An ideal birthday gift for Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

What would be the ideal birthday gift for Chacha Nehru this Children’s Day? It would be a nation filled with children who are curious, creative, critical thinking, compassionate and civic-minded. Can we rustle up such a gift today? Hardly! If we look around us, it is painfully evident that we have not done justice to our children and their potential.

It’s not all bleak though. We can rejoice that we have passed the Right to Education Act and made significant strides in improving access to formal education. Government, entrepreneurs and civil society have combined to take primary school enrolment to over 93%. Mid-day meal schemes are helping address crucial nutritional aspects. But we have a long way to go. We can and must get there. So let us lay out a roadmap and get started.

We can start with the Discovery of India where Jawaharlal Nehru highlighted the concept of “scientific temper.” To Nehru, a scientific mindset and spirit of inquiry must suffuse every aspect of one’s conduct. For him scientific temper ideally was “a way of life, a process of thinking, a method of acting and associating with our fellowmen.”

In order to develop scientific temper, we must encourage our children to ask questions. Instead, in our brutally competitive education system, we have emphasized rote learning. To paraphrase Socrates, we have focused on filling a vessel rather than kindling a flame. So we have missed out on an opportunity to hone critical reasoning skills.

I experienced this when I wrote my first research paper in the PhD program at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. My paper came back with the comments: “Very well written and organized … but where’s your opinion?” I turned to the teacher and blurted, “Nobody’s ever asked me for my opinion before.” Our education system had been focused on mastering received wisdom and reproducing it as well as possible in response to examination questions that had stood the test of time. In contrast, America builds the ability to think critically into the school curriculum so innovation and the creation of new knowledge seem to emerge naturally.

Things have started to change in India. Since 2008, the CBSE examination has introduced sections aimed at testing “higher order thinking skills (HOTS)” These are derived from Bloom’s taxonomy of the different levels of intellectual behaviour in learning: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation, of which the last three are HOTS. However, we are yet to assess whether these changes have affected students’ critical thinking skills and learning outcomes.

We need to urgently look beyond formal education methods to unleash our children’s creativity. As Edward de Bono points out “Intelligence is something we are born with. Thinking is a skill that must be learned.” We need to stop trying to stuff children with facts, and instead, try to draw out ideas and thoughts and nurture their ability to make real world connections. This would breed innovation, generate fresh perspectives, and help tackle problems from new angles thereby benefiting society at large.

Such changes can be ushered in by adding a focus on music, sport, art and experiential learning, in addition to the foundations of formal education. For instance, Tamil Nadu has included chess as a part of the school curriculum, in an effort to develop lateral thinking in children. The study of chess as a cognitive learning tool and idea has taken flight across America with the Kasparov Foundation. Another innovative programme is Project Art in the USA which promotes arts education amongst children. Statistics show that American students with access to arts education are 75% more likely to attend college rather than discontinue studies.

Quizzing too has great potential in helping children engage with the world around them in a fun, ongoing way. In Karnataka, many schools are now establishing quiz clubs with guidance from members of the Karnataka Quiz Association, which I helped found 30 years ago. Teachers will find that if they quickly access the Internet and generate subject-related quizzes, they will find it easy to enhance the impact of their lessons and keep students engaged.

Beyond the classroom, the larger community can play a role in helping children grow and mature. This can be done by matching students with mentors—older professionals who spend some quality time with students. Mentors can open new horizons for youngsters and encourage them to explore, experiment and exceed their potential.

Able mentors are able to provide information and exposure to children which parents may not have access to. Today we have a big gap in India when it comes to mentoring. One organization filling this vacuum is Mentor Together, set up by Arundhuti Gupta, with my mentoring. Mentor Together’s mission is to provide under-privileged children with enduring and empowering one-on-one relationships with mentors in order to help them achieve their goals and dreams. Initiatives like this need to scale up rapidly to truly make a difference to our youth.

India will emerge on the innovation map of the world if we invest in holistic education for our children. If our children learn to be compassionate, critical thinkers then they will learn to separate truth from untruth. They will learn to celebrate pluralism, inclusivity and democracy. If our children grow up to be public-spirited, forward-thinking citizens in the mould of the Jawaharlal Nehru, that would be the ultimate gift.

MV Rajeev Gowda is a professor at IIM-B, and a spokesperson for the Indian National Congress. The views are his personal.