Schools are great places of learning. Teachers are extraordinary contributors to the building of children and, therefore, a nation. Still, schools address a mass or a group in their processes, not individual children. That leaves a gap and that is what Educating Forward (EF) aims to fill. Every child is unique with different talents and skills. Our schools, by nature of the system, are not equipped to harness individual growth. Sometimes it is even difficult to identify the talent a child possesses. Skills can be transferred, talent cannot be. Besides, we teach the present and what is already known. How do we prepare for the future? How do we help children become better thinkers and daring innovators? We are familiar with the concept of “Paying Back” – EF is built on the concept of “Paying Forward”. It’s a debt we owe our children.
If one has been observing the Western Express highway that runs through Mumbai. In the 1970s the highway would become a 4-lane road after one entered the city limits while outside city limits from Borivali onward (towards Gujarat) to the national highway it was a 2-lane highway. It was one of the most congested roads extending to the highway. The highway leading out of the city is now a 6-lane highway right up to Ahmedabad. Throughout its existence I have always noticed some repair or expansion work going on this highway within Mumbai. Sometimes it would be expansion work and sometimes repair work. Nothing changes. Even today the road is permanently under repair or expansion in some stretches. You cannot drive from Virar to the airport at Santacruz without a couple of diversions or damaged stretches. I believe this is because we are trying to solve the traffic and congestion problems that accumulate every 4-5 years or so. Maybe it didn’t occur that highways should be built to accommodate traffic envisaged in 15-20 years in the future. Perhaps finance may also have been be a constraint.
We always seem to be building for the current or past problems. What if we thought about education in the same manner? Lately, a new mobile gets out-dated within a year or at the most two. When the airline industry opened up around 1995 hundreds of cabin-crew training schools opened up. Some still survive, others have gone under with business cycles. Therefore, this site intends to discuss and share how we can Educate Forward. What kind of school education should happen now that will be most helpful and productive in 10 or 20 years from now?
The process & objective: In its articles, this site will discuss various issues of the present (and a bit of the past) and what can be changed and how learning at schools can be complemented by parents. This, so that the learning outcomes are most suited to the future and not to yesterday or just the present. Obviously, it must be understood that there are some basic concepts that are enduring and permanent and those don’t need any dramatic changes. For instance, the relationship between the Sun, Moon and Earth is not going to change. At least not for eons. And all the changes don’t have to be in the content alone but in the methods used for teaching and learning. This is the humble attempt that this site will make.
The objective is to create a community where these ideas are shared among readers and, maybe, with teachers, schools and students. This site does not seek to influence any govt policy through its content. Those will happen if schools borrow ideas from here and they seek those changes from the govt. Who can benefit from this site? All stake-holders of the future of our children and the nation:
1) Parents 2) School teachers & faculty members of higher education institutions 3) Students of high school and above and 4) Education domain professionals and researchers.
About the founder: EF was created in 2014 by RS Narayan. He has worked in important positions in top corporations in the private sector in the areas of Finance, Marketing and Sales. But his passion for education made him shift to the school education domain. In the course of his work in this domain Narayan has met over 3000 schools in the country and interacted with their principals. He has also trained teachers in programmes created by WIPRO and has interacted with thousands of teachers, children and parents to understand needs of Indian education system and he hopes to see a better future for our children. Narayan is also known for his writing and speaking skills and has interacted with many higher educational institution students and faculty like IIT, IISC (Bengaluru) and many informal groups. He comes from a family of educators who have shaped school education for over three decades.
Content on EF is the property of Karmic Action. No content should be shared in print or electronic form without prior consent. Content is also not to be shared in any form on Social Media platforms except links to articles. Copyright of images or videos used on this site rests with their respective owner.