International Mindedness
01, 11.1.2016
We need to redefine international education and international-mindedness, exemplified by the International Baccalaureate. First, an international syllabus is a leadership curriculum, and Indus goes well beyond the IBO mandate by incorporating the following four key features:
a. Fulfill the purpose of education by preparing children to lead from tomorrow, a tomorrow characterized by uncertainty and volatility. To achieve this vision, cognitive competencies alone will not help. School education must imbibe critical competencies in a child such as critical-thinking, creativity, collaboration, persuasive communication, problem-finding and living with diversity. In the 21st century these competencies or life-skills are more important than academic achievements.
b. From a leadership perspective, every leader is a teacher and every leader is a teacher. The role of the teacher has remained unchanged over centuries. They have a common role: to unlock human potential, theirs, and the students they are responsible for. This is, indeed, a formidable challenge.
c. Localism is the rock foundation of international education, namely, act local and then think global. The millennial or me-generation, lack situational awareness, with total apathy about what is happening around them - their culture, history, traditions, community and society. It is localism that gives them a reference point towards international-mindedness. The failure in the classroom is because teachers do not practice students in using classroom learning to solve real-life problems. Everything is knowledge about and scoring high marks for entry into prestigious colleges and universities; not knowledge about, and knowledge to be.
d. Innovation is the #1 leadership competency.
(This is the essence of the message brought to newly elected Leaders of The Indus Student Council at Bangalore, by Lt. Gen. Arjun Ray (Retd.), CEO of the Indus Trust on the occasion of The Ceremony of Investiture on January 26th, 2012)
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Date: 11/21/2024