NEP Principle 4

There should be no hard separations between arts and sciences, between curricular and extra-curricular activities, between vocational and academic streams, etc. in order to eliminate harmful hierarchies among, and silos between different areas of learning, is what the NEP is hoping to achieve and rightly so.

This teaching approach of simplifying education by isolation and compartmentalizing was created basically because siloed approach and subjects helped schools and teachers, but they really never helped the students. Today I find it bewildering that education systems across the world are still existing within a structure created for a paradigm that has long outlived its ‘due by date’. Though educators continue to refine the creative art of teaching, but at the end of the day they are constrained by the same claustrophobic structures borne out of a manufacturing mindset.

While teaching in schools many a times I had felt frustrated because  I was not allowed to talk about English grammar while I was talking about ‘Solar System’. I had to deliberately keep the two subjects separate though often times I felt that while my student was reading a lesson on ‘Freedom Movement of India’, he could be told about the ‘Past Tense’ and this would save me from repeating the same concept in my English class and I can utilize that time to inculcate the love for world literature perhaps in my students. Organizational silos are pervasive in the educational sector. Like the grain silos that farmers use to separate different agricultural products, these silos separate different subjects, teachers, departments, and even thought processes. Highly resistant to change, these silos have blocked easy access to the information destroying positive change and progress across K-12 schools.

When teachers and school principals make yearly curriculum, it suits them to put every subject, every approach, and every resource in separate compartment as that way it is easier to map the curriculum. So, a math teacher has to focus on math and an English teacher on English, that too at the designated time and with a pre-decided content. But how effective is this approach to prepare children for a more complex world where every subject is interrelated?

As human beings we have always lived in an interdisciplinary world and the complications of 21st century do not fall in the boxes. It is thus time that we present to our students these problems in some of their complex glory in the school environment and give them opportunity to appreciate the unifying themes and exercise this muscle.

According to the NEP 2020 now the time has come for our education system to begin to put an end to these hard separations between science and humanities streams and curricular and extra-curricular activities in all our schools irrespective of location and boards they follow. We need to breakup this storehouse mentality and look towards integrating topics and show the linkages between them. Considering how deeply this siloed approach is followed by our education system, I suggest that the way forward is that we need not go full steam ahead but initially we can certainly show how topics are linked every now and then.

My experience as an educator tells me that many of our more alive and informed  schools have in fact already started following this approach of Integrating subjects to present new information, but more often than not, I have found during school reviews , that due to lack of flexibility in daily schedule and curriculum rigidity these initiatives do not take off in the manner expected.  In fact, the research has showed integrating subjects have numerous benefits. Students gain an increased understanding and retain what they learn longer; and this method improves the motivation to learn, too, so why are we then not looking seriously to break down these silos in common schools?

According to me achieving the silo less curriculum may not even require a system wide revolution, but as more teacher are trained to focus on interdisciplinary studies, siloed classes may gradually become obsolete on their own. This, in turn, will help cultivate an educational environment where even the most technical subjects can be broken down into absorbable blocks and utilized by today’s 21st century learners.

As education community we need to collectively look deeply at the mirage that silo effect has created, the mirage that tells us that everything is great about the school. Everything is awesome because board exam results are awesome, but the reality is , when you really get into conversation with students , you discover that a natural disconnect occurs the minute students enter a school building and the learning culture does not meet the needs of many students.

Thus it is  is important to peel away the many layers at the surface in order to gain a better understanding of where our school culture is currently, the separation and segregation that gives the silo effect often creates a feeling of false content and satisfaction because the doorway to fresh ideas is not open.  The key to pursuing excellence in our education is to welcome an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe averageness, because growth comes at the expense of previous comfort or safety. Education without application after all is just entertainment, I had heard it somewhere, but if you ask me, education without application is not even that.