There was a shortage of water in the village, I was teaching dinosaurs and Newton. I thought what we are teaching in our classrooms!
I once gave an exercise to students in class eight - how do you do if you can design your own village? They discussed in groups and drew a picture. That was the way in the picture. There were huge buildings. There were shopping malls and marts. There were hospitals and schools with tall buildings. I was amazed by a scene in between. There was also a chaotic traffic jam on the road. In the picture, the square (Chautari) in the middle of the village was removed. Some of the trees on the hill were cut down. I was surprised to see the students' point of view on development. I taught them in class that plants provide oxygen.
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I talked about stomata, chlorophyll and mitochondria. I had explained the process of photosynthesis. I was shocked, I taught science but in the process the relationship between the knowledge gained by the students and the society is broken. The practical side of the interrelationship between nature and man is missing. In fact, we have interpreted 'development' as synonymous with 'city'. We tend to ignore the near and the far. I started looking at the curriculum and textbooks of my subject. I was talking about an apple that Newton saw in amazement in 1666. I was living in a landlocked country and was explaining the reason for the tides. I was explaining why the sky on the moon looks black. There was a shortage of water in the village but the subject never entered the classroom.
Students did not participate in thinking about how to bring or save water in places where there is no direct water source. In 1831, Michael Faraday's motor effects were studied, but there was no discussion of year-round ghats in the valley. I recounted how dinosaurs got lost in the seropher of Charles Darwin's theory, but there was no discussion of how to save the fish that were disappearing in a nearby mine. Listening to the experiences of different people, one knows that one cannot run away from the knowledge of the world. It stimulates curiosity and makes people think openly. Increases empathy for other species and animals. But, in the circle of external knowledge, we have missed the point of our own home and society. We keep students away from home and society. While teaching the biography of the so-called 'big' and famous person, we have missed to teach that the deeds done by the people of our own family and society are also respected.
The biggest mistake I made as a teacher was to create a sense of inferiority towards my family and society. When he was lazy to study at school, teachers and elders used to scold him, 'If you don't study today, you will be in the same situation as your parents. You have to live in this village. ' A friend who scored low on a test had to be scolded even more. When I was a teacher, I repeated the same mistake. Looking back today, it seems that I had committed an unforgivable crime by insulting the student's family and society. Unknowingly I was teaching the student to leave the spade and plow and hold the pen. Mental labor is greater than physical labor. The life your parents live is not good.
Your village is far behind in terms of development. Every family and society has its own strengths and challenges. Have their own past and present. They have their own kind of resources, means and needs. Students live with that reality in their daily lives. However, there was no space in my classroom to discuss and reflect on the student's reality. There was a deep chasm between the classroom and society. Once my nephew came home from school.
My sister told him to move around the house.
'No time,' replied the nephew, 'there is a lot of homework.'
This is just one example of how students get so caught up in the cycle of reading and writing homework that they avoid social and family responsibilities. It is in a society where students return after completing their studies. That society may have been born and raised or it may have migrated from home or abroad. But, while reading, they stay away from society. Today, it takes 18-19 years to graduate. For so many years, they are confined within the four walls of the classroom, not their own family and society. They are limited to words, numbers, formulas and principles.
After spending almost two decades in school and college and entering the professional world, they finally get excited - society is not as easy as reading a book. It is not easy to find a solution to the problem of different subjects and faculty holidays in school-college. Then many young people become distracted. An entrepreneur who teaches entrepreneurship said sarcastically, 'Nepal's education goal has been achieved.
Our education has taught things for everyone to talk. Everyone is talking! What they are trying to point out is that we have learned to write, to interpret, to analyze, to think. Everyone who reads and writes has done so. We are not able to work hard. We are not close to our own society. We are not able to find a solution to the local problem from a global perspective. Because we have not taught that. If we want to expect prosperity in the country, it is necessary to rise above the roar of education theory. During the student's two decades of fertile and creative time, they need to create opportunities to integrate into their society with the world.
Some teachers have tried to bring the knowledge of the society into the classroom - bringing different resources from the community into the classroom, teaching the community science and technology, making the community's industry and entrepreneurship efforts the subject. It is necessary to connect educational institutions and society with teachers. Society and educational institutions need to learn from each other. Now we have to take schools and colleges in a direction that is based on the reality of society. Where the resources, means and challenges of society are discussed. Be the process of finding a way out of the churning.
The text should be based on the needs of the society. Let the society also use the knowledge extracted from the educational institution. There should be cooperation between educational institutions and related bodies to find solutions to many problems of the society. If we go back to the old pattern, we will continue to produce ghosts, lazy, socially unfamiliar and useless people from schools and universities.
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