Schooling back in those days was much funnier and more exciting while here we are today, tightly tucked in cozily by the warmth of our bedsheets with a laptop for our company. With the invisible string of internet connection wounding us together, we are only a single finger tap away from learning about basic English alphabets to high-demand skills. And that is ultimately the evolution of education.

Let’s first dive into unraveling the gradual ways in which education has evolved in India:

ANCIENT ROOTS:

Dating back to 5000 BC, the Gurukul system was India’s first educational system. In stark contrast to the contemporary daily school attendance, the Gurukul system featured shishyas (students) who were either raised with their guru (teacher) or in close proximity. Education during this period was derived from the Vedas, Puranas, and other religious texts.

Instead of solely focusing on theoretical knowledge, the Gurukul system had a significant emphasis on the holistic development of the shishyas. Some of the subjects taught were human values, holy scriptures, medicine, astronomy, and metallurgy.

If you had ever spent your COVID lockdown days watching the Mahabharat serial on television, then you would likely be familiar with Dronacharya, one of the well-known gurus of all time who served as a prominent figure in Hindu mythology.

MEDIEVAL EDUCATION:

With the invasion of Mahmud Ghazni in India during the 8th century AD, the Gurukul system of education began to wane. Mahmud Ghazni amassed substantial wealth in India with the primary aim of spreading Islamism. This marked the emergence of a new educational system in India, bringing it with new cultures, traditions, and institutions. Rulers and significant landlords played a role in supporting educational institutions, which had to start from the basics since students were exposed to new languages and cultures. They began with alphabets, calligraphy, and grammar, writing on taktis, as books were non-existent.

Every Indian student was taught to communicate in Arabic or Persian languages and Islamism was celebrated every day by reciting the first thirteen chapters of the Quran. There were no examinations conducted and the performance of every student was analyzed by examining their practical situations of life.

MODERN EDUCATION:

The seeds of today’s advanced form of education were sowed during the early days of the invasion of the East India Company. Even though the primary mission of the British people was to extract a huge amount of riches and resources from India and trade was an ultimate purpose, as days rolled on, the want to get some Indian people educated soon transformed into a need leading to the introduction of modern education in India. Educating the whole of the population was neglected and their only intention was to produce a few cheap clerks that would serve as a helping hand in the administration's pursuit of economic subjugation in India.

It took years to establish a good foundation for education in India and with the introduction to the English language and printed books and the beginning of the setting up of new medical colleges and universities, the education system in India took a new form. Even though the women succumbed to remaining inside the walls of their houses, serving their roles of being good daughters, wives, or a mother, the men had the privilege to get themselves educated only to get their eyes opened about the modern principles of democracy, equality and rules of law. With the realization of the hypocrisy of British rule washed over like a wave, middle-class educated Indians were soon ignited with a spark and driven by a passion to struggle for independence leading to the establishment of various organization including the Indian National Congress.

EDUCATION TODAY:

After years of gradual transformation from gurukuls to schools, here we are today – with Google in our hands, acting as an ultimate source to get all of our questions answered. Today’s education includes the normal routine of a student going to a school, sitting on nice-neat rows of benches with a teacher in the center to provide lectures for him/her to take notes. However, having to sit in the same place to listen to the endless lectures of teachers feels mundane and boring for any normal Indian student but the latest technology that includes smart classrooms with a platform for practical practices and virtual education has made learning a really fun activity. From chalkboards to whiteboards to smartboards – we see the advancement in technology. It has become our main source of knowledge, research, and teaching.

EDUCATION BEFORE COVID:

Going to school is indeed fun, except for those days when you have a test that you didn’t study at all or when you haven’t completed the homework given by the teacher you dreaded the most. Apart from this, schooling is fun and the most cherished, beloved, unforgettable days of your entire life. Even if we had the slightest bit of attention to the classes and the teensy bit of interest to learn anything, the weight of exams and the pursuit of good grades has become overwhelming, shaping the notion that marks and grades are the sole indicators of education. And with the role of technology in the form of YouTube videos, eBooks, and learning platforms like Byjus and Unacademy – education is made easier. And with the frequent threats from your teachers about not getting into a high-demand college and a high-paying job if you don’t perform your board exams well – marks and grades became a standard for Education. 

EDUCATION DURING COVID:

If you are a COVID-19 batch student, I assume that you would definitely know the criticism you would get from the public when you apply for undergraduate or attend an interview for a new job. COVID indeed shaped education into a new form with technology forming its only and ultimate basis. Schools were shut down to ensure social distancing and online meeting platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams flourished. Real-time classrooms were replaced by virtual classrooms like Zoom and words like ‘mute’ and ‘unmute’ became more common during the classes.

With no physical interaction between the teachers and the students, education became mundane and difficult. Having no idea about what was happening behind the screens of every student, teaching became a challenge to the teachers. For the sake of keeping exams, online exams were conducted, resulting in students indulging in easy cheating activities. Learning became nonchalant and stressful.

EDUCATION AFTER COVID:

As the schools were opened again after the setting down of the outbreak, reshaping the students to the normal form of education was an even bigger challenge. With so many students lost in track with the syllabus and with the habit of daily learning – schools faced an ultimate downfall in academics. And now with the gradual improvements and along with the right and sensible way of using technology, education is becoming normal and more competitive.

IS EDUCATION A CHALLENGE?

Are you sure you are educated the right way? The knowledge gained in schools and colleges is vital, but does it prepare students for their true passions and life beyond academics? Let me get this straight, whatever you are taught at school/college will only land you in a 9-5 job with around 8 LPA that will be fairly enough for you to make sure your family doesn’t go to sleep with an empty stomach and all your credit cards or loans are repaid on time with no money left for your well-being or savings. Is that all that you need in your life? If yes, you can completely rely on our present education system.

Or what if you are a passionate individual who wants to make a living by doing something you love - are schools and colleges helping you with that? If you choose computer science engineering and you are passionate about technology and computers, then well and good. But that’s not the case for every student. Our society has set up this basic ideology that if you don’t have a degree to add as a prefix to your full name, then you don’t have enough status to meet the basic expectations of today’s society. But I completely and wholeheartedly disagree with this.

For example, if you are passionate about volleyball and your school doesn’t give you enough chances to participate or practice, or in the other case if you are passionate about writing and want to become a writer but you have accumulated assignments to complete and endless exams to study for – do you ever feel lost or stuck? Like you are somewhere torn between what you have to do and what you want to do.

Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs – I am sure I don’t have to explain who these people are. As far as I know, every social media user would have come across these names at least once in their lifetime. But guess what, do you know that these men who are some of the most successful entrepreneurs, millionaires, and businessmen are in actuality – college dropouts? Yes, you heard me right! They didn’t need a degree to become some of the top successful men in the world. All they had was a driving passion and a desire to achieve something big and the right and sensible use of their talent and capabilities. The list doesn’t end here – there are endless numbers of people emerging successfully after giving up their education. So, education as a whole does not contribute to your success but a driving passion does. Hence proved!

Education is not just about gaining information – it is knowledge. The knowledge that teaches you how to live your life, how to control your emotions, how to find yourself. Memorizing the dates of events such as Civil Disobedience, the Rowlatt Act, Swadeshi movement is not going to help you in today’s world. Learning about the tremendous amount of struggle Indians went through to gain independence is important but there’s something more beyond that. We must be aware of the way democracy functions today, the way government has evolved over the course of a few decades, and the precise working of the government’s principles.

And when it comes to mathematics, differentiation, and integration would have been a nightmare for many students. But before diving into the world of differentiation and integration, did your teachers ever tell you the real-life applications of it? Some would have but as for me, I spent years of my high school wrecking my head over integral formulas and differentiation by having the slightest idea about the role it was going to play in my real life. But now that I know that it is useful in astronomy when space flight engineers use it to plan lengthy missions and to launch a rocket, and in economics to calculate marginal cost, marginal revenue, etc, and in video games when graphic engineers use it to determine the differences and changes in three-dimensional models and medicine to analyze drug activity and so much more, I am overwhelmed to realize the significant roles it plays in our life without us noticing them. Why did our education system not point this out? It would have boosted my urge to study it more. Crazy, isn’t it?

As for physics, I still am clueless about why did I study a lot of theories and derivations that I mugged it up only to shower it on my exam papers and later forget it. If you want to become a physicist or a scientist, it is indeed important. And a basic knowledge of all the scientific theories and facts that you learn at high school is necessary. Not saying NO to that but the way of approaching the concepts in schools could be made better. With the advancement in technology, there are numerous sci-fi movies. What if the teachers approached their students with a sci-fi movie and then grasped their urge to learn more about the scientific concepts hidden in it more theoretically? One such movie is Interstellar, one of the most epic sci-fi thrillers that relies on real science for many of its stunning visuals. If students are made to watch at least a few clips of it, then there comes the urge for them to learn the science behind it, and that ultimately leads to them learning about the Relativity effect, Wormholes, and Blackholes. As for science, I believe a practical or a visual approach must be given priority followed by a conceptual approach.

So, education is not all about gathering information but about acquiring knowledge. In a world where people claim educational institutions to be business corporations, it is every student’s duty to find themselves and their passion.

THINGS THAT ARE NEVER TAUGHT AT SCHOOL BUT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Are schools all about learning brain-numbing calculations and formulas in mathematics, historical dates in history, diagrams and keywords in biology, equations in chemistry, and derivations in physics? Absolutely no! There are things beyond this that I believe every student must know at least a teensy bit. 

Here are a few extra things/subjects I believe must be taught at every school:

PERSONAL FINANCES:

The ultimate goal of our life is to make money, speaking practically. With this whole trend of Escape from the Matrix shaking the social media platforms, earning and saving money at a very young age has become everyone’s dream. But in order to deal with money, you have to know more about personal finances and that includes how to budget, how compound interest works, how to save money, how credit cards work, how to invest, and how to earn part-time. Schools don’t really teach us all of this.

SEX EDUCATION:

With the spike in the rates of rape cases filing in India every single day, it is important to provide students with sex education. Many students would have been curious about learning the chapter about human reproduction in your high school. And did any of your teachers deliberately ignore those chapters and refuse to give a proper explanation? In a world where sex has become a casual fling, students must be made aware of sexual health which is considered to be a state of physical, emotional, mental, and social well-being in relation to sexuality and not just the absence of disease. Adolescents who are undergoing hormonal and body changes are often prone to indulge themselves in unwanted and unsafe sexual activities. It’s the phase of your life where you feel confused about your body and your feelings and this is where sex education plays a major role. It helps them to learn about valid and reliable health information, problem-solving to avoid STIs, HIV, and unintended pregnancy, critical thinking, communication with family, peers, and teachers about issues concerning their health, and most importantly to realize the difference between good touch and bad touch. Providing them the adequate knowledge about what is and is not acceptable behavior and their rights makes them less vulnerable to abuse. They must be educated to recognize sexual abuse, sexual assault, bullying, and human rights to help them have a better and safer future.

MENTAL HEALTH AND RELATIONSHIP:

Just as any deadly disease, mental illness is indeed a very serious one. Mostly people belonging to the age category of 18 to 25 claim themselves to be depressed. It can be due to any number of reasons be it relationship problems, financial problems, family problems, domestic abuse, academic pressure, insecurity, trust issues, loneliness, etc. But your mental well-being is your only first priority. A mental health curriculum in schools must create awareness about the importance of emotional well-being and to bring them a feeling that they are not alone. They must be taught how to control their emotions, sort out their priorities, know what is and is not necessary, make effective decisions, positive attitude and mindset. They must be saved before they drown themselves in feelings of hopelessness, isolation, and helplessness which often lead to them taking drastic steps and wrong decisions. Instead of relying on books for mental wellness - teachers, mentors, and counselors can help the students directly by forming a genuine bond with them. Students must be made aware of a sense of belonging – that it is alright when your relationship doesn’t go the way you wanted it to be, it is alright if you fail a particular subject because you can always try better the next time, and it is alright to not have enough money to buy something that you want because it will only urge you to work harder and that you are never alone to face everything. Words of reassurance and endless support can help students from falling into the deep pit of depression.

And when it comes to relationships, it’s not only about a boy and a girl. It’s equally important to have a healthy and positive relationship with your parents, friends, and teachers. Establishing a healthy and mature relationship can help students create a bubble of positivity around them.

PASSION:

In a random classroom of a school, there might be future artists, dancers, authors, singers, footballers, entrepreneurs, scientists, etc. What if schools managed to give every student an hour to dedicate just for their passion? If you haven’t discovered what you are passionate about yet, you could use that hour for deep self-introspection and self-discovery. In a world where students are torn in between following their passion and following what society wants them to, schools giving an hour to focus on every student’s passion is an ultimate advancement for the betterment of students. Teachers can help students promote their passion and to discover themselves and get them introduced to others who share their same passions. With the implementation of all this, the future world will be gifted with some passionate individual workers instead of cooperating slaves.

BUSINESS AND PRODUCTIVITY:

With the world brimming with countless self-made billionaires and start-up companies, it is really important to at least know about the basics of business and how the cooperate world works. With India in its journey to transform from a developing country to a developed country, cooperate companies are on the rise. Nowadays there are plenty number of ways to become financially independent at a really young age and with the rise in Gen AI like Chat GPT, Bard and Bing, and other AI tools, from publishing your eBook online to setting up a brand-new online store – everything is in your fingertips. With a precise amount of time and consistency, you can attain success. For this, learning the basic foundation of business, how it works, how to execute your ideas, and how to start a start-up is important. Students must be taught how to manage time, be productive, and balance themselves between their passion and academics.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS:

What if you have a spectacular business idea and want to share with it an investing company, but you lack the efficiency to communicate properly and convey the main idea? From placing an order in a restaurant to attending a job interview, communication skills play a major role. If you aren’t having the proper communication skills to share your thoughts and ideas then what is the point in collaborating with others or establishing an effective relationship? Learning communication skills include reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Even though there are schools that practice it, it is not given the enough importance it actually deserves. Communication is often taken as a secondary subject. In a world where socialization and communication play a vital role in defining yourself as an individual, make sure you know how to use the proper words when and where precisely.

Apart from these, there are still many more things that I believe students should not be oblivious about during their high school. For instance, home maintenance, emotional intelligence, survival skills, teamwork, leadership, online etiquette and safety, advertising and marketing, etc.

So, to conclude, education is not about mugging up grades and exams. It’s something beyond that – something that teaches us how to survive in this technologically flourishing world. The current system of Indian Education can be tuned and implemented in a better way to end up having a future with passionate, hardworking, determined, extraordinary individuals instead of conformity-oriented individuals. 

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