Schooling vs. Education

 From an ecological standpoint, the more diverse an ecosystem, the better chance of survival it has. To use this analogy, current directions and concepts of educational structures are not geared up to sustain diversity. Against a scenario, where education and economy are more and more interlinked and interdependent, the lofty aim of learning tends to get reduced to preparing students for the job market. With the tag of human capital being attached to an individual right from early years, this process which revolves around acquisition of knowledge, skills and values has failed to create an environment which fosters independent and critical thinking and instills confidence. 

The word education traces its etymology to the Greek word, 'ducere', which means, 'to draw', and with the added prefix 'e', it literally translates into 'draw out'. So, the very premise of  education is that an individual  holds the knowledge within...and, its objective is merely to assist him/her in finding the source of that Knowledge, and learn to manifest it.

Schooling on the other hand,  is based on the assumption that an individual is born ignorant, and needs to be taught. Schooling is that part of every organised society, which wants to  create an individual who would conform, and thereby contribute towards its well-being and prosperity. Furthermore, it conditions the mind and body to think and act in a certain way, to become a useful, well-oiled cog of the great machinery, suppressing in the process, the natural proclivities of a being, trying to grow into its own person.   

In this system, being curious and asking questions is often translated into unnecessary distraction for the class, and being creative is perceived as steering off the subject. Sometimes, my personal observation brought to attention a Catch-22 situation which many  students get trapped in: the ambiguity between what is expected and one's own introspective spontaneity.  This is most apparent in  English composition classes, where writing more than is asked could be termed as redundant, while writing to the point, and therefore sometimes less than expected,  might get interpreted as insufficient. Yet, what is actually expressed by the student is seldom taken into consideration. In most cases, correctness of sentences, and format of the essay overrides   the originality of content and viewpoint. This trend or misplaced emphasis may land up encouraging the importance of form over thought, especially when transcribed to a larger canvas, as that of Life.  

Likewise, in math, only the method as taught by the teacher, who, in turn, must have learnt it from 'The Teacher's Answer Manual', is acceptable. If a student happened to wander off to follow a different path of logic and yet, arrive at the right answer, it would be marked as wrong. For, the method as learnt in the class was not applied. This approach could prove detrimental in the long run, since it disallows tackling a problem from different angles, and gaining new perspectives.

Examples abound.  And, until and unless we learn to differentiate between schooling and education, and have a clear vision vis-a-vis the goal of learning, we would be stuck in a cat and mouse game. 

Globally, from China to Japan to U.S. and the European Union, educational policy makers endeavour to create curricula to meet the need of the international professional market. The implicit assumption that the best way to prepare our children for the world is to hammer unto them  the importance of getting and keeping a job reflects the production-line mindset which has hijacked the intrinsic goal of education. 

It is unfortunate that while our present government has been busy tinkering with the curriculum with a vision focused on the idea of a new India, there hasn't been anything ground-breaking in terms of redefining the meaning of education which is in sync with its own age-old tradition of learning. A system which is primarily geared  towards passing an exam has left  little room for anything but the formula by which the promotion from one grade to another can be facilitated. Books, such as "Exam Warrior", written by none other than our honourable prime minister, do not help the cause either, especially when the young students are advised to treat the exam, as they might a festival, and prepare for it, as they would for a festival. It is translated in several languages. It is a pity that the prime minister, who has such a vast reach, should  choose to shy away from his own example on how one doesn't need to pass an exam, or have much of a schooling to hold the highest office in the country. In fact, he should consider himself  an idyllic candidate to promote the true  objective of education.