By Soroj Mullick, SDB –
Children do well, when they do what they feel like e.g. play and learn in an informal environment. They need to receive parental love and care. The parents need to check their motives in educating their children.
We all become obstacles to the growth of children. We kill children’s natural creativity in the name of discipline. There is the need of a conducive environment already in the primary education where the children can think and play in their natural way rather than adopting fixed environment wearing uniforms, and all ‘uniformity’ limiting their natural leaning.
Education would do well to inculcate a responsible freedom through a technology-integrated life by means of productive tasks, competitions and challenges, all for the good of the society. Beyond good marks, thriving in business and success, education forms character and value system which makes the learner respects other humans and treats the other with dignity.
Education cannot not be the monopoly of few and be commercialized. That would turn schools into factories ‘producing’ half -baked doctors, engineers, even teachers. Crimes in society would increase if we produce humans with less character as they would fail to respect and preserve dignity especially to women and children in families.
All the Christian schools should implement the Child Protection Policy. The principals and the staff are to be given orientation programs on this topic. There has to be a zero-tolerance policy regarding child abuse in Church-run institutions. There is the need to protect children from abuse and create a safe environment in the institutions. Guidelines must be laid for the protection of minors and vulnerable adults. The victims of abuse, must be listened to with compassion and understanding. Knowledge on the canonical and moral aspects will be useful in this regard.
Here are further paradigms with new frontiers:
- Build Character before knowledge: Foundational values along with manners and characters should be instilled into, before judging the child’s knowledge or learning. All must respect other people and be gentle to animals and nature; be generous, compassionate and empathetic; learn patience, self-control and justice.
- Community Schools for Partnership and collaboration: attitudes of communion, love, care, listening, forgiveness, sharing, selfless service and personal attention are to be formed in order to create a model society without employing caretakers or custodians. Self-managed community schools are ideal, where students team up to clean their school. They begin to value and give equal dignity to all types of works.
- Family Spirit more with spiritual ambiance than Consumerism: Teachers and students to have healthy and balanced meals together in order to build positive teacher- student relationships. Interactions through help will build the family atmosphere.
- Sharing activities and exposure programmes and not being recipient of favours: find the student’s potential, provide environment to develop his/her talents, and train them up for the good of the society.
- Respect Tradition and Cultures along with Modernity: learn to live and work in a culturally-rich society, renewed with modern ideas that are life giving.
- Healthy and effective teaching and learning environment: Give children their own space to grow with responsible freedom.
- The clarion call of “Laudato Si” of Pope Francis and the Sustainable Development Goals: these have to be carried out through the Christian mandate of promoting holistic education through the 4 step methodology of: Feel, Imagine, Do, Share.
- Thinking beyond ordinariness and becoming ambassadors for great, worthwhile and utopian goals such as the need to campaign for a warless society, caste-less India, to work towards the abolition of dowry, to start anti-corruption movements and to become champions of back-to-the nature movement
- Teachers should have deep God experience: in order to engage in fruitful educational ministry
- Conduct exposure programmes in the rural villages on practical social work.
- Promote communal harmony and the values of brotherhood, solidarity, dialogue and mutual respect by setting up Harmony Clubs
- Revamp the Office of CBCI Commission for Education and Culture as a Training and Research Centre
- Make English as well as vernacular languages compulsory in all Christian institutions.
- Find innovative ways to conduct bridge courses, remedial classes and special coaching for the poor students to bring them at par with others.
- Networking between technical education and industry, organizations, programmes of rural and community development, and with other sectors of education (National Policy on Education, 1986, 6.12 (ix)).
- Introducing vocational education to enhance individual employability, with skilled manpower, (National Policy on Education, 1986, 5.16) and various forms of non-formal education. The structure of Indian education system is in critical state e.g. the curriculum targets the top-students and leaves most students behind. Therefore, vocational education would better serve the millions of students who ‘pass’ exams but cannot find jobs because they have no real skills.
- Networking with others agencies – Government and Private.
- Applications of psychology, learning theories and of different technologies will call for inter-disciplinary collaboration.
- Giving competence to the rural youth: community colleges, or ITI institutions or professional courses, engineering, ICT, marketing, agro-processing, bio-technology, watershed management, (CEP, 6.4).
- A curriculum to maintain environmental hygiene and good social manners. (CEP, 6.5)
- A curriculum to develop life skills suggested by WHO: problem solving, decision making skills, critical thinking, creative thinking, effective communication, interpersonal relationship, self-awareness, empathy building, advocacy, cope with emotions and stress, (CEP, 6.6).
- Open Distance Learning System (ODLS) offered through IGNOU, NIOS and state level Open Universities and Schools.
- Inculcate social sensitization, the rights to emphasise one’s duties, consciousness as our educational responsibility (CEP, 6.8).
- Nurture a culture of faith in the young Christians and other members of the student body.
To be continued…
Fr. Soroj Mullick, SDB is a Salesian priest from the Kolkata Province. He has a Licentiate in Catechetics and a Doctorate (Christian Education) from UPS, Italy. He has number of years of teaching experience in college and in the formation of future priests. Besides, he has written number of research papers and articles, and has 25 years of Ministry in India and abroad as Educator, Formator, Retreat Preacher, Editor and engaged in School, Parish Catechetical & Youth Ministry. He is now an assistant priest in Bandel Basilica, rendering pastoral and catechetical ministry to the parishioners and to the pilgrims. He can be contacted at [email protected].