The New Agenda for Education

A year back, I went to an “English medium” school in a small town in India. During my interaction with students, I asked them as to how many wanted to become engineers and doctors. A majority of the hands went up immediately. Then I asked as to how many wanted to become cricketers, musicians or film stars. A few more hands enthusiastically went up. Finally I asked as to how many would like to become Anna Hazare? There was a silence in the classroom. Students kept looking at each other. I said, “Ok, let me explain. Look, Anna Hazare is famous man. Infact, he is an international celebrity. He is always on the front pages of national newspapers, TV Channels and social media. He is a youth icon. He has an entire nation that cares for him. He does not have to worry about his next meal, nor does he have to worry about his healthcare and neither does he have to think about travelling across India. Everything that he does is sponsored. So now how many amongst you would like to become like him?”. There was a small buzz in the classroom. Students started murmuring amongst themselves. So I randomly pointed at a kid and asked him what she was discussing about. “Sir, we wanted to know how does Anna Hazare make money?” – she asked me. “Why does he have to make money? Everything that he wants is taken care of. Moreover, he is also famous. He does things that are of national interest. So he is serving the nation too. Zero money, 100% sponsorship, and world famous! Isn’t that a great career to be in?” – I asked. As I was about to further exhort the students to think about this concept, the school’s Principal nudged me to leave the classroom for having some tea. I realized that he wanted this interaction to go no further. My conversation was against everything that he was preparing his students for in the school.

While having tea with his team, not once did he wanted to speak to me about what happened in the class. He kept talking about how he has created a great system in the school that ensures that students turn up on time, do their homework well, focus on their studies, score well in the exams and in their spare time, also participate in sports, and cultural activities, etc. He proudly showed me a set of 3-4 boards that listed the toppers in Class X over the past 20 years. He even spoke about the school alumni that was doing well in life. When asked who these people were? He rattled designations in top companies, and other qualifications like doctors, as well as the number of students who got into IIT or went to the US to work for software companies. No names, just designations! I did not dare to ask him how many musicians or theatre personalities or social workers his schools produced. I am sure, there would have been some, but he would not have cared to keep this data.

Swami Vivekananda had said that the aim of education is man-making. There is no rocket science in what he said. It is a well-accepted fact. We all talk about it. There cannot be any other goal of education in the world than man-making. Education has to create empowered human beings that contribute to nation building through economic, cultural, and spiritual means. 

Unfortunately what majority of our schools focus on is to build a compliance-based environment that ensures that students gain all-round expertise to score well in exams. The skills taught to score marks actually helps children get into the best institutions, who in turn perfect the same skill to get them into the best jobs in corporate world. Basically all efforts of our schools are towards building a platform for economic upliftment of the self for its students. We want our schools to develop students who are good at earning dimes through degrees and designations. Institutions that do this well are sought after in our country. These days, educational institutions proudly proclaim the salaries offered to their students on graduation. Schools and tuition classes put up hoardings and newspaper ads to announce student academic scores. No wonder, education sector spends the highest amounts on advertising in India, higher than even the FMCG sector. Most schools are operating on the principles of capitalism and they are furthering the agenda of capitalists. This agenda requires a student to get qualified to relentlessly earn all his life to acquire wealth and improve his economic and social status. That’s it. That’s education in India.

As our education becomes a tradable commodity for economic gains, more and more students are aspiring to get into careers that guarantee a basic minimum status in terms of monetary returns. So careers in engineering, medicine, and smanagement are preferred over teaching, scientific research, theatre and liberal arts.  The other day I was in a small town in Karnataka and the Block Education Officer was telling me how teacher-training colleges in their district are closing down for lack of interest from youngsters attracted by IT and BPO careers. In recent times, I have rarely heard educationists launching liberal arts colleges or art schools or institutions in the field of economics, theatre, dance or music. India does not have single world-class institution for Educational research and training. We have thousands of schools that train students to get into Engineering and Management, but if someone aspires to become a photographer or get into theatre, the only choice they have is to learn on their own or on the job. Most importantly, none of these careers offer any economic security or status in the society. In India, if you tell someone that you are a photographer, they would smile and say,  “That’s good. But what do you do for a living? Where do you work?” 

India was never like this. Our education was different. It was based on integrating values and improving the spiritual quotient of students. Sadly, that has now been replaced with the economics of self-interest.

It was during the industrialization era of 1920s that led to the creation of the theory of “self-interest”. The industrialization happened due to the extraordinary vision of the Robber Barons or Capitalists, who lead the economic revival of America through a combination of products, profits and productivity. Large production units were set up that needed cheap and compliant labor in huge numbers. The Capitalists, in order to promote their self-interest (i.e. profits) built world-class businesses and created millions of employment opportunities in America. This led to an increase in consumer spending and thereby furthered the demand for various goods and services. So more industries came up and the cycle continued and the GDP of America drastically improved. It was during this time, the western economists theorized that greater the self-interest of the capitalists, the higher the profits, higher the salaries and better is the well being of the society. They believed that good economics demands that every individual should pursue his self-interest. They proposed that only when an individual diligently pursues his self-interest can he be able to add economic value to the society.  Adam Smith wrote -"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest." 

This simplistic theory was then applied to every human being in general - and also to schools. Infact, the idea of organized schooling was scaled up during this period. The entire design and functioning of school was designed to fulfill the industrialized society - the benches, the closed classrooms, the attendance, the bell, the time table, the teacher as the ultimate authority and the Principal as the super authority, the parents with no powers, the assessments and tests, the grading of students, the selection of students based on marks – basically a closely monitored assembly line that would develop workers for a typical manufacturing unit. The British, who ruled us during that time, replicated this model successfully in India. The Indians adopted it with gusto because everyone aspired to be a “Gentleman”.

Look at what this assembly line education, purely based on enhancing ones economic status, has done to our children. A majority in India aim to become engineers, doctors or management graduates. But their success depends on how much money they make. Many others become entrepreneurs and earn millions or may be billions by selling products and services to people for a profit. It does not matter whether the products are irrelevant or irrational – like colas or cigarettes – as long as they make money. Many of the successful enterprises list such businesses in stock markets. Millions others, who believe in this capitalist agenda, invest in their enterprises. Buoyed by the support, these enterprises focus on creating more and more irrational products and services, this time taking the support of the advertising agencies that create deplorable advertising campaigns and bombard the consumers with messages and visuals that glorify these products. 

Some others join politics. But public service takes a backseat since there was no money there. Corruption through power broking has become the norm, since that pays well. A few become sportsmen, actors, musicians, film and TV technicians, win awards and end up becoming cultural icons. They attract corporate sponsorships and use their persuasion powers to sell products that have no real value to a consumer’s well being. A handful go into social work, spirituality, etc. But even here, once they become famous, they further their economic interests by forming organizations and associations and make millions through charity. 

Amongst all these plunderers, people who believe in issues like social welfare, environmental protection, responsible journalism, human rights, women’s empowerment, anti-corruption, rights of the poor and needy, etc. have lost their voice to the majority. They either win awards, or face jail, threats or even death, or are ridiculed and ignored. Only those who have mastered to further their self-interest can survive in today’s world. The rest cannot. 

The economics of self interest is harmful to tomorrow's world. The problem is that economists had then wrongly assumed that an individual was aware of his self-interest - hence the “butcher” and “baker” theory. Over the years, once organized capitalists took over the world, the self-interest was slowly converted into selfishness. Today, I am not sure if anyone of us is aware of our real self-interest. According to me, most of us are not.  We have come from a generation where our schools and our society have systematically (and sometimes forcibly) brainwashed us to believe that our only self-interest is to make money – whatever it takes.

We can observe what uninhibited economic self-interest has done to the world in the post-industrialization era of 100 years - we have cut trees, destroyed farms and mountains for housing and industrialization, we have mechanized farming to speed up food production, we convert fresh food into processed food by adding chemicals to provide cheap and faster alternatives to eat, we buy big fuel guzzling cars to elevate our economic status, we provide neglect the poor and provide subsidies to the rich, we displace villages, their culture and their identity for building roads, dams, nuclear reactors, power plants, we divert rivers for supplying water to parched cities, we create innovative IT solutions to reduce jobs, we kill fish for food….basically we **** the world in order to protect our economic self interest. Because that is all we believe we are here to do.

Focusing on economic self interest looked like a great idea when natural resources were in abundance, life was simple, needs were limited, families were intact and the world was a safer place to live in.  Training students to practice the economics of self-interest today, without balancing it with cultural and spiritual skills is precarious and risky. Unchecked self-interest is killing economies, degenerating environment, collapsing markets and tormenting the common man. Education based on such goals is suicidal.

In the current scenario, schools need to build a new formula of imparting economic skills along with equal focus on cultural and spiritual skills. Let me add here that cultural skills do not mean participation in Annual Social functions and Spiritual skills do not mean Yoga. That’s too simplistic. Spiritual skills should enable an individual to be mentally calm and peaceful in all situations. Cultural skills should enable him to appreciate the world and the people around him. All these skills should be bound by a deep understanding of values like Integrity, Passion, Forgiveness, Hope, Humility, Character, Perseverance, Compassion, Grace, Equality, Kindness, Love, Loyalty, Purpose, Charity, Vision, Courage, Sacrifice, Volunteering, and many more. What schools end up doing are History, Geography, Trigonometry, Biology, Physics, Algebra and so on. Academic skills are important, but spiritual and cultural skills are more important than ever. We, as a society, need to re-look at what we raise our children to become. Do we need them to be rustlers or do we need them to be considerate about the world around them? If we want them to be the latter, then education needs to replace the economics of “self-interest” with education of “passion and integrity”. 

Since education is driven by economics, therefore, the agenda of economics also needs to change. Every individual in a school needs to be trained to pursue his passion. Only when an individual diligently pursues his passion, with integrity, can he be able to add economic value to the society of the future. That should be the new theory of economics and the new goal of education.

I am not saying this for preaching purposes. This is the need of the hour. For millions of wrongs committed everyday, there are a handful of people who want to set it right. But they are in such a negligible minority that they can't do much. This has created an imbalance in the world that we live in. We need to also raise kids who will balance this imbalance with their activism, charity, compassion and passion.

The world I see around me, is not the world I want my kids to grow up in. So we - as parents of our children - need to start initiating this change.