Students should be agents of change

Schools need to re-imagine the way they approach education if our students are to grow into effective leaders

Education is the cornerstone of proactively shaping future citizens who can collectively impact the nation’s social and economic progress. Instilling a sense of agency and purpose in the youth who will not only aim to shape their own future but also contribute to the community and the nation’s economic progress and sustainable development needs to start early. This is where schooling plays a critical role.

A school is no longer an institution to gain theoretical knowledge. Instead, it must be a hub to help students grow into adults who are aware of their social responsibilities. This is all the more crucial today, given the rapidly evolving economy, the increasing urbanisation and the larger environmental challenges. But to ensure that our children are effective leaders and agents of change, we must re-imagine the way we approach education.

While the National Education Policy 2020 has recognised the need for change and the integration of experiential learning, we need more streamlined and structured changes to create effective modules. And the first step towards this is to move away from the traditional teacher-student approach to a more socio-constructive one. We must create a collaborative and experiential learning ecosystem, which allows students to exercise agency, a sense of responsibility and inquiry, recognise an overall purpose and self-identify actions to achieve a goal.

We need to include real-life learning, community-based projects, industry exposure, and environmental education in our curriculum. Fifteen-year-old climate activist, Ridhima Pandey, who has represented India at global forums and has been able to catalyse a movement to spread awareness of the environmental issues facing her hometown in Uttarakhand, credits her motivation to on-ground exposure and involvement with the community. Imagine if this was carried out across all schools. Imagine the impact on our world! Recent research shows that if only 16% of high school students in high- and middle-income countries were to receive climate education, there could be a 19-gigaton reduction of carbon dioxide by 2050!

We must empower our students to ask questions and seek solutions. They must engage with their communities to understand local issues and be nudged to internalise a problem-solving approach. Our teaching pedagogies must push for the inclusion of storytelling, games and gamification, dialogue and discussions, and immersive and interactive sessions, as an important part of learning.

Students, in short, require a learning experience that will shape their identity and allow them to grow into engaged citizens and leaders, conscious of social responsibility, ready to innovate and find solutions to pressing global issues.

The writer is Chairperson, Dharav High School, Pro- Vice Chairperson, DPS International Gurugram, DPS 45 and DPS Jaipur