By Supti Datta
For the last few days, the newspapers have been abuzz with ChatGPT, the most famous artificial intelligence chatbot made by OpenAI. As an educator, I have been exploring the effectiveness of this product in my domain. It is extremely useful for creating course materials, editing texts for grammatical errors, or even writing codes, among many other things. Human interventions in these fields are only going to be reduced in the future.
With such a paradigm shift happening in the field of innovations involving artificial intelligence and machine learning, it is only imperative that a huge course correction takes place in the field of education. The best schools in Gurgaon have been working on developing ‘21st Century skills’ among students for quite some time. The course correction has already been started by CBSE, along with the declaration of National Educational Policy 2020 (NEP 2020). Creativity, innovation, and problem-solving would be the three core competencies that need to be addressed now more than ever. Although the top schools in Gurgaon have already started their journey on that path, to reach a wider audience, the creation of a curriculum framework and implementation of that framework by the Department of Education would be needed.
NEP 2020 is a vast and exhaustive guideline to bridge the gap between what exists and what is needed. The two proposed changes from the expansive set of guidelines that I would like to discuss are (i) Promotion of Indian Languages, Arts, and Culture; and (ii) Technology Use and Integration [Ref: National Education Policy 2020, Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Government of India].
Languages, arts, and culture are closely intertwined. As we all know, many Indian languages have slowly gone extinct over the last 50 years, and many others are on the verge of extinction. This leads to a serious problem. Because when a language dies, so does the associated culture, art, and philosophy. Moreover, languages are the first symbol of the vast cultural diversity of our country. NEP provides a platform for the teaching and learning of indigenous Indian languages by integrating them with theatre, art, and literature.
Under the subsection of technology research and integration, NEP 2020 recognizes the importance of cutting-edge technology and its impacts. The traditional methods of burdening students with fact memorization would soon be obsolete. Rather, innovation and thrusts toward entrepreneurial ventures will be given more preference.
With the publication of the national curriculum framework, the impending changes will become more prominent. Now parents and schools can hope to shape younger generations into more competent, confident, and future-ready individuals than ever before.