Freedom to learn is the first necessity of guaranteeing that man himself shall be self-reliant enough to be free. – Franklin D. Roosevelt
‘Right To Education’ bill will probably bring basic education in lives of millions of children in India. And these children will take first step towards being self-reliant … in some sense. As government focuses on speedy implementation of this policy, it’s also time to re-look at ‘what and how’ of basic school education. It’s also time to make schooling an inclusive experience for everyone; especially for right-brained students.
While some (right-brain) courses in higher education are getting popular … most notably, design related courses offered by various prestigious institutes … most socially acceptable education and primary schooling is still very aligned to left-brained learners. This is a big gap that we somehow need to bridge. (After all, about 50% population is right-brained)
Right-brained people are believed to be better at problem solving, creativity and solution innovation. These are the exact areas that India in general and business in specific will need to leap into next era of all rounded development. I was following a discussion on India Leadership Network … ‘Why India has not produced a Google or Apple or Microsoft’ … and there were more than 650 respondents on this discussion thread … clearly demonstrating that somewhere deep inside we recognize the problem and feel passionately about it. While one can argue about India’s innovative-ness, there is no question that we need to do more … lot more in this area.
And it should start at school age. Our schools have made limited progress on usage of audio-visual tools in primary education; subjects like mathematics still depend on student’s ability to memorize tables and formulas; science is taught fully in classrooms and not in laboratories or on the field; history is more with remembering specific eras and warrior names than with stories and learning from those stories; and languages are lengthy as against beautiful. While few schools are willing to make a paradigm change (using tools and solutions from companies like Educomp … with deep rooted change in teacher mindset … may be both), the main stream examination system has not changed even a bit. Most education boards do not offer any subject options to Mathematics and Sciences at 10th grade; exams are purely based on textbooks; admissions to 11th grade are given solely based on marks obtained in 10th board examination; and all these exams follow the same old text-book based questioning methodology.
Even worse, most teachers do not even understand clearly what is being ‘right-brained’. They equate right-brained people with being good at specific skills like drawing and crafts. They intrinsically think that right-brained people are weaker in science and technology skills… almost treating them as slow learners.
So what? Is there anything we can do? … We should do something, even if we do not know exactly what.
I propose simple baby steps … a) Spread the awareness about this issue and b) help right-brained students survive through their 10th and 12th exams, by not pressurizing them to study what they don’t like and by allowing them to select topics of their choice. Some boards, like the NIOS board, allow students multiple subject choices for 10th and 12thth and 12th, these students will do well … they are creative and innovative; all they need is we letting them be that way … even in their early formative years. If our kid at home is right-brained, we will need courage to do this; if we know someone else who needs this help, we need to do well by extending helping hand and awareness. exams. Beyond 10
We all need to be right-minded about primary and secondary education. It will help right-brained learners to excel and they will in-turn help us with their innovations and creativity.
