Need of short duration educational interventions
Education is a long term investment for a family. Middle class is ready to bear the burden of such investment because they are convinced about the better return from such investment in the form of better jobs and high return to the family in future. But with the poor resource-base the lower class parents are not ready to wait for such a long gestation period. For them education must have short gestation period with faster return. For underprivileged and downtrodden we may need to redesign education with short duration interventions throughout life. This would suit their economic conditions and prepare them better for their livelihood.
Decentralise education
We have been following centralised education system. Generally the syllabi is developed at the Government of India or state level. It is presumed that same or similar education would lead to similar achievement. This is a serious misconception. Same set of information or values may not lead to development of similar competence among all. Each child is unique- by birth and also by environment. He is also unique in terms of learning process. Education require provision of conditions in which a child can get opportunity of success. A child cannot get success in an alien condition. A fisherman’s son may get better success, if he is tested for skills based on facts related to fishing and related matters. If he is asked to think of new designs of fishing net or even machines related to those activities, he might be able to generate new ideas. But if he is asked to design a new model of car, he is less likely to succeed. As they are closer to nature, they have better understanding of natural objects than the urban children. Hence, they would can be better innovators in the field of Bio-Sciences, Animal Husbandry, Agri-Sciences, Wildlife, or even technology related to them.
At the elementary level the basic goal of education should be to develop the mental faculty so that the learner can think properly, communicate properly, and transact his daily activity with confidence and perfection. In this the nature of helpful information would definitely come from his family and neighbourhood.
The learners in these backward community being better in kinesthetic intelligence have greater chances of success in the field of Technology. It is really unfortunate that the skills related to technology does not find place in our curriculum even at the stage of high school. We have tried to introduce vocational education at the stage of high school. But they are only preparation for certain vocations. As we have already indicated middle class government job oriented mentality does not allow these educational schemes to be rated very high. Further, these vocational schemes cannot achieve required success, unless we nurture and develop skills related to technology right from the early childhood. In fact, we must give due importance to the development of Kinesthetic intelligence from the elementary level, if we have to succeed in the field of vocational education. This would require development of a different teaching methodology, different evaluation system based on the development of Kinesthetic skills.