<div>As a consultant who examines strategy, structure, systems, and way-forwards for organisations, one is also privy to the kind of minds needed to make organisation management meaningful and successful. A lot of this needs building at the school level and the shaping of the wet putty is really a function of how content and subjects are taught to integrate into raw material for thinking.<br /><br />Across organisations, there seems a lament that there is something wanting in today’s education. The case throws light on what the system seems to be suffering from. Some of the fundamental issues, as I see them, are the following syndromes.<br /> <br /><strong>Pixels And Not The Picture Syndrome</strong><br />Meghna’s lament to the Principal about too much information to be crammed, about factoids stuffed down the throat of her child who is in Class 10, hits the nail on the head of what seems to be going on. It’s the pixilation syndrome. The system has pushed the student too close to the image, so that the entire subject is blurred and the big picture itself is lost, while the student chokes over the unnecessary detail.<br /><br />Meghna’s son Kasi (confused amid a host of facts and data) has gathered knowledge but is yet not knowledgeable enough to connect the dots and do critical thinking to ask, ‘How come Jharkhand — so rich in natural resources — is at the bottom of the GDP pack? If the state has a large share of OBC and tribes, then how has the historical and political context impacted its development?<br /><br />If Kasi is not asking the right questions, it is clearly because he is not assessed on this critical thinking. He is not expected to ‘join the dots’. Curiosity-leading-to-creativity seems to have no value. The result is a generation of young adults lacking in critical, strategic, and lateral thinking, in cross-sector analysis, in innovation and in asking questions that challenge thinking.<br /><br /><strong>Drawing Bridges</strong><br />What is further lacking are the ‘bridges’ — that connect what is in the textbooks to what is current and relevant to the world. This needs to be an integral part of the curriculum and not relegated to odd school debates. It would imply overhauling the evaluation system. Committing time and resources in school to discussing and connecting world events to the fundamentals in the books. High school students need to have the understanding of infrastructure and transport (textbook topics) alongside issues of sustainability and alternative energy, the importance of nuclear access, and WTO outcomes, etc., so that the studenthood is where thinking begins.<br /><br />An organisation is far more enriched by an employee who has been taught to think and question, and who knows how to make ‘facts’ go a longer way to answering more of the ‘Why and Why Not’ questions.<br /><br />Jungle gym versus silos syndrome: Education is like a jungle gym. All subjects and content are inter-linked to create the climbing framework of ‘knowledge’. However, today education is imparted in silos with a linear predetermined (non-negotiable) approach to the top. Finding new ways to climb to the top of the jungle gym with agility and creativity is given no weightage in school.<br /><br /><strong>Filling The Pail Syndrome</strong><br />The thoughts shared by Meghna and Vivek at the end reveal a serious malaise. The student today, during his 12 years, tumbles down a list of to-dos. No time for assimilation and real brain nutrition. Bereft of creative thinking and wisdom, he arrives at a corporate set-up with an inability to work without structures and instructions, feeling lost and unfocused when dealing with long-term strategic issues, and incapable of choosing planning over performance.<br /><br />Possible solutions will emanate from rethinking the philosophy and structuring of the school curriculum. Less is more — schools must reduce and remove irrelevant content. This will free up students’ time for learning skills, for critical analysis and creative solutions, for original thinking.<br /><br />Education at school must teach students to connect the dots. Schools must discuss with the education board the rearrangement and reengineering of the evaluation system to one that rewards and hones knowledge and skills that matter.<br /><br /><em>The writer. Rashmi Chandra, is the founder partner of Intrim Business Associates, a management and consulting firm focussing on strategy and public policy</em><br /><br />(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 01-12-2014)</div>
