Much of the current discourse on education focuses on improving learning outcomes within the existing system — boosting literacy and numeracy in classrooms, tweaking pedagogical methods, refining assessments. But this assumes the basic structure of our education system is sound. What if the problem is deeper?
Our schools, as they exist today, are a relatively recent invention. Making children sit for six to eight hours a day, separated by age, shifting every 30-40 minutes between abstract subjects designed by distant experts — this form of education would have been unthinkable a few centuries ago.
Today, it is nearly universal. Yet, children learn not just in school, but everywhere. The real question is: what are they learning, and to what end?
If we tell children to sit still, follow instructions, score well on exams, they will learn to obey authority and to ignore their inner will and imagination. They are being taught — implicitly — that the purpose of education is to gain approval from authority, not to explore meaning, purpose or creativity. This system is struggling even at its own central goal: preparing students for the workforce.
With the rise of AI and easy access to information, what we need now are not crammed facts, but cultivated faculties — concentration, judgement, creativity, observation, and reasoning, to name a few. This is what a true mental education would do. The power of concentration, for instance, is essential for mastery in any domain. But how often do our schools help students build this capacity?
Instead, they interrupt focus with bells punctuating a fragmented timetable. Likewise, the faculties of keen observation, imaginative thinking, and subtle judgment are rarely nurtured intentionally.
Yet this only scratches the surface. A complete education must engage the whole being. We are not just minds — we have bodies, senses, emotions, character, not to mention an inner spiritual life. A true, integral education would give adequate attention to each of these, developing all our capacities and faculties in harmony.
Physical education, for example, should include not just a robust sports program but also nutrition, rest, hygiene, and body awareness. Healthy habits formed in childhood can shape lifelong well-being and save a lot of trouble later on.
Emotional education should support and guide children to navigate their emotions with self-awareness, empathy, and resilience. This will help them build healthy, loving relationships with themselves and others.
However, a few mindfulness sessions a week won’t suffice if the rest of their school day is steeped in fear, punishment, or pressure. The entire ethos of the school must be one of care to truly support emotional growth.
Another essential facet is character education. Stories, literature, drama, cinema, art, and even history can be helpful in inculcating good morals and qualities, but the best way is the example of the teacher and parent.
If we are able to model values like honesty, courage, patience, and care for our children, they will learn much more than they ever would from our lectures and sermons. The rise of mental health crises, student suicides, and moral failures among even the highly educated shows the urgent need for emotional and character education.
Perhaps most neglected of all is helping children discover a sense of aim and purpose. Education must make space for children to explore their interests and passions, what truly drives them, what they strive for, and what they hope to offer the world.
An early awareness of this will lead to a real drive for learning, growth, and progress, where students learn not just because of societal pressures or high-stakes exams but because they truly want to. Without this, we risk producing successful professionals who are unmoored, unfulfilled, and unsure of who they are.
This kind of integral education won’t emerge from incremental reform. It requires a fundamental re-conception.
The good news is, we don’t have to start from scratch. India has a rich educational heritage: Gandhi’s Nai Taleem, Tagore’s Shantiniketan, Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Education, and the reflections of Jiddu Krishnamurti all offer powerful visions of tranformational learning. International models like Montessori and Waldorf also offer valuable insights.
We must be bold enough to experiment, humble enough to learn, and wise enough to adapt education to each context. Let us build schools that feel less like factories and more like gardens, where children are not processed but cultivated. Our children deserve no less — nor does the future of our society.
(Neel Adhiraj Kumar is a Teach For India (TFI) alum. He is currently working as an Integral Educator and Researcher, Savitri Bhavan, Auroville. Views expressed are his own.)
