education & ed-tech
It is clearly obvious at this moment that the ed-tech startups of India are in fact test-tech startups, but that doesn’t create the kind of vision you would want to see on an investor pitch.
To truly rebuild education, as is the stated promised land, it is imperative for us to understand what the goal of education is, and by extension - what the goal of life is.
Clearly there can be no singular definition of success in this life, except in the abstract sense. Hence there can’t be a singular purpose of education, except in the abstract sense.
To take a cue from Sri Aurobindo:
“In Nature each of us has a principle and will of our own becoming; each soul is a force of self-consciousness that formulates an idea of the Divine in it and guides by that its action and evolution, its progressive self-finding, its constant varying self-expression, its apparently uncertain but secretly inevitable growth to fullness. That is our Svabhāva, our own real nature; that is our truth of being which is finding now only a constant partial expression in our various becoming in the world. The law of action determined by this Svabhāva is our right law of self-shaping, function, working, our Swadharma.”
Here, Sri Aurobindo tries to tell us that we do not fully understand our true nature, and the process of discovery takes time. That voice inside our heads needs to find expression, and will constantly seek different ways to do so. The actions that result from this expression of self lead to a way of being in harmony. Fire must burn. Birds must sing. A man must be what he can be. It is therefore not only our desire, but also our responsibility to further our own evolution. Regardless of the times they live in, people will always be required to act and it is this doing that must propel them to actualisation.
I’m presently of the opinion that actualisation can only occur when there is either one or both of the following:
A passionate love for the act of doing (process) in accordance with one’s true nature
A compassionate love for doing whatever little we can to make a difference to someone else’s life (purpose)
We must build a world where purpose is something we are encouraged to discover, rather than have one assigned to us. Perhaps the goal of education must be to facilitate this curiosity to help individuals find their path.
The role of the teacher in such a world is not merely to impart knowledge, but to spark curiosity and enable young minds to fall in love with the subject itself.
To be effective in our objective we may employ a system that looks like this:
Technology is but one piece of the puzzle.
Learning requires immersion. Immersion demands curiosity and attention. Thus for the moment, ed-tech may be better served by developing games, rather than classroom experiences.