Taking Indian schools to 21st Century

“Schools across the globe have started creating 21st Century learning environments on their premises in a big way and Indian schools should not be left out. It is the need of the hour for all stakeholders of schooling,” said EZ Vidya founder and CEO Chitra Ravi here on Saturday.

She was speaking at a colloquium on “Creating 21st Century Learning Environment in Primary Classes” at India Habitat Centre. EZ Vidya is an educational consulting and service company with the mission to “Let the Child Blossom”. Based so far in Chennai, it is exploring new vistas now in North India and beyond.

“Our organisation's aim is to successfully bridge gaps in the teaching-learning process in schools. I feel that thinking, creativity and sound reasoning in students will be the dominating forces in the coming years. One of the principal objectives of any school education system is to facilitate the process of equipping students with knowledge, skills and competencies to eventually enable them to solve problems related to real-life situations,” she said.

“When a community progresses from the by-gone industrial age and the just-passed digital age to the ‘conceptual age' in which we live, skills like critical and creative thinking, collaborative learning, team work through projects at classrooms must result in ‘innovation' skills, which is a key outcome of students in conceptual age,” she noted in her presentation.

As a first step, she said, one needs to go beyond conventional textbooks/rote-learning and even colourful audio-visuals approaches. At the colloquium, “Chrysalis”, a curriculum from KG to Class V with optimal utilisation of technology to create 21st Century learning, was also unveiled.

“Chrysalis is based on intense research involving several key stakeholders of school education. While many research and development departments in schools and universities in the US, UK, Australia, Singapore, Canada and some European countries are rigorously involved in research to develop 21st Century skills to suit their learners and workforce, in India it is yet to gather momentum. One major hindrance has been the lack of proven approach adopted in Indian classrooms and direct interaction with teachers as facilitators,” said Ms. Ravi.