In his book ‘Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon?’,educational thought leader Yong Zhao warns, “National standards and nationalcurriculum, enforced by high-stakes testing, can at best teach students what isprescribed… As a result, students talented in other areas never have theopportunity to discover those talents. Students with broader interests arediscouraged, not rewarded. The system results in a population with similarskills in a narrow spectrum of talents. But especially in today’s society,innovation and creativity are needed in many areas, some as yet undiscovered.”
Unfortunately, one-size-fits-all standardized curriculum isa reason for students’ demotivation and disengagement. Why school when one canlearn anything in a self-paced mode via e-learning? Why memorise, cram androte-learn for a test when one is 24/7 treading on an information super-highway? Educational institutions are slow in responding to adjust to andhandle this information bombardment. With so much information readilyavailable, the 21st century education must focus on making sense of thatinformation, sharing and using it in smart way. Generally, education in any age focuses toprepare future generations to take their due place in society as learnedcitizens .The 21st century education is about empowering students with the lifeand work skills they need to succeed in this new – and still undiscovered- world. The coalition P21 (Partnership for21st Century Learning) has identified four ‘Skills for Today’:
Creativity
Critical thinking
Communication
Collaboration
In order to have a race of future ready individuals, need isto integrate these skills in curriculum as there is often a deep mismatchbetween the skills students are taught in classrooms and the skills they needto function effectively .The 21st century education is about theabove-listed Life Skills and more like Emotional intelligence, Problem Solving, Inquiry, Entrepreneurship, TimeManagement, Money Management etc. According to UNESCO, Life Skills arepsychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enableindividuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everydaylife. They are loosely grouped into three broad categories of skills: cognitive skills for analyzing and usinginformation, personal skills for developing personal agency and managingoneself, and inter-personal skills for communicating and interactingeffectively with others.
Be it past, present or future, although the role ofteacher can never be ruled out yetit needs redefinition to fit on the canvass of ever changing world. The 21stcentury teacher is a lifelong learner and active entity of theeducation system ready to assist andinspire student learning. He is an effective team collaborator using the gamutof digital tools to improve student engagement in a global educational environment, and always insightful of making teaching – learning dynamic. In an age wherestudents can access infinite amounts of information, certainly, he is not merea transmitter of knowledge. He is a facilitator to help students make sense ofinformation and analyse, enquire, critique, compile and apply that informationto solve the problems of multitude range. Teachers have to be “guides on the side” instead of “sages on thestage.” He is not expected to be ultimate authority on a subject matter ratheran analytical and rational facilitatorwho helps students make sense of vast information and use it skillfully. It ishigh time we adapt tested systems of education of countries like Finland and Singapore–supplemented by qualified ,energeticsoldiers in form of teachers – for aprogressive education of our blooming buds .
Finally, to sum up, the following excerpts from Einstein’slecture ‘On Education’ in 1931 is afood for thought . ” On the other hand,I want to oppose the idea that the school has to teach directly that specialknowledge and those accomplishments which one has to use later directly inlife. The demands of life are much too manifold to let such a specializedtraining in school appear possible. Apart from that, it seems to me, moreover,objectionable to treat the individual like a dead tool. The school should alwayshave as its aim that the young man leave it as a harmonious personality, not asa specialist. This in my opinion is true in a certain sense even for technicalschools, whose students will devote themselves to a quite denite profession.The development of general ability for independent thinking and judgementshould always be placed foremost, not the acquisition of special knowledge. Ifa person masters the fundamentals of his subject and has learned to think andwork independently, he will surely find his way and besides will better be ableto adapt himself to progress and changes than the person whose trainingprincipally consists in the acquiring the detailed knowledge.”
Aufaq Zargar is Assistant Professor Govt. AAA Memorial Degree College, Bemina