‘Pride of Asia’ through holistic education

Ajith PERERA

The literacy rate is one of the strongest criteria of measuring the development of a country. When people are practically educated their lives are prosperous and the country has a bright future. When people are flourishing and the country is developed, people of other nations begin to follow them. Then that country and nation become a role model for others. That is their pride.

When education caters to the needs of the academic and professional needs of the labour force and the job market, and is intertwined with the requisite fields of professionals, the rate of unemployment will be zero and will not hinder the pace of development. Similarly what is learnt at school and the university will lead the students to a new dawn of life. Therefore, the system of education should suit the modern needs of the country and the world at large.

Mother’s responsibility

The word ‘Education’ should be introduced from early childhood when the mother is held responsible for the physical, mental, intellectual, moral and social development of the baby. If a mother produces ‘wanted babies’ instead of ‘unwanted babies’, our society will be a better place with better human beings. Mothers should be made aware of the importance of their positive mentality at childbirth. Similarly, they should be educated about the importance of the physical and mental health and the medical attention of both the mother and the baby during early childhood.

Due recognition is not given to this most significant part of human existence. This vital process should be a subject in our school curriculum because the importance of early childhood development should be taught to the students of upper classes who will be the future parents. It is advisable to introduce this noteworthy subject in grade six or seven because many school dropouts are recorded after grade eight. Unlike our times children of grade six and seven know a lot about childbirth and what they know is not educationally important. That is why they should be given a proper knowledge on this matter as a subject.

Pre-school education

The risk of entrusting babies to daycare centres, and how children lose faith in their parents, and how that will, in turn, create a lot of social issues in the future, should be discussed in the media. Pre-school education is so far not considered as the foundation of formal education and that may be the reason why anyone is allowed to open up a pre-school as a way of money making.

Pre-school teacher training programmes should be done either by the state or by those private institutions that train pre-school teachers and such institutions should be monitored by a panel of supervisors appointed by the state. Further, pre-school education should be conducted only by the qualified teachers. If possible pre-schools should be incorporated into the government school system.

Children of three, four and five years should be handled by a well qualified set of teachers. If their foundation is not properly laid then the entire construction in school education could be a failure. As a result, the entire nation and country will be faced with an unfathomable chain of national issues that will make our country a hellhole.

Primary education is the most important of all. Pre-school and the primary school are the best places to mould and guide children to be human. Children at the primary grades are like flowers that are not corrupt. That is the best age to train them to think and act, understand their creativity and abilities, share and care, accept and help their peers. This is the best age to inculcate the moral and spiritual values that we need today in society. Eradication of social prejudices and discriminations should be begun at this level where children do not know what they are. This is the ideal age to teach them that all are equal.

Of the three types of learners, auditory (those who listen and learn), visual (those who see and learn) and kinaesthetic (those who learn by doing), the current education system caters to the first two categories. To promote kinaesthetic learners, ‘hands on’ activities should be introduced and the teacher training sphere should be developed. School is responsible for the development of a rounded personality.

First the parents, very carefully, help the children discover their talents and potentialities and help them in this process of becoming somebody. Then the teachers in the school, as they proceed from grade to grade, through the subjects they learn, help them find the realization of their potentialities and talents and help uproot at the same time any cockle they find among the wheat. Children should be helped to identify themselves, accept themselves and be themselves. If this is properly done they will succeed in their future.

Resourceful personnel

If the children have identified who they are and do what they know and can in order to achieve their aims and objectives in life, then they will be resourceful personnel to society. They will be ready to accept any job that suits their capacity and abilities without wasting their time on seeking white-collar jobs. If they are trained at school with positive attitudes and positive thinking they will be ready to accept the challenges in life. Everyone will not crave to be doctors and engineers because teachers from the primary grades have taught them the beauty of the diversity of capabilities that helps build the nation. Children should be taught that the respect of a profession does not lie in the name itself but in how that person behaves in it.

‘When a street sweeper sweeps the street, he should sweep the way Michael Angelo painted, Beethoven composed and Shakespeare wrote. Then the whole world will say: ‘Here is a good sweeper.’ Whatever the simple responsibility a person is entrusted with, he or she should do her utmost.

Human values

The classroom is the best place where the children should be taught to respect the person but not his job, respect the person’s moral and human values, not the dress he wears. There can be a gentle moral person in the one who is in a sarong than in a person who wears full European dress.

Our secondary and tertiary education should not be exam oriented. The main aim of education should not be that of producing bookworms. The country needs practical professionals who can think differently and contribute to the national production.

Exam failures can never be neglected because there can be late bloomers and hidden talents. Those who are not good in their subject learning can be clever at some other skills, like vocational subjects.

They should be properly coached to get the best out of them. Their knowledge and professionalism should be made use for the development of the country.

They need to be made aware of their value to the country. At the same time those gems that are unearthed, cut and polished must be protected from the ever-present reality of emigration or from the ‘lie’ that young people must emigrate in order to find a better life or from the fact that emigration is part of our culture or from the fact that emigration is endemic in our culture. If they are duly recognized and paid they will be happy to serve their motherland.

Regular transfers

The regular transfers of teachers should be introduced and implemented without being biased for the well-being of the students who can benefit from a diversity of teachers and principals.

Transfers should be made every five years and the teachers and principals should be given the chance of teaching and working in different schools; Kanista Vidayalaya, Maha Vidyalaya, Madya Maha Vidyala etc.

The concept of being born and bred in the same school should be eradicated. When regular transfers are made effectively, certain monopolies of certain teachers and principals in schools will no longer be a nightmare. In addition, regular transfers will make those teachers and principals aware that schools are not their own private domain but public property instead.

Thorough supervision

Thorough meaningful supervision by qualified supervisors must be done from the beginning of this long process. From pre-school to tertiary and vocational training such regular, systematic, thorough supervision will produce fruitful results. The supervision will make all in this process enthusiastic. The contribution of the supervisors will be more positive and more fruitful. There will be less room for slipshod work and cheating. Duties and responsibilities will be their forte.

There are certain supervisors, especially in the education sector, who visit schools for certain reasons that are degrading their profession. Their main duty is nothing but the supervision of the teachers and the teaching-learning process at schools. But there are disgraceful supervisors who visit schools and waste the principal’s time, idling and enjoying a cup of tea with some Tiffin, as if they have come to have a free breakfast and sign whatever document necessary and then go away. Such supervisors do not know who the teachers and children are and the teachers do not know who their supervisors are. Such supervisors should be sacked because they are cancerous to the whole nation.

Unfortunately the majority of such miserable supervisors are politically influential and they are politically appointed. If their educational and professional qualifications raised them to such positions then they should know how to maintain their dignity. Since the position is ‘undeserving’ of such individuals that it deserves a better kind of individuals. That may be the main reason why they visit schools for sake of visiting and enjoying a free cup of tea. Who is at fault?