Quality education and stress free education is the need of the hour. The twenty first century is about the management and assessment of all the knowledge we have generated and the value addition we bring to it. So we have to understand the term education. What is education?
The word Education is derived from the Latin word – Educare means “Bringing out, lead forth “. It means child is not an empty box to fill. We have to bring out, because education focuses on the harmonious, physical, mental, social, emotional, technical, & spiritual development of the child. It transforms them from self-control, egoistic being in to social and global citizen. If it is the meaning of education then, why education becomes the synonymous of STRESS? Teachers and parents both have to try to understand the real meaning of education.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”…..Nelson Mandela”
Today education is stressful and challenging due to traditional parameters of academic assessment and evaluation. Every aspect of assessment instills fear in the mind of the child, the fear of competition, fear of forgetting and above all fear of being branded a failure (grade E1 or E2). So stress is a combination of all these fears. We should teach them success is a journey not a destination and success needs hard work. Marring competencies and skills acquired through academic pursuit with responsible quantitative and qualitative assessment techniques will definitely lead to a special flowering of talents, which would fulfill the mission of education. Our missile, Dr. Kalam believed in this. So assessment should be free from stress. The National Curriculum Framework (NCF 2005) visualizes certain broad aims of education which became to be sync with Dr. Kalam’s mission. It explains that real education makes the child to THINK and TRY. It guides the educators during assessment they should give importance to the independence of thoughts and actions of a child – not role learning. The Teachers who was once the SAGA on the stage is now guide or facilitator to empower the students to learn at their pace and at leisure or through personal learning networks.
The great Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once said– Progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. So all stake holders in the education process need to make a paradigm shift to a more transparent and inclusive evaluation system. More efforts are required towards changing the mindset of children and parents; those who have very big dreams, make stress an inevitable part of their lives. The need of the hour is to understand that he rat race towards high ranking and unbelievable percentages will make the life of a child full of stress. Stress causes depression, insomnia and brings about drastic changes in the personality of the child. Another reason of stress may be excessive workload, too many curricular activities and lack of time. It leads to rebelliousness among the students and kills the interest of the child in studies.
When we trace the evolution of mankind, we see how human beings moved from one level to the next- from hunting to farming to developing computers to smart phones. So we have understand that the demography of our classroom has changed drastically and the focus of education is no longer no rote learning but on concept formation with the application of ICT like flipped class room etc. So our classrooms should become centers to facilities learning and educators should put into practice scientific and efficient ways of assessment.
Once Dr. A.P.J. Kalam asked – Can we make and education system which will retain smiles on the face of the students throughout the period of education? So, both parents and teachers have to meet the challenges and work to maintain smiles on the faces of the students. A child stepping into the sea of learning is like a refreshing morning breeze untouched by stress of the competitive world. Parents and educators must understand child psychology and the real meaning of education.
The aim of education is to develop every child o become a confident and self-directed learner by working on his IQ, EQ, TQ and SQ prepare him to become a physically, mentally, technically, ethically and morally upright global citizen. The goal of education was, is and shall always remain to equip our children with values to become better individuals; thereby creating a better world where there is no space for stress in life.
“The crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole education system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated in the student who is trained to worship success as a preparation for his future career”
Albert Einstein
Raj Kumar Sharma is the Principal of Satyug Darshan Vidyalaya (Residential- cum Day Boarding school), Faridabad, NCR Haryana under the aegis of Satyug Darshan Trust (Regd) whose vision and mission is based on the Ideology of Equanimity & Even Sightedness. Satyug Darshan Vidyalaya is known for value based education (VBE). R.K. Sharma believes that real education prepares the child for life R.K Sharma believes that real education prepares the child for life. R.K sharma has been awarded by various organization of his work and passion for teaching- Rastriya Vidya Saraswati Puraskar (ISC, Delhi) Rastriya Siksha Jyoti Award (IIEM, Delhi), Life time Achievement & Gold Medal (ISC, Delhi), Best Principal, Haryana 2012 by SOF, Honoured by Faridabad Manufacturing Association and Siksha Rattan Award by Vishwa Mitra Parivar, Delhi and many more….
