Education is indeed the most significant area of discussion for any country. Every day, hundreds of people, including academics, politicians, and investors, talk about this because all of them believe that the education sector is getting bigger. While talking about this sector, people often forget to shed light on the true purpose of education.
What is actually the purpose of education to get established, to achieve success, or to make a name for yourself? While explaining this, Nelson Mandela once said, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." So, what did Mandela actually mean by these words? Both the power and purpose of education are hidden in these words -- the purpose of education is actually to produce human beings who are willing to go to any length to bring about positive changes in the world that will impact people in an enlightened way. In plain words, the education system should create good human beings who are eager to take this responsibility for society.
Bangladesh is a country where over 18 million students study at primary schools spread throughout the country and there are thousands of primary and secondary schools throughout the country imparting knowledge among students. Despite an abundance of educational institutes, we are failing to produce learners who are not only intelligent but also good human beings. At a time when the world is reeling in under the adverse impacts of hundreds of geopolitical and humanitarian crises, we need to focus our shift from producing just good learners to creating good human beings. To do so, all of us need to take a look at the Achilles' heel of our education system.
There is no denying acknowledging that our education system is not successful in creating good human beings and instilling a sense of moral rectitude among the students. This is because the orientation around education has changed. Educators and policymakers are now more focused on producing learners who are jack of all trades, and the focus on developing other moral values is getting narrower day by day. The students go through lots of books and study materials which they carry every day to school, but they are not being properly groomed beyond the textbook lessons. In reality, there is no practice or system in place at the educational institutes to teach students other aspects of life and see life through different lenses so that they feel inspired to develop moral rectitude and other qualities, including kindness, harmonic coexistence, human and life skills, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and etiquettes.
In order to achieve this purpose, our whole education system needs an overhaul. We have to nip this problem in the bud, so we have to start from the early years of schooling. There is a huge gap between what society needs from a school and what the schools teach to the learners. Society needs good human beings, but schools are producing good students only. Our educational institutions need to address this gap and come up with scrupulous plans as to how we can produce better human beings.
'School of life' could be a good headway in this regard. Instead of completely concentrating on syllabus and good grades, schools can teach its students about other important aspects of life and how the learners could develop humane qualities in them so that they turn out to be good humans when they grow up. Curriculum can play an instrumental role here. Most of the schools do not cover any other thing other than books and a specific syllabus because there is no such requirement in the curriculum. So, schools must be inspired to develop and follow curricula that will put emphasis on developing other human attributes along with regular studies. As for example - a proper Cambridge Curriculum inspires both the educators and the learners to engage in activities (along with regular class activities) that help them gather knowledge about other life angles, ultimately helping them to develop different kinds of qualities that will make them better humans in the long run.
Education is like a mirage. The more you move away from it, the more you will feel illusioned. But the more you go closer to it, the more capable you will be of discovering what it really is. Education is meant to rekindle the humane qualities hidden inside the learners and mould them into good humans, but given the current situation we can say that our education system is deviating from that aim. It is time that we get closer to this goal again. We have to embrace this, and align ourselves and our education system with this goal so that our coming generations grow up to be the salt of the earth while also conquering the whole world by dint of their acuity and acumen.
The writer is principal of Glenrich International School, Dhaka
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