Science in Primary classes
Language, Math, Science, Arts and Social sciences have been widely accepted as the important pillars that help build cognitive skills in children. However, it is becoming quite a debatable topic today, as to how and when subjects like science and social studies should be introduced in school curriculum. Whether they should be a part of school curriculum at all in the foundation years is another aspect that is becoming a matter of discussion in the stem education world. Personally I feel we must not underestimate the strength and importance of these crucial subjects, which can actually lend a huge support in building critical skills needed to meet the demands of the 21st century.
For a developing nation, there are perhaps several apposite issues like the weight of school bags, syllabus reduction, mass numeracy and literacy skills that perhaps require immediate attention. But, the negative impact of removing science or for that matter social studies from primary education can have a huge negative impact on a long term perspective. Not only will their exclusion narrow down the thinking horizon of a child, but even holistic learning will get hugely dampened. There could be a direct negative impact on the skill building opportunities as far as skills of analysis and perspective building is concerned
I’m sure many pertinent issues plague the school education system, and can be discussed at length. However at the macro level, we need to comprehensively assess whether as a nation we can bear the burden of raising unemployable youth. With the youngest population in the world can we afford to have an unskilled and unemployable workforce?
As our society marches ahead towards becoming a knowledge economy, another field unarguably snarling up is the power of “Artificial Intelligence” and “Augmented Reality”. We have to understand that children in schools today will enter the job markets about 30 years hence. The pace at which the world is changing, there is a need to enrich childhood with a variety of experiences: academically, socially as well as emotionally. It is imperative that we give students opportunities to develop multidimensional skills while learning homeschool curriculum to effectively grow up skills needed to meet the demands and challenges of this century. We therefore cannot overlook the need to build and sharpen perspectives, critical thinking and problem solving in children right from their foundation years.
I do agree that we need to make a systemic shift in classroom dissemination of curricular subjects in school, instead of excluding them from the curriculum completely. Instead of creating boundaries between subjects, teaching them in a holistic and integrated manner might just be one huge step in the right direction. While many countries have realised the importance of skill building in children and are using various holistic and dynamic learning approaches like STEM/ STEAM right from early years, I fail to understand why we should think of eliminating science and culture from our curriculum in the foundation years.
We cannot overlook the fact that a child not only experiences but interacts with science in action through natural phenomena, changes, cause and effect right from birth. It is important to keep the curiosity of a child well stimulated and intact all through childhood. Preserving their awe and wonder, will eventually drive innovation. A curious mind is the substrate to build an innovator. We can nurture curiosity in children, through long term engagement with the world of science around them in school as well as at home.
Maybe it is time that we shift gears and actively move towards holistic learning. A systemic change from a traditional chalk and board methodology towards integrated project based, experiential learning might just be the answer to many of our curricular woes. However, whether our teacher force is prepared to take that quantum leap is worth a debate some other day.
One might sometimes wonder if e-classrooms could be a prophetic gospel to end sufferings in classroom teaching. As a society we have already seen the impact television has had on a child’s overall learning. We can’t be creating more couch potatoes. The looming question arises whether we are ready to sacrifice another generation to technology, confused policies, and a rat race for marks?
Original Source: Science in Primary classes
