Developing skills of six Cs for 21st century learning

Aim of education is to bring desired behavioral changes among students and only knowledge-based education can never ensure bringing such changes. As primary education is the base of formal education pyramid, therefore primary school children need to acquire other skills of education along with attaining the skill of knowledge.

Once in a Grade five classroom of a Government Primary School Mrs Nahid Parvin, Head Teacher, was engaged in teaching-learning activities actively in mathematics class. Two students of the class, Sharar and Tapur, were sitting together editing each other's papers. Like them all the students in pairs were busy editing each others' papers. Ten minutes later Mrs Nahid asked them to prepare dices of geometrical objects (Square, Rectangle, Tangle, Circle etc) by using art sheets, scissors, glues, colored paper and geometry box telling them that these could be used for other classes as teaching aids. Auntika, Sadif, Lajhim, Shabab, Sudip, Tupur, Antar, Driro, Alex, Adar, Tribid Chakma, Adro, Hridoyo and other students of the class were involved actively and enthusiastically sitting in groups to complete the assignment. By the end of the stipulated time students were able to make some dices of geometrical shapes or objects. Mrs Nahid looked on with pride at the learning factory she had created in which learning took place on its own. She was also satisfied with her students' performances for creating new things. Mrs Nahid observed that the students had collaboratively created the materials and they had good and effective communication for completing the task. She noticed that in each group one boy or girl took the responsibility of giving instructions as leader of the group and other students followed him/her. Those who were not participating, other boys and girls helped them to participate. She also observed that students were able to connect achieved knowledge in geometry with the asking task to complete as an activity of application. Students criticized each other while they did wrong during the task. Sometimes they asked her without any hesitation if they faced difficulties.

The above-mentioned situation is hardly seen in the classrooms of all categories of primary school in Bangladesh. But every educator and parent must like the event to happen in the classrooms regularly. Because they want that the children are not only learning skills that will help them to become good problem-solvers in academic subjects, but also to become proficient in the skills that life will require ie the skills of communicating, connecting, contributing, creating and collaborating. Looking a little more critically at these events in Mrs Nahid's classroom, parents and educators see children practicing the art of criticizing as a way of pursuing excellence. They also see children connecting needs, motives and ideas in ways that create potential for even more learning.

Yes, problem solving is an important educational objective. Schools should teach our children to become ever better problem-solvers. But if parents really want their children to be prepared for facing confidently the challenges of the real world, they should want development of their children's skills through practicing communicating, criticizing, connecting, creating, collaborating and contributing skills in classroom activities at schools. These are called skills of "The Six Cs"- the skills crucially needed for addressing challenges in real life situation to prepare children for 21st century.

Parents are suffering badly for their children to acquire real education from primary schools that enable the children to develop as a social being through living and co-operating with others and so contribute to the good of society rather than only attain knowledge-based learning. To ensure that primary education becomes a means of genuine empowerment of children to achieve their full potential, aims of primary education should be to develop skills like ability for critical thinking and logical judgment, competence of connecting and sharing ideas, capabilities of contributing and collaborating to promote social responsibilities and exposure of individual talents.

The quality of learning has always been of interest to the discerning parents. But parents are always concerned about their children to acquire only knowledge based learning of their children. They always wrongly differentiate between real learning for facing challenges in life and job oriented academic learning. As a result children are lagging behind for a great extent in addressing challenges faced in the real life situation. Nowadays children are stressing more on memorizing academic topics rather than critically thinking, analyzing, connecting concepts with other areas of learning and relating learning to real life situation. They lack working unitedly to contribute individually, innovate with collaboration, create new things/ideas and share ideas with others by developing individual talents. They are suffering severely from communicating with others. They are not preparing themselves to be adaptable to 21st century. This costs a lot as future generations are going to the real life situations without developing skills of "The Six C's". Therefore children fail to develop aesthetic vales and respect own and other people's contribution, co-existence and collaboration promoting social responsibilities. They lose their belief in developing self-confidence, self-esteem and intellectual honesty within themselves.

So, primary schools have a pivotal role of developing skills required for real life within children. Because primary schools are treated as initial learning factories of children who develop their basics in education for strengthening foundation of learning journey throughout the life. Children's learning early in their life should not confine only to knowledge based learning. Rather they should provide the opportunities of attaining competencies in other areas of learning i.e. skills of "The Six Cs" from primary schools. So, primary school teachers need to inject suitable activities in lesson plans of each and every subject during teaching in the classroom with a view to ensuring of practicing skills of "The Six Cs". They also need to know the techniques of teaching regarding development of these six skills within children.

The writer is working for primary education in Bangladesh.

auparbayazidkhan@gmail.com