There was a village in a remote hilly area. The place was away from the city hustle. The people in the village cultivated their own food, and had their own language, culture and traditions; they worshiped the mountains and the lakes as Gods, and their cultural practices helped them fight the extreme cold. People respected each other, lived in harmony, and the place looked beautiful and serene.

Now, there was one problem. The people in the area were not “educated”, forming schooling had not penetrated. There was hardly anyone who could speak English. The government of the country realized that…

COVID-19 has disrupted school functions. In most parts of the world, schools were shut in the mid-months of 2020. From supranational organizations like UN, WHO, World Bank etc. to national governments, every organization recognized the loss of learning and tried their best to either run schools online or open schools with strict health measures (after lockdown). There has been huge brainstorming by governments, NGOs and civil societies on how can classroom learning reach students. Every institution seems to be recognizing the need for children to learn the school subjects and therefore is trying hard to find new and innovative ways…

Have you ever wondered :

Why do we need to grade a student?
Why do we need to give marks?
What if there were no marks / no grades?
When / Why did this marking system start?
Do we really need this grade system?

Bluntly put, marks based examination is nothing but a convenient system developed to put the onus of failure on the students.

To give more context, when you fail an exam, and you don’t get admission into a college, you don’t blame the govt, right? for not being able to provide you means for accessing higher education…

Let me request you to do an activity today:

At home, ask your grandfather/grandmother (or whoever is the eldest in your family), what were the contents / topics they studied when they were in 1st grade / 6th grade / 10th grade, i.e. till 12th std. Let them share, whatever they remember.

I am amazed that how we’re so concerned about education, and again we’re the ones who’re killing the innate learning of our kids. Let me elaborate.

Today, there’s exorbitant pressure on kids to understand / learn things asap. The idea is to be fast in just about everything…

This article talks about the expectations parents set on kids. We don’t even realize it, but most of us do.

I have an intriguing observation to share here:

Interestingly, most of my friends who have kids, their Whatsapp DP (Profile pic) has their kid(s) photo only. One photo, another photo, even more photos over a period of time. This was not the case sometime back. Earlier they used to keep photos of parents / friends / some scenery but for a short period of time. DP used to be mostly about them, and less about others. But now it’s mostly…

What are the requirements of an employer?

Technically, to be an entrepreneur you really don’t need a certificate or degree(s). You need to believe in something, and with focused hardwork — perseverance — failure — more hardwork — … (repeat), you become an employer or an entrepreneur. You would need skills like critical thinking, eye for detail, rational decision making, breaking stereotypes, out of the box thinking, etc.

Now, let’s ask, what are the requirements of a job seeker / employee?

- employee should be knowledgeable and skillful in his or her domain
- s/he should have good soft skills

…

I have a story to share today (An excerpt from Ken Robinson’s TED Talk).

One day, the parent of a eight-year-old girl, received a letter from the school, which read: “We think Gillian has a learning disorder”. Apparently, Gillian couldn’t concentrate; she was fidgeting. Today, psychologists might term it as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). But this was 1930s, and ADHD hadn’t been invented at that point. It wasn’t an available condition.

Anyway, Gillian’s mother took her to a specialist doctor. Gillian sat quietly for 20 minutes while this man talked to her mother about the problems Gillian was having…

In 2017, my friend and I organized a summer camp for kids aged 4 to 12 years. It was a wonderful experience, to say the least. Kids are proactive, genuine, enthusiastic beings, and to dwell in activities with them made me cherish my childhood days.

In the camp, we kept all kinds of materials for kids like puzzles, paints, quilling tools, 3-D designers, cup block, threading tools, storybooks, chess, twister, and other games. Moreover, we encouraged kids to ask for anything they wanted, in order to make, play, build, or break, and we’ll be happy to provide resources for their…