A Real Tragedy in Secondary Education

One of the tragedies of Secondary Education (and perhaps college education too) in India is that it still focuses on 'content'. Take the case of science education - every day, literally thousands of peer reviewed articles are published in specialist journals all over the world. Taking the 'content' view of science, we will never be able to even be aware of how much content is being generated all the time, let alone keep pace with it. For this reason, science education at the Secondary level across the world tends to focus on 'scientific literacy' - i.e. being armed with the basics and having the curiosity, skill, thinking abilities and attitude (and practice) to make sense of the world around one 'scientifically', as well as being able to identify from volumes of content what is relevant to one's pursuit and using it appropriately.

Much the same can be said of other subjects too. There is no more any limited literary 'canon' to hold as the repository of culture. Social processes are so dynamic that a sense of historicity and the interconnectedness of social factors and an ability to 'read' them is more important than just studying 'chapters'. Language learning too has very different objectives now, with the focus being on using it to represent and comprehend the world around and deploying the power of expression to connect with the world in a purposeful manner, and learning to THINK - rather than the old emphasis on being 'correct' and mastering some stereotyped usages. Similarly, the purpose of mathematics is not to pass examinations but be able to solve real-life and real world problems. E.g. how to analyze environmental and other costs involved in building a dam versus the benefits that accrue from it - so that an informed choice may be made on whether the dam should be constructed (this is a real example from Chinese secondary education material).

The rapid pace at which things are changing implies that much of what is considered 'content' today will be outdated (or even just wrong) by the time children enter the world of work or adult life. Being content oriented only means they will be unfit for the future world. On the other hand if they have the ability to learn and are armed with the key skills as mentioned above, they will be able to make that future world their own.