Education is pseudo-teaching, says Prakash Nair

BANGALORE:“Education systems all over are merely psuedo-teaching, just like trying to learn a piano by looking at someone who is playing it. Creativity and innovation in education design hold the key in changing this,” opined Prakash Nair, award-winning education designer and founder of Fielding Nair International. He was in the city to deliver a talk on ‘The Changing Landscape of Education’. “There is a bureaucratic model in place everywhere. But facilitating change through creativity is the key. Look at the Technology Enabled Assisted Learning (TEAL) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Ideas are available for free there. Why cant the poorest village in India compete with the US?” he questioned. TEAL is a model at MIT that involves informal groups of students who are left to solve problems, with teachers standing by for help. Nair said that a model like this would foster team work and birth of ideas.Commenting on the ground realities of Indian education, he said: “The IITs have given a wrong impression about Indian education. The West does not know that millions of kids here are not getting education. We have to make a system of education that really helps students learn for themselves. The notion here is that a physical teacher has to be there at all times, which is wrong,” he said. The crux of Nair’s work involves providing intelligent and cost-effective designs to educational institutions. “It is not about the money or the land that you have. It is all about building smarter and innovative designs at schools. Just place a door in between 2 classrooms. It will help coordination between the two teachers, and will save the construction of one wall,”  he said. The session was attended by entrepreneurs, academicians and industry watchers. In conclusion, he said that the old education model was going to die eventually. “In the US, skill-based schools are producing smarter kids than text-based ones, where only information is passed on. India should focus on empowering the skills of students, by letting go of orthodox methods,” said Nair.