{"id":2446,"date":"2019-10-14T08:12:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T08:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nasca.edu.in\/learning-centre\/?p=2446"},"modified":"2019-10-17T11:43:22","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T11:43:22","slug":"change-the-definition-of-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nasca.edu.in\/learning-centre\/thought-leadership\/change-the-definition-of-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Change the definition of education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We live in an\nincreasingly mercurial, inconstant world thanks to the unmitigated explosion in\ntechnology in the last fifteen years. Consider, for instance, how modern smartphones\nand social media have redefined how we interact with family, friends, relatives\nand colleagues; how online retail shops such as Amazon and Flipkart have completely\naltered our shopping preferences and habits; and, on large-scale manufacturing\nfront, production of goods such as furniture, clothing, household appliances,\nautomobiles and even food are being rapidly automated. We now have Artificial\nIntelligence (AI) algorithms that can compose poems, write stories, trade\nstocks (High Frequency Trading) and learn<\/em>\nto mimic artistic styles of virtuoso painters such as Van Gogh and Johannes\nVermeer in just six hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, our way\nof life has undergone complete revision in the last ten years. This dazzling pace\nof change is unprecedented in the history of mankind, and so are challenges\nthat follow from it. One such consequent challenge that we currently face is the\nrate at which knowledge and skills that were once considered useful and\nemployable are being rendered obsolete. As a result, workers with lower-order\nand conventional skills are becoming increasingly unemployable and are being\nreplaced by machines and AI algorithms at an alarming rate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, it\nis natural that we should feel anxious and ask ourselves\u2014what are we doing to\nensure a safe and secure future for our children? Are we equipping them with\nthe tools and skills needed to survive in a world rife with unpredictable\nchallenges? This naturally leads us to question the efficacy of our education\nsystem\u2014the institution that has the mandate to train our youth in skills needed\nto survive and thrive in a technology-driven, inconstant world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not\npossible to, nor should we try to, check the juggernaut that technological progress\nis. Instead, we must come to terms with the reality that for our children to\nunderstand and successfully address future challenges, their knowledge and\nskillset must also evolve in step with the change. The fact, however, is that\nthe conventional school curricula have remained stagnant, in relative terms,\nfor more than a decade. Almost all modern challenges are essentially\ninterdisciplinary in nature and, therefore, demand a more holistic and\napplication-oriented approach to education. In contrast, conventional school\ncurricula offer compartmentalized subjects that do not venture beyond the\nconfines of traditional disciplines and are rarely of any practical utility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover,\nconventional annual examinations evaluate students on a few narrowly defined\nmetrics that fail to accommodate the many skills and abilities that are useful\nin today\u2019s increasingly complex world. Important skills such as creative\ncritical thinking, complex problem solving, empathy and human resources\nmanagement that cannot be automated do not figure into most curricula and\nassessment methodology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is evident from these reflections that our notion of education and its purpose need a significant revision. We must begin by acknowledging the limitations of conventional textbook learning. We must also revise the way we evaluate students\u2019 abilities. As teachers, we must ensure that training programmes we offer our students integrate a kaleidoscopic range of subjects consistent with the characteristics of challenges they are likely to face in the future. As parents, we need to accept the utility of vast knowledge that lies outside the purview of textbooks and become open to the practical utility of a wide range of skills that are not included in formal curricula. We must also become open to enlisting the help and support of those businessmen, industrialists, engineers and scientists who are at the forefront of change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is high time we acknowledge the increasing complexity of the process of modern education and view it as a collaborative effort of parents, teachers and other stakeholders in society to ensure that our students are equipped with the best tools needed to thrive in a world replete with unpredictable challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Chandrakanta R Pathak
Principal & CEO,
HVB Global Academy, Mumbai<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is high time we address modern education as a collaborative effort of parents, teachers and other stakeholders in society<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[54,53,55,51,52],"class_list":["post-2446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thought-leadership","tag-automation","tag-curriculum","tag-education-technology","tag-hvb-global-academy","tag-modern-education"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasca.edu.in\/learning-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasca.edu.in\/learning-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasca.edu.in\/learning-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasca.edu.in\/learning-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasca.edu.in\/learning-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasca.edu.in\/learning-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2638,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasca.edu.in\/learning-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446\/revisions\/2638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasca.edu.in\/learning-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasca.edu.in\/learning-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasca.edu.in\/learning-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasca.edu.in\/learning-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}