NEP 2020 – Igniting the Young Minds.
Mrs. Tina Olyai Director, Little Angels High School, Gwalior
The National Education Policy-2020 is, in true sense, a revolutionary charter for all the stakeholders in the field of education.
The most vital aspect of education is that it must be evolving with time to enable children to face the new-age challenges and learn new sets of skills according to the current needs.
Indian education, even since the era of ‘Gurukul’ system, has been ahead of time, prudential, wider in its outlook and revolving around the philosophy that ‘सा वि द्या या वि मुक्तये’(true knowledge is that which liberates the individual) .
At the same time, Indian philosophy has revolved around the principles of holistic development, inclusive growth of body, mind and soul and has incorporated the global vision of ‘वसुधैव कु ुम्बकमट ’ (The entire earth is our family).
Since its inception, Indian education system has laid ample emphasis on living a coherent life by taking care of our environment, as the Atharva Veda says: माता भूमिम:, पुत्रो अहंथि व्यापृ: (The Earth is our mother and we are all children of the Earth), and preserving our ecology—believing that God exists in all living and non-living creatures—as the Isha Upanishada notes: ईशावास्यमिमदं % जगत्यां जगत्(This entire creation of animate and inanimate creatures is pervaded by God) .
The beauty of the National Education Policy is that it makes sincere efforts to incorporate all these vital aspects of Indian educational philosophy while also including essential aspects of modern era education which calls for some critical changes.
We at LAHS Gwalior (www.lahs.org), have been endeavouring, since our inception in the year 1990, to instill great values in our children and present the following highlights of some strides we have made in this regard in hope that these elements will further enrich the draft of India’s NEP 2020, especially in this time when India is labouriously paving its way to becoming a global power and leader.
Preparing Children to Become Global Citizens
Since the very beginning we have focused on creating worthy world citizens of tomorrow.
Preparing children to become global citizens is, actually, not a challenge but a delightful task the educators of the world should be engaged in, especially in this era when the scientific and technological advancement has contracted the world virtually into a ‘global village’.
However, how to proceed with this task is very important.
“Unbridled nationalism, as distinguished from a sane and legitimate patriotism, must give way to a wider loyalty, to the love of humanity as a whole. … Love of all the world’s peoples does not exclude love of one’s country.”
In brief, the challenge of modern education is to bring a balance between ‘love for the world’ and ‘love for one’s own country’.
To this effect, the National Education Policy of India 2020 clearly states: “These elements must be incorporated taking into account the local and global needs of the country, and with a respect for and deference to its rich diversity and culture.
Instilling knowledge of India and its varied social, cultural, and technological needs, its inimitable artistic, language, and knowledge traditions, and its strong ethics in India’s young people is considered critical for purposes of national pride, self-confidence, self-knowledge, cooperation, and integration.”
We at LAHS Gwalior strive to strike this needed balance. While our students pride in the values, cultures and traditions of India, they are aware that “It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world.”
We emphasize to our students that they must behave towards the government with loyalty & honesty because they need to establish better social order and economic condition and for this “there must be allegiance to the laws and principles of government”.
At LAHS we do not foster party politics, we take no sides with or make no oppositions to any political party.
This sense prevails in all our young students as well as teachers. As a result, the school is free from political pressures or a profane atmosphere that is often the result of political involvement and factionism.
Likewise, the National Education Policy 2020 of India “envisages that the curriculum and pedagogy of our institutions must develop among the students a deep sense of respect towards the Fundamental Duties and Constitutional values, bonding with one’s country, and a conscious awareness of one’s roles and responsibilities in a changing world.” However, the New Education Policy does not introduce any measures to keep school campus free from so- called ‘political pressures’ which are often apparent in a number of ways.
It is advisable that ‘Loyalty to the Government’ should be taught in the schools in a healthy atmosphere and the overall hierarchy of school administration is re-constructed to minimize political interventions of any kind.
It is advisable that ‘Loyalty to the Government’ should be taught in the schools in a healthy atmosphere and the overall hierarchy of school administration is re-constructed to minimize political interventions of any kind.
We need to teach them thst love for the world and love for one’s country are just two aspects of the same coin, both complementing each other.
And when it comes to express one’s love for India, we should remember how India’s Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, depicted India as ‘एई महामानवेर सागर तीरे’
‘Unity in Diversity’ is the essence of India and we are happy to note that the National Education Policy 2020 puts ample stress on “developing pride in India, and its rich, diverse, ancient and modern culture and knowledge systems and traditions.”
This is what we have been doing at LAHS since over three decades.
One vital aspect of richness and diversity of India’s ancient and modern culture is reflected in its confluence of different religions, tribes and species of mankind as, again, Tagore puts in: हेथाय आर्,हेथा अनार्,हेथाय द्रावि ड़, चीन, शक-हूण-दल , पाठान-मोगल एक देहे हलो लीन(it is here that the Aryans, the non-Aryans, the Dravids, the Chinese, the Shakas, the Hunas, the Pathans and the Moghuls all assimilated in one human body.)
Our students as well as all staff members are encouraged to respect this diversity of India. We observe the Holy Days of all religions and celebrate this diversity .
We believe that teaching children ‘diversity of India’ cannot just be a lip-service; rather, this pride in diversity should be embedded in the very fabric and entire ambience of school education, and we—as other Baha’i-inspired schools of India have made great strides in this regard.
In the NEP 2020 some clues like this needs to be incorporated so that nascent schools may learn how this respect for diversity needs to be promoted.
Promoting Holistic, Multidisciplinary and Futuristic Education
The National Education Policy of India clearly pronounces that “The aim of education will not only be cognitive development, but also building character and creating holistic and well-rounded individuals equipped with the key 21st century skills”.
It further declares: “Specific sets of skills and values across domains will be identified for integration and incorporation at each stage of learning, from pre-school to higher education.”
This aspect is highly praiseworthy. “Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value”, declares Baha’u’llah, “Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom.”
At LAHS Gwalior we believe in promoting moral and spiritual education, in addition to arts, trades, sciences and professions.
The emphasis on education is a means for social and national improvement.
However, no educational system can fulfill this goal until and unless:
- Children are taught a wide variety of subjects and sets of skills, and
- Acquiring these disciplines of knowledge is connected to selfless service of the mankind.
As long as the focus of educational system will be on “preparing students for examination”—a trend which is clearly discouraged under the NEP 2020 holistic development will not be possible.
We believe in ‘bringing out the best’ in each child because the we believe that “Every child is potentially the light of the world”.
To enable children to become ‘the light of the world’, they must be helped to prove their inherent abilities.
It is a point of gratification that the National Education Policy of India -2020 puts “emphasis on conceptual understanding rather than rote learning and learning-for-exams” and promotes an educational environment in which students can choose the path of their interest.
At our schools we believe that each student is ‘special’ in his or her own way. When we study the lives of a number of great people like Thomas Edison, Einstein, Tagore and Gandhi, we clearly understand they were not considered ‘intelligent’ students by their teachers.
Yet, they carved out their niche and changed the world. Hence, education should not be subject- oriented but child-centric.
Accordingly, at LAHS, we make serious efforts to expose our children to a variety of curricular and co-curricular activities in arts and sciences, sports, literature, music, dance, yoga, leadership avenues and more.
We are proud that LAHS Alumni are today serving the world in various capacities—in corporate sector, armed forces, navy, medecine,engineering , civil services and reputed organizations like UNICEF, UNESCO, World Bank, reputed multinational companies of the world, IT sector, film industry, leading NGOs and more.
This could be possible only because we gave each student a channel to express his or her creativity.
Education as the Most Effective Way to Shape Values, Attitudes, Behaviors and Skills
The purpose of education is to bring children out of the sheath of ‘Self and desire’ and this becomes possible when we connect them to avenues of self-empowerment and service to the mankind.
However, service to the mankind needs spiritual motivation; otherwise it simply becomes a ‘project’ or ‘achievement’ which finds place in the report of a club or an organization.
Service should become a natural urge out of love for God and His creation. At LAHS we have three basic programs to achieve this purpose:
- Character Development Program and Children’s moral classes
- Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program (JYSEP), and
- Devotional Meetings for Teachers & staff
LAHS has regular and systematic Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program (JYSEP) and Children’s Moral Class covering 4000 students in the 4 branches of the School. The School also has weekly DEVOTIONAL programs for over 380 teachers and support staff.
Character Development Programme (CDP) is a unique aspect of our school especially designed for very small kids and toddlers who are too small to fit in any formal program.
As such, simple and yet effective methods are used to fill in their hearts the first stirrings of virtues.
Studentd are taught one virtue continuously for a period of two weeks so that the given virtue is deeply ingrained in their tender minds.
Under the guidance of well- trained animators, Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Programme at LAHS caters to spiritual nourishment of over 3000 students from Std VI – VIII where social service projects are facilitated to awaken the latent divine qualities of the junior youth which further add to the lustre of these spiritual endeavours.
The junior youth also pro-actively take part in charitable and service activities, such as visiting the local orphanage, blind home, homes for the elderly people, and centres for differently-abled children.
The purpose of these inputs is to contribute some insights to the draft of India’s NEP 2020 so that othet schools in India may be encouraged to adopt similar systematic youth empowerment programs.
These activities also connect the students to the human society at large for “promoting social development and social integration” which is a vital aspect of the National Education Policy.
Weekly Devotional Meetings are also held in all the 4 branches of the School, for teachers, helpers, maids, drivers and other assistant staff members during which they chant prayers from different religions and sing ‘Bhajans’ and reflect on Hoy writings from different religions.
An additional effort in this respect made by LAHS is to shun all kinds of unhealthy criticism and backbiting.
Children imitate their parents and teachers. As such, no moral education imparted to the students can prove to be effective, if parents and teachers do not become their true Role Models.
To wipe out the traces of the detrimental habit of backbiting we declared our school to be a ‘No- Backbiting Zone’.
Teachers are encouraged to come out only with a healthy suggestion and not with any complaint. On every matter, we promote ‘consultation’ rather than entertaining grievances.
Last but not the least
The NEP 2020 advocates “full equity and inclusion as the cornerstone of all educational decisions to ensure that all students are able to thrive in the education system”.
The vision of ‘equity and inclusion’, especially in the Indian scenario, cannot be fostered without realizing ‘gender equality’.
It is a matter of grave concern that in India has only 924 females per 1000 males and much of this proportional gap is owing to serious causes like foeticide, violence against women, malnutrition in girls causing their immature death and related socio-economic problems.
After family, schools should be the first place to be concerned not only with this proportional gap in male-female population but also with this that in India the male literacy rate is 75.3% and that for females is 53.7% indicating a gap of 21.6 percentage points.
How to fill these gaps should have been a major concern of India’s National Education Policy.
While this matter is covered to some extent, the NEP 2020 still requires incorporating more clear vision and well-stipulated measures to improve the educational status of girls.
The Baháʼí teachings stress the need for women’s education, not only as a means to increase opportunity for women to help achieve equality, but also since the education of mothers is essential to the proper upbringing of children.
In this regard, the first prerequisite is to introduce such elements in the curriculum which focus on the dignity of women. Since men and women are like ‘two wings’ of the human society, no flight will be possible if one wing is weaker than the other.
To conclude: “Women have equal rights with men upon earth; in religion and society they are a very important element.
As long as women are prevented from attaining their highest possibilities, so long will men be unable to achieve the greatness which might be theirs.”
NEP 2020 – Igniting the Young Minds.
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