False dichotomies of education that we must strive to overcome

Source: The post is based on the article “False dichotomies of education that we must strive to overcome” published in the Livemint on 29^th September 2022.

Syllabus: GS 2 -Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Education.

Relevance: To balance various dichotomies of education.

News: Education should develop children’s capacity to question things in society or their capacity to contribute constructively. But in reality, education institutions focus far too much on the capacity to question instead of their contribution.

Good education must account for all these matters, and not make choices between them because these are false choices.

What are the false dichotomies the education should avoid and why?

Freedom versus discipline: In schools, discipline and freedom are seen as opposites. Educators often choose discipline, as it is easier to handle students. This is educationally ineffective, and potentially creates lifelong problems for students.

Memorization versus understanding: Memory plays an important role in developing conceptual understanding, as does practice in creativity. An educational approach that relies on one alone cannot achieve its goals.

Knowledge versus skills: Education today focuses on acquiring knowledge in children’s subjects. But they fail to develop their skills and capacities to process and use that knowledge. For instance, the development of an ability to communicate, or think critically, takes a back seat to soaking knowledge and content in courses.

Education for employability and employment versus a liberal education: Education that does not emphasize general capacities of critical thinking and education that ignores economic goals of productive livelihood undermines both citizenship and the individual.

Educators are facing challenges in providing liberal education which also equally develops capacities such that students can find gainful employment.

Collaboration versus competition: Institutions function as formal structures of the curriculum. But they do not focus on the practices and cultures which promote collaboration during competition. Thus making children failed to face the competition of various sorts they face in a reality.

Common-size-fits-all versus the contextual: In any education system, some matters have to be common across the system, while some must be entirely contextual. For any society to function as one unit there are common things that must be learnt. But there are contextual matters specific to areas, places, cultures and more. It is this balance between the common and the contextual that education policies must achieve.

But providing complete autonomy on everything is as dysfunctional for societies and communities as a deeply hierarchical, tightly prescriptive approach.

Love and affection for students versus a distanced professional approach: Education is at its core a matter of relationships, particularly between teachers and students. Both love and distanced approach should be practised on various situations.

So overall a good education requires not dichotomies, but a consistent endeavour to balance and achieve complementary ends, both in theory and in practice.