Education is essentially a social enterprise that aims at training young minds to express themselves and add to the knowledge and values. It does not follow the old precept of reproducing knowledge by rote which was the earlier established practice. This old methodology is now being replaced by current values and thinking.
This change that encompasses the global direction of education is no longer incorporated in the overwhelming dynamics that ruled the industrial revolution in late nineteenth century. By and large, in those days the education process was unilateral and imitation-based. Students were guided by whatever their teachers presented in the class rooms. In contrast, today it has to be a two-way traffic of ideas with active participation and interaction between teachers and the taught. The depth and breadth of knowledge has greatly increased.
Today any young kid with a computer before him can get any information he desires, thanks to 'Google'. The new generation mobile phones have more computing power than the 'super computers' that put men on the moon.
We can rationally visualise that the schools of tomorrow will advance the student's scope of the thinking process and will not just remain limited to knowing only. About this, Albert Einstein visualised: "Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think". That sums up the scope of and the way ahead for the education process.
Today's employers expect that their employees function as team players who can participate in innovation. This needs multi-discipline-based thinking that can explore ideas and inputs from all around them. This needs well developed communication skills.
This drive can lead our minds onwards to problem solving and for finding ways that can provide uniqueness in the way that things are done in business and in industrial world. This is the 'elusive something', that can immensely help the organisation to acquire the much desired 'competitive edge' commanding the market.
To enable all this to happen in Bangladesh is unfortunately a difficult task in the education sector. The only way ahead is to divert from the subject-specific teaching norm and to inculcate the raw materials needed for developing individual thinking. Teachers must strongly promote the values of trust, integrity and honesty and train students to undertake exploring mission. They must have the sense of rational options in order to solving their problems. This needs an open and inquisitive mind that has to be developed by trial and error with the guidance of their teachers through need-based advice. Only then can we develop an 'open mind' that is receptive to ideas which can be analysed and tailored to suit the needs of the issue. This may need many books beside the stereotyped text books that are our students' norm today.
Unfortunately, it is difficult today in Bangladesh where teaching by rote is the usual norm. Serious attention to modern methods of education, especially at the primary levels in most schools is lacking. Today we go by the theme that anyone with a 'masters degree' can be a good school teacher. Teaching as a profession has been relegated for those who have no other job options left in the competitive environment of business and industry. Lastly we forget that for really improving the quality of teachers, the education department needs more funds for training, developing tools and setting up libraries. These problems can only be addressed with more money and determination at the highest level.
S A Monsoor writes from Gulshan, Dhaka. His article is based on a presentation made by Michael Bowmer, Principal, Australian International School, Dhaka sam@dhakacom.com
