Rashmi Malik
Principal
Delhi International School
Sector-23, Dwarka, Delhi

Life is an unending learning journey, since our birth to the end (may be beyond) we keep learning. From the ancient times to the modern era people have been trying to find “Systems” of right education to create better society. Being in education for almost 20 years now ,I am often asked about my take on today’s education system by parents, students and the people who are associated with the education world. Over so many years meeting so many people , educating thousands of students and doing a balancing act between the Indian and International trends I have found out that everything comes down to a simple formula which is to keep your roots firmly grounded in Ancient Indian system and extend the branches in the world.

I am sharing the base line of my thoughts on education system here today (Influenced by many reformers and my own experience) :

“The Education system is a dynamic field (Yes it cannot be static version used for years) as it deals with different individuals every moment. Every moment in class rooms new things are happening depending upon the situation and the energy of the students available.

In broader form there are 5 dimensions of education for a learner especially in schools:

The First dimension is Informative and Languages. Informative areas like geography, History etc which can be taught positively by focussing on the inspirational episodes from History and making kids aquainted to geography so as to make them comfortable about all the parts of earth. The language is necessary for communication, the child must learn the pure form of mother tongue as well as an international language like English to sail through this world.

The Second dimension is of inquiry of scientific subjects, which is tremendously important for analytical skills.

The Third dimension is art of living which includes sense of humour , laughter and sensitivity to the nature around. Imagine the world without laughter and love, how sad and grim it would be. So the child must be attuned to nature and helped to learn how to transform hate, anger and jealousy into love. Then only all other material achievement will make sense else all the efforts will go waste.

The Fourth dimension is of art and creativity. Painting , Music, Craftsmanship, pottery etc. Immersing in which the child learns to improve concentration, self esteem, happiness and release of negativity.

The Fifth dimension surprising for all is about life and death, through the examples of daily life, the nature ,the people , everything around which is having a cycle of birth and death. This knowledge keeps the child rooted forever.”

If all of the above dimensions are basis for whatever “system” we create in our institution we can think of the holistic development of our kids.

At DIS these five dimensions are being taken care by various methods and International ways. Till date the achievements have been tremendous but as I said earlier education is dynamic hence the methodology keeps improving from time to time and person to person.

Happy educating !!

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