Over the last few decades, there has been a paradigm shift towards teaching of sciences and technology in the school curriculum. No doubt, that has been the call of the day – to keep pace with the impact of these on the thought processes, living styles and growth dimensions of both the individual as well as the society – the Indian school curriculum has failed to deliver the goods – as much as needed – both in terms of quality of science education and development of scientific attitudes. A number of reasons can be attributed to this – which exist in the entire learning curve of the subjects of science from primary to the post graduate level. That indeed needs a separate platform for discussion.
But with an over emphasis on the same, there has been a notable sacrifice of the elements of humanities in school curriculum – both at the content level and pedagogical domains. The relevance, significance and impact of the disciplines of humanities at the formative level cannot and should not be underplayed because it has strong relationships with human development and social dynamics.
1. Declining sense of aesthetics – There is a marked decline in the sense of aesthetics among the present generation of learners – I understand the perception of aesthetics has certainly changed over the decades – yet a he artful appreciation of aesthetics, the sense of enjoyment with the nuances of aesthetic displays and expressions appear to be slowly missing. Humanities do help a person to unravel the unfathomed oceans of beauty of nature and existence through direct and indirect experiences and imaginatives.
2. Teaching of Poetry-“There is no time to stand and stare “said a poet a few centuries back – stating that people have become too busy with their preoccupations. Today while an ear for music is certainly at its best, the teaching of poetry in the classrooms has become more mechanical, lacking the life and lustre. It will be worthwhile to examine the gaps and rejuvenate the sense of poetry in the classrooms. It makes a significant contribution towards developing emotional intelligence, natural intelligence, intra-personal intelligence, social empathy and cohesion
3. Imbibing ethical values – Ethical values are the foundations of human order and co-existence. Humanities do contribute immensely towards development of ethical values (I do not underrate science & Technology –having been a science teacher for nearly two decades). In a society torn with strife and tension, there is an urgency to address both the domains – “Learning to live together “and “Learning to Be”- as detailed in the Unesco document “Learning - The Treasure Within”
4. Exploring Life - Life exists beyond the domains of scientific knowledge, appliances, tools and information processes. A large number of avenues that the universe and life have given us remain still unexplored – thanks to the paradigm shift of the “bread and butter” objectives of education. Facilitating the learner to explore the world with a sense of enterprise, adventure, use the powers of intuition and rehabilitating the universe from the destructive strategies we had adopted over the decades are necessary. Humanities can help in developing the appropriate logistics for the same.
Unfortunately, one could not only see declining choice of the subjects of humanities at the school level, but an indifferent attitude towards the learners of these subjects and the teachers as well. The mindset needs to change. An analysis of the learner profile across the country will also indicated a clear polarization in the number of learners due to geo-cultural reasons. There is a great value for the subjects of humanities in the emerging social scenario. Parental education on the scope for humanities needs to be taken with interest by schools.
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