The world is talking about skill development. India is no different. Mr. Narendra Modi, India’s honorable Prime Minister, has been talking about job opportunities at global level based on skill development. Many governments have been involved in taking the issue forward. But, most of the people are talking about practical skills to facilitate getting a job to address the issue of unemployment. Unless fundamental traits and skills are imbibed in a child even the practical 'job oriented skills' are not likely to make a person successful.
One needs to see this in a broader perspective and in longer terms. A human has five main pillars of growth and sustenance. These are – Intellectual Abilities, Emotional Strength, Life Skills, Physical prowess and Knowledge with its application. If any pillar remains weak during the foundation stage i.e. from the primary school days till completion of education, the human is less likely to succeed. The job oriented skills queue up thereafter. The problem that faces our society today is that the academic institutions largely concentrate on syllabi. The parents are worried about the marks that their wards get in the examinations. Admissions to higher education are based on scores (largely). This has driven the education system to become “Marks and Mugging” oriented. Understanding of a subject has become secondary. Behavioral patterns in young days are relegated to a back seat.
No one seems to be making efforts towards enhancing fundamental skills and traits that a human possesses at birth. Every normal child has potential to grow and strengthen the five fundamental pillars. But, the children are not being groomed to strengthen these pillars. No one takes steps to improve a child's concentration or sharpen the memory and recall or enhance creative thinking or even imbibe a deep sense of responsibility. Surprisingly, there are 40 fundamental traits and skills (some may have different numbers in mind). These are not being addressed adequately. Honesty, Discipline, Time Sense and Values are critical to a society and get hardly any attention in the young age. A time is reached when behavior of growing youth becomes an issue. Many youngsters who graduate in India lack communication skills. Many show weird behavior. Tolerance power is dwindling day by day. Ability to accommodate others, adjustments with others and adapting to different circumstances is fast receding. There are scores of such issues and lack of such development results into increasing vulnerability of the society.
All these issues need to be addressed during Primary Education. The National Curriculum Framework of India, drawn in 2005 mentions this aspect. But, the idea does not find much place in the actual curricula and practices followed in the schools.
Entelki Systems and Solution Pvt Ltd has come up with a model to enhance such fundamental traits and skills in school children through a web-based ‘Activity Based Learning’ model that can be implemented in the schools and also at home. Out of 40 skills/ traits identified, 14 critical traits are handled by the organization in school days and the rest during college days. The system is interesting, user-friendly and the young children look forward to these activities.
In the orthodox system these skills and traits were developed at home and in the school. The population mass in each class has placed the teachers in a dilemma, as paying individual attention towards growth of the students is a herculean task. Syllabi are stiffer and the young students are not being given their dues. Parents are either not aware or are too busy to attend to the fundamental skills and traits enhancement needs of their children.
The system developed by "Entelki" addresses this problem and requires only a maximum of 2 hours per week of a teacher’s time to develop his/ her students, gradually from the 3rd grade to the 10th grade. The degree of development increases from grade to grade and different levels of schools can be handled with four tiered monitoring mechanism. It is indeed worth implementing as the results of the students have shown thus far.