Old school: Indian education stuck in colonial past

New School
Push science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and not Myths and mythology!

STEM is an approach to learning and development that integrates the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. STEM advances excellence, innovation, and equity in science, technology, engineering, and math education for all students is the right ecosystem essential for imparting quality education.
Through STEM, students develop key skills including: Problem solving
Creativity
Critical analysis
Teamwork
Independent thinking
Initiative
Communication
Digital literacy.

The continual advances in technology are changing the way students learn, connect and interact every day. Skills developed by students through STEM provide them with the foundation to succeed at school and beyond.

The practice of mixing Science with Mythology is Pseudo science. But in the last few years this Pseudo science has gained some legitimacy it does not deserve. We must foster rational thought and scientific temper.

Artificial intelligence, Nano Medicine, Miniaturization, clean energy, Robotic surgery etc. has entered the world. Let us open our eyes to these endless possibilities. Let us not push myths and Mythology.

Effective education is a learning experience.  It is inviting truth. It can be defined as the wise, hopeful and respectful cultivation of learning undertaken in the belief that all should have the chance to share in life. Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits.

Old school Traditional education, also known as back-to-basics education

Old school concept was tailored by British to produce cooks, clerks and civil servants to serve them in the colonial realm.  India, with more than 1.4 million schools and more than 230 million enrolments, is home to one of the largest and complex school education systems in the world.

Our K-12 system largely still adheres to the century-old, industrial-age factory model of education. But the factory model of education is the wrong model for the 21st century. Traditional education refers to long-established customs that society traditionally used in schools. The systematic provision of learning techniques to most children, such as literacy, has been a development of the last 150 to 200 years.

When it comes to education policy, inconstancy is the only constant. Many people have a superficial concept of education; equating it with doing a particular course or obtaining a particular qualification.

Factory model a myth?
The back door of the school leads to the front door of a factory!

The "factory model of education" is invoked as shorthand for the flaws in today's schools - flaws that can be addressed by new technologies or by new policies.
Mass education was the ingenious machine constructed by industrialism to produce the kind of adults it needed. The problem was inordinately complex - a world in which time was to be regulated not by the cycle of sun and moon, but by the factory whistle and the clock.

They learn from a unified curriculum. The classes start and end with the bell. It's my view that the factory model did?and still continues to?exist. At its core, the model refers to the creation of a standardized, ubiquitous model which trains students to listen to instructions and overall, be submissive to authority.

Standardization would be infused with capitalism to create the ultimate workforce. We're cantered around control, using a traditional structure to tell children what to do, how to do it, and then expect the same uniform result.

(The writer Dr. Prabhudev is former Vice-Chancellor, Bangalore University)