Vidyaniketan Academy Bengaluru
“ John seems to be significantly challenged here and may have a better chance of success in another school,” said the principal. John’s parents knew all too well what this statement meant, as he had been asked to leave his previous school as well for ‘restlessness’ and ‘disruptive behaviour’ in class, inability to cope with the syllabus, incomplete work and difficulty getting along with his peers. Regardless of the school or curriculum his parents chose, the result was the same for John. Sadly, 9-year-old John had already attended three mainstream schools and by this point, his parents felt a sense of hopelessness. They just wanted him to be a happy child enjoying a regular schooling experience like other children. This is when John’s parents consulted a clinical psychologist for a formal assessment and were referred to VNA. VNA strives to provide an environment that whole-heartedly accepts children for who he or she is and allows them to grow at their own pace without the pressure of achieving an academic standard set for them by society John’s parents visited VNA with a sense of optimism and hesitation, as they were unsure if this was the right place for him, or if this school could really help him as it did not look like a regular “school”. Post their visit and a few interactions later, his parents felt more hopeful and assured that John would perhaps be better understood and supported at an alternative school such as VNA. Given his past schooling experiences, John began school at VNA with some trepidation. It took quite a while for him in the beginning, but he eventually began to settle in once he felt included, accepted and supported. His teachers worked collaboratively with his counselor and parents to develop his very own Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to specifically address his learning, behaviour and overall developmental needs. “We were encouraged when we watched him make friends, and heard him talk with excitement about his classes and the things that interested him. With each passing day, we observed John’s enthusiasm, confidence and happiness continue to blossom. With the right intervention, differentiated approach, and daily personalized support, we watched John beginning to transform.” said John’s parents. Stories like John’s are the very reason why VNA exists. What could cause such a transformation? The answer is never simple or straightforward. It is a journey each child makes in unique and individual ways. The VNA community facilitates and rejoices in every milestone a child achieves, no matter how small a step it may seem. John is but one of the cohorts of children who come to VNA, struggling to cope with personal and societal challenges and mainstream modes of schooling – particularly when facing the challenges of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Specific / Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD). Like a mainstream school, VNA presents each child with an array of opportunities to help them develop into well-rounded and creative individuals. While this has been much easier to achieve in…
Quality education: New definition
Today education has to prepare young citizens to address contemporary health and climate change challenges and harness new technologies, writes Prof. Geeta Kingdon As India’s education system from pre-primary to university begins to find its bearings after the longest lockdown of education institutions worldwide, it’s important to devise ways and means to rejig the system for the post-Covid pandemic era. In addition to legacy problems of the past, education systems worldwide are confronted with daunting new challenges. • Climate change that presents humanity with frightening scenarios • Global pandemics undermining health security • Evolving technologies that are rapidly changing the nature of work, and to which humans are (perhaps unwittingly) ceding agency and autonomy. The plain truth is that our education system is woefully unprepared to confront these formidable challenges. Against this background, it’s a tragedy that in the third decade of the 21st century, access to acceptable quality education is still denied to a massive number of children in India. Even the modest Millennium Development Goal which mandated that all elementary-age children will complete eight years of education by 2015, was missed by a mile. Moreover, even among children who do complete elementary education, millions don’t have adequate reading, writing and numeracy skills. However, in this day and age every child being literate and numerate after five-eight years of schooling is still a very limited concept of what education can and must do. Today, education has to be far broader in reach and scope to prepare young citizens to address contemporary health and climate change challenges, and to harness opportunities inherent in emerging new technologies while circumventing their downsides. In sum, education needs to be redefined so that it enables new millennium children to develop new skills and capabilities. In this context, what type of education do we need? Foremost, redefinition of education to free it from its largely economic context and acknowledge its transformational role in individual lives and society. Latter day prophet Abdul Baha whose death centenary we commemorate this year, wrote: “True education releases capacities, develops analytical abilities, confidence in oneself, will-power and goal-setting competencies, and instils vision that will enable a person to become a self-motivated agent of social transformation.” Human beings essentially have three qualities: material, human and divine. For a child’s balanced development, education must develop all these qualities. Arguably, during the past decades there has been overemphasis on material at the cost of human and spiritual education. To improve outward behaviour, inner condition must be improved first. This highlights the importance of values based education. One valuable tenet of India’s ancient culture with perennial relevance and utterly necessary today is vasudhaiv kutumbkam — the whole world is one family, a cultural tradition often emphasised by prime minister Modi. The attributes needed for accepting the whole world as one family are: empathy, care, compassion, justice, inclusivity, lack of prejudice and respect for diversity. That India’s ancient value of vasudhaiv kutumbkam is appropriate for the contemporary globalised world is endorsed by the UN’s Sustainable…