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Why EDUTOURISM

Kesar Patel is a Principal with an over a decade of national and international experience. She has worked as an English teacher and smoothly integrated the subject in the curriculum. Her experience has made her cognizant of the challenges that are faced by the teachers in the teaching-learning process. In her field, she has been interacting with children from various strata of society and has developed a keen sense of understanding of their requirement. She is an ardent believer of ‘Story pedagogy’ and ‘Activity based learning’ and has implemented the methodology in her school.

“Because technology is changing so rapidly, 70% of the jobs your students will get have not been invented yet.”

The above statement is absolutely true keeping in mind the changing trends and technology and it bears weight. Hence we need to understand the importance of learning in the classroom and not on developing numerical and alphabetical literacy.

Most schools are focused totally on developing literacy and hence cramming and rote learning is directly or indirectly encouraged in these schools. We need to teach the children to earn a living and also to live. When we only focus on earning a living, we do not stress on developing life skills and attitudes which are very important.

A similar set of observations are required to understand the learning which takes place in the confines of a classroom and the learning which takes place outdoors. The teaching inside a classroom can be termed as totally guided learning.

Guided learning is to a large extent the teacher’s approach, her outlook, her concerns and her learning. When we speak about experiential learning or student-centric approach, it becomes mandatory to understand what a child wants to learn and what will create an impact on him.

Let’s go back to the Gurukul way of teaching in the ancient times. The time was equally devised between structured learning and unstructured learning. Structured learning took place under the guidance of the guru who had vast storehouses of knowledge. Then the student was given tasks which he had to accomplish on his own. These were mainly outdoor tasks wherein he was exposed to rough weather conditions, hilly terrains at times, facing people when they had to beg for alms, collaborating with other students to complete a given task, etc. hence they had a mixed bag scenario of outdoor as well as indoor learning, guided as well as unguided learning.

Why EDUTOURISM?

Here arises the need for Edutourism. The students need to learn some things entirely on their own. Education is after all not all about learning to read and write. It is also about developing skills like critical thinking, creative thinking, etc.

They learn responsibility and self-discipline. They learn to take decisions. Most of the children don’t know how to do it until they are very old.

Hence going for excursions, observing and remembering is very important. Most students remember everything when they themselves do it and remember.

We have read about so many people who realized their passion in one of such experiential classrooms.

Some advantages of Hiking, Excursions, Zoo Visits, etc.

The child has no pressure to study and so whatever he observes becomes his learning.
When learning takes place in a happy environment, it becomes a memory which the child wants to remember always.
There is no time limit to learning.
There are no questions at the end of it.

Let them touch the leaves and feel them. Let them get dirty in the mud and sweat. Let them see the flowers and seeds. Let them burn in the sun. Let them see the birds fly. Let them see what things are found under the shade of the tree. Let them see the water in the well and the tap and then compare it to the river water.