Keep the Ultra Elite from Our Regular Schools

Emerging Trends in Schooling.

Man is a learning animal. His learning began at his birth and will end only when this species becomes extinct. Chances for such a scenario are remote as he is the sole owner of this planet and all known and unknown constellations on earth or in space. He learns for making his life more comfortable and keeps searching for ways and means to achieve his goal of being happy ever. Unlike other species man’s desires do not end with mere physical needs.   His search is elusive and is struggling always.  In this long and sustained search for knowledge this race is always on and the race grows swifter and murkier in every passing year.

Centuries ago came the system of organized schooling in the world. A very big metamorphosis is seen in the subjects taught and learnt, the people who taught, the pupils who learnt and the ways it was taught.  Still the schools continue to play a vital role in the evolution of this human race. They shape individuals, nations and keep man’s quest for learning a permanent one.  Normally any child/youth of 5-20 is confined to the four walls of these institutions of learning and the rest of their lives depend upon the work they put in these formative years. Simply schooling is the most important part of the human civilization.

Virtual Schools

The advent of Information Technology in a big way is rewriting the traditional ways of learning. Today knowledge is available in schools also. That’s the crypt story. The world of knowledge is at the finger tip of every one. The internet connectivity has made this possible. The hollowed walls of schools and libraries are soon going to become a distant past. E-learning, e-classes, e-boards, e-lessons… virtual classrooms and virtual knowledge banks make these traditional schools irrelevant. Billions of kids in our schools need not assemble in a compound and wait for a bell to be goaded into boring classrooms. Parents need not spend big money and send their wards to distant residential schools and spend anxious nights and remain sad and gloomy. The kids too need not lose their valuable connect with their parents and can enjoy unbridled love and affection. ‘Anyone –any course and anywhere learning’ concept might not have come but they are not far off.  

Open Schools

Open Schools have opened the eyes of many. These are the precursors for the emerging new trends in education.  The required variety, flexibility, leniency and feasibility are there in this system of schooling. No more open schools are seen as the ones that are for the less privileged. They are for all and without any barriers. Slowly the concept is picking up momentum.

The idea behind this paper is to tell that the people who are rich and can afford big money need not dump their kids in schools meant for the common man. The governments are struggling to help them to overcome the poor’s problems and millions of schools require trillions of dollars of investment to make them resemble schools and transact minimum interaction. The much expected social cohesion does not take place at the expected momentum and the majority of the rich continue to grow rich and the majority of the poor continue to grow poorer. After receiving lessons on cooperation and unity via the modern education, man lives in isolation but surrounded by hundreds of neighbors. In the modern social set up the only guests who used to visit our houses like the milk man or post man also stopped coming. Mails are replaced by e-mails and milk available in pockets at every corner. Hence the guests who visit our drawing rooms are the characters that appear on our television screens only. The children are treating them as their role models.

At this critical juncture why should the 5% of the elite in the society need to send their kids to the common schools and burden the common man and his government. These ultra elite can make their kids read from their homes. They can pay for the tutors and give education of their choice to their wards. In such a scenario our Indian schools would be freed of a burden of around 20 million children and the resultant benefits from different ways. The less privileged would be gifted with a space of 20 million seats to pursue education. Slowly all those who can afford should be made to with draw from the regular formal schooling systems. Such trend would provide employment opportunities for more and more as the tutoring is individual. The best can demand the best compensation too.  If the percentage of the elite is 10% then more school space can be freed.

The idea is neither utopian nor very complex. It is already being practiced by millions for pursuing non-formal and higher education needs. Just we have to take the concept to a higher level covering pre-primary, primary and secondary education too. We need to create awareness among all the concerned and slowly pave ways for this ‘Home Learning’. In fact that was the earliest method of schooling and learning.