In India’s classrooms, a silent debate continues: Should children grow up as global citizens capable of competing anywhere in the world, or should they remain connected to their cultural roots?
For too long, education has been viewed as a choice between the global and the local. In truth, children need both.
The future of learning lies in integrating a curriculum that blends the best of both worlds helping children grow into confident individuals who can embrace the world without losing their sense of self.
The Best of Both Worlds
Education can be imagined as a tree. Global best practices form the branches, cultivating children outward and connecting them to diverse opportunities.
Local traditions serve as the roots, grounding them in language, values, and belonging.
Inquiry-based classrooms, project learning, and digital fluency nurture 21st-century skills such as collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity.
At the same time, traditional methods of storytelling, festivals, and community learning foster empathy, resilience, and cultural pride.
Combined, these elements create learners who are both future-ready and deeply rooted.
A Curriculum for the 21st Century
The goal is not to divide “global” and “local” learning but to integrate them. Imagine a classroom where a child learns math on a digital platform, listens to a Tenali Raman story in a language class, celebrates a harvest festival with friends, and ends the day designing a sustainability project for their own community.
That’s when education truly transcends borders.
In India, culture already weaves through daily life. Schools can purposefully infuse it into the curriculum through:
Storytelling traditions: Tales of Tenali Raman or Birbal build logic and moral reasoning, while the Panchatantra and Jataka tales nurture imagination and ethics.
Festivals as lessons: Celebrations like Diwali, Eid, and Onam teach diversity and empathy.
Languages as resources: Encouraging multilingualism, where English facilitates global interaction and regional languages sustain cultural continuity, builds both confidence and adaptability.
This approach reminds students that modern methods and cultural practices complement each other—they go hand in hand.
Rooted in Culture, Growing Globally
A child secure in their cultural identity can navigate global spaces with confidence.
Picture an Indian student on an international exchange—she can share a folk song, explain the meaning of a festival, or converse in a regional language alongside English.
That rootedness offers strength and uniqueness.
Conversely, children raised purely within global frameworks risk feeling detached from their origins. Culture provides the anchor that enables them to adapt and flourish without losing themselves.
India stands at a pivotal point in history—deeply rooted in tradition yet eager for global engagement.
It has the opportunity to model an education system for the world one that upholds identity without resisting innovation, and embraces progress without abandoning heritage.
The world is not about taking sides it’s about connecting them. Education, at its best, unites. When children grow up confident in who they are and curious about the world, they don’t just participate in the future they help create it.
By Jitendra Karsan, Chairman – Safari Kid, India