A Call to Action for Christian Educators

All of India right now is struggling in the throes of trying to undergo a paradigm shift– from classrooms that are rote-learning, teacher-centered, and oppressive, to classrooms that are learner-centered, holistic, encouraging critical and creative thinking. Lack of quality education that teaches people to think for themselves is one of the key factors holding India’s majority in oppression and deprivation. Yet after new policies being written (like National Curriculum Framework 2005) and tons of money and teacher training being poured in (through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan), a shift has still not happened, and the country is at a loss – why has this shift not happened and how can we bring it about??

The more I talk to educators at all levels across India, the more I hear that the real issues are deeper, value issues – they come down to attitudes, mindsets, worldviews. For example, when you look at the huge problem of teacher absenteeism, the root is that children bear a very low status in Indian society – teachers are paid the lowest salaries, and the teaching profession is usually considered a last resort – no one wants to go into teaching. Teachers don’t see teaching as a sense of calling, in terms of the preciousness of each child. Teachers undergo training but simply to get it done with and tick off a box, regardless of what the actual results are.

I had a conversation about this with Krishna Kumar, Director of NCERT and arguably the most prominent Indian educational thinker today. According to him some of the greatest problems plaguing Indian education are the low status of children and teachers (because most teachers are female, and women also bear lower status in Indian society), the low status of the education sector in general, and the fact that people in general don’t see children as our collective responsibility – they only feel responsible for what happens to their own child, not to other people’s children, not to children on the streets. People do not feel angry about the injustice of our society and our education system, and thus little real attention is given to improving education for the poor. According to him, it is a social and a cultural phenomenon that plagues Indian education and society – it is a sociological issue. What is needed is a change in worldview. Yet even Krishna Kumar, India’s leading educational thinker, was at a loss when I asked him how a worldview change can be brought about.

And this is where Christians can speak truth into this dark moment of India’s need.

Because Christ is the one who holds the key for every problem in our society. Because the only worldview that is based in a true understanding of reality, that embodies the way we were created to live, and that can lead to the flourishing of any society, is a Biblical worldview. And it is Biblical worldview and values that need to permeate every area of life, every academic discipline including that of education, in order for a society to truly be transformed.

It was the Christian worldview that first brought education to India in the first place. The Hindu worldview with its caste mindset had kept knowledge secluded to Brahmin males only and had kept the masses in ignorance and oppression for centuries. It was missionaries who opened the first schools in India for the masses. It was people like Mahatma Phule and Savitribai Phule who were inspired by the Biblical worldview who became the first Indians to teach low caste and girl children. It was missionaries who opened the first schools in Kerala, and today, Kerala with its Christian-influenced worldview is now the state that is farthest ahead of all other states in progressive education (Kerala has just rewritten its entire state curriculum based on critical pedagogy – one of the most progressive educational theories across the world today).

And once again, in today’s educational crisis, it is the lack of a Biblical worldview and Biblical values that is holding India’s education and Indian society in shackles. Trying to bring in universal quality education in a society that does not necessarily believe that every child is equal or that every child is precious and created in God’s image, that does not see teaching as a God-given calling, that sees inequality as ordained by karma and does not feel personal responsibility for transforming injustice – will simply not take root. This is like trying to change the fruits of a tree without changing its roots, to treat the symptoms of an illness without addressing its cause. Educational practices are only the tip of the iceberg: the majority of our practices flow from our root beliefs, values, worldviews or underlying assumptions about reality. Unless Indian teachers experience a radical revitalization in their worldview, reforms will only be piecemeal and Indian education will remain unchanged.