Nearly 70 % of India's population is said to be living villages. However if the current trend of development continues, by 2050 majority of people will come to live in cities. No doubt the present cities will grow into mega-cities and smaller villages will become towns.
Sleepy villages doing agriculture will be replaced by fast-paced towns running the service-sector. This is an enormous change to happen in one generation. And considering we are one billion people, this is not a small number of people either. This requires an enormous change in the life-style and attitude of people. So how are we training the next generation of urban dwellers ? We need to look at todays class-rooms to find the answer.
There is hardly any sign of this drastic forth-coming change in our class rooms. While children are increasingly becoming self-centred, there is not much done to teach them to live together. As expected teaching is focused on maths, science, languages and social sciences. The society and economy seem to be focused on promoting individuality and personal status. How do we make people care for each other because their well-being will depend on each other more so in future.
There is a desperate need for schools to focus on these issues. They need to know their locality, their place in community, the support systems. They need to be taught to talk, walk and behave when millions are packed together in smaller and smaller houses. While academic subjects can be taught or learnt in later years, behaviour is hard to learn at a later age. We need to train children for the good citizenship now.
Be a good team player, follow community rules, don't use bad language or physical violence. What are the very basic things that we need to teach to future urban citizens ? When and how shall we teach them ?
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