School: A Context

School: A context

What are the changes that appeared most probable? In the history of human evolution, could we have predicted an event that would force us to reimagine work, education and life in general? In the modern history it is the event called COVID-19 pandemic. How then are we to make comfortable assumptions about the future? What other disruptions awaits us? Technological (Technological singularity)? Health (another pandemic in the making)? Social and culture erosion? Complete destruction of mother earth, no water, no fresh air to breath? These are then scenarios and can help identify potential opportunities and challenges and stress-test against unexpected shocks. How has the recent changes forced us to think differently and what new thinking paradigms have emerged in the last eight to ten years? We take a look at the following mentioned scenarios for the future of school and education:

 

 

The Extended school as learning hubs

 

 

 

The changing role of the school

 

We truly believe that the way we have been in the past and the way we shall be in the future will solely depend on the way we educate our children, what learning opportunities we provide to our children, where we provide these opportunities and how we provide these opportunities will be of immense importance to us.

India holds an important place in the global education industry with around 1.8 million K-12 schools and a student base of 252 million across pre-schools, primary, middle, secondary and higher secondary. The Indian schools on the basis of ownership are categorized into Government schools, private aided and unaided schools, local bodies etc with national and international affiliations. Traditionally, schools were considered as a ‘physical space where learning would happen’ and schools would have a distinct identity away and divorced from world situations and events. Today, it is no longer true. Schools cannot function in silos, cannot be oblivious to the environment around them and also, let us add with emphasis, schools now, more than ever, have the responsibility to participate in creating a sustainable future for the common good. In the times like current where the global trends directly impact the school, the schools can also directly impact the outcome of global trends and therefore must consider the following (and this should define the changing role of schools): 

 

The changing role of the school 

The Integral School, therefore, will be a place so designed that it will provide opportunities for all the stake holders and give a chance to connect with themselves and others even more deeply. The school structure, the design, the material used, learning places will all be in harmony with those who occupy these spaces and the natural environment around them. What is most urgently needed is the connect with the self and the nature. Nature deficit disorder is for real. Our children and the adult alike have been alienated from local flora and fauna, we do not hear the birds chirping as much as we hear the human chattering all the time, we live in a constant sound-stimulus of the modern day (this includes constructions sound, sound of traffic, honking of horns, loud music events etc.) all the time and that the crawling of little insects do not register any sound in our ears, we do not see green spaces, trees, boulders, hills as much as we see the concrete forest around us. How does this impact us, especially in our formative years? Does it have a direct impact on the learning of our little ones? These are questions of immense importance and every parent today must find an answer to, with a sense of urgency backed up by a tenacity to follow-up lest it becomes one time over the lunch talk! Check this out, Bengaluru ranked 6th in the World in 2020 in terms of traffic congestion . And believe it or not, it registered only 147 days with low traffic in 2020 with lockdown imposed for almost 3-4 months! The city has already lost 88% of its green cover and 79% of lakes and water bodies. As the Silicon Valley of India integrates with the global economy, it deals with challenge of providing infrastructure, that is to say, more real estate and residential apartments are to be built to accommodate a diverse population of people. All you see around is a concrete jungle with noise of motors, construction noise and within this, a school somewhere camouflaged. It is no more a hidden fact that deficit of nature in our lives has resulted in diminished use of the senses, attention difficulty, obesity and other psychological and emotional challenges. How long are we to allow this to happen? How long do we want our children to grow up in this insane insanity? 

The Integral School, by virtue of its being in the lap of nature would promote: