years) should be utilised to enrich one’s intellectual prowess, partly through mentors but largely by self-effort. There are classic examples of stalwarts who built a distinguished career by learning outside the classrooms. There is wisdom in the adage ‘self-help is the best help’.

(The writer is former vice-chancellor, University of Mysore and president, Forum of Former Vice-Chancellors of Karnataka, Bengaluru)