P. S. Deodhar - Is Computer Education in Schools Desirable ?

IS COMPUTER EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS DESIRABLE ?

IT revolution has hit this country like hurricane not giving time for most of us to think or be careful before we act. A great hype is created and everyone appears to be swept off ones feet. Take this urgent investment that is being made to take computers into schools. No one has thought what would they deliver since we still have little by way of proven learning software. We certainly have none in local languages. Nor have we given a thought or understand clearly our objectives. I am; in fact, very concerned about the hype being created by all concerned about introducing the computer education in our school system. What is worrying me even more is the blind enthusiasm shown by our glamour-struck government and huge sums being invested for the purpose. Unfortunately no one who matters seems to have carefully studied what it would lead us to. I hope that this piece provokes a debate and cautions the community on how it may affect the new generation in terms of developing their learning faculties. Before proposing my hypothesis, let's understand what has, in the first place, lead us to believe that every Indian kid will suffer and be left behind unless he or she is computer professional.

To an average educated, English speaking Indian, computer literacy is proving to be a major asset. Today a computer professional is the most sought after commodity here and abroad. Global players in computer, communication and Information Technology industries have found India to be a major human resource for the kind of talents they need to compete and thrive. This is serving as a prime mover for the youngsters in their teens and their parents.

It all started in mid seventies when the western world encountered young talents from IITs who migrated from India in search of opportunities and took jobs or joined universities in their country. These guys were the handpicked talents put in a first rate academic environment and groomed to be nation builders. But the successive governments, in the mean time, did little to create opportunities for talents to play that role. Unlike in India, the US has the climate that allows talent to bloom. It has institutions that reward innovation and offer equal opportunities. Planted in that fertile soil, these young men blossomed. Soon enough this cream of talent from India brought glory to the American institutions they worked for, climbing the corporate ladders to reach great heights. It didn't take too long for the Indians as people, but not India, to gain a reputation for being the most capable managers. Soon the dazzle of these diamonds from our IITs attracted global industries to India, the diamond mine itself. That has been the another prime mover. Let us not forget that it is not the policies of the government that put the Indians in a great demand. In fact even today India is not the destination for those outside the field of IT software and remotely delivered services. There is no doubt that Indians have become much sought after human resource for the Knowledge Age Institutions of the world.

As a result, there is a great demand for IT professionals in our country. In spite of the innumerable computer training institutions mushrooming all over the country, there is a shortage of the right kind. Those who find the employment, even within the country, are earning two to three times what their counterparts earn working in other sectors of our economy. Many of these get opportunities to migrate and earn even more. Good ones are climbing the success ladder so fast that it is invoking admiration all around, attracting many more to seek this garden path. Youngsters today can't be stopped from dreaming of their own IT venture and that's the best thing to happen.

The glossy success of many in the neighborhood and the magical glamour associated with the IT career has lead every parent to believe that learning computers in school will give his/her ward an advantage, an edge over others.

The politicians and the state administrations believe it too. Sentiment is of not letting Andhra kids or Marathi kids being left behind. One can appreciate such sentiments and understand the concerns of those who are largely uninformed. One can also appreciate that the IT business would want to cash on this sentiment and build a profitable business of selling the PCs and other gizmos. One however feels greatly concerned when the educators and the policy makers also fall into this trap and believe that such an investment will be rewarding. Will it?

Let's understand what helped the Indians to earn this reputation? It is broadly acknowledged that fluency in English language, thrust on learning arithmatics in our early education and social respect for the learned has given us a mindset that comfortably handles logic. This attribute makes every intelligent educated Indian ideal raw material for the software industry. Being a low wage country further helps to pour more honey on this pancake.

Let's recognise that the whole lot of IT talent that has given us our worldwide reputation has indeed been thrown up by our current system of education, in spite of all its limitations. Let's also note that the western system of school education, which has since long adopted what we are aspiring to do, has indeed failed to develop even comparable IT talents in their own countries. We blame ourselves for learning by heart the tables, even those of fractions. We blame ourselves for the lack of interactivity and learning things by rote. The westerners don't do this we are told. But most of us also feel proud and have contemptuous laughs as we see tellers in stores abroad fumbling while returning the change. Is it therefore logical for us to believe that our inherent IT skill has something to do with non-interactive unidirectional teaching we all had and even the tables which we leant by rote?

Imagine if every child has been using a digital calculator to add a set of 15 numbers or multiply 27 by 9. Would this not hurt its skills to do so mentally? And how about using 'MS Word' to write an essay in the school with its spell check feature. Would that help us to hand write a note without making spelling mistakes? Just think of giving up using a pen or pencil and let the inkjet do the job of writing. What if researchers stop wading through libraries to gather information and references before writing an article? Consider if instead, they were to take a shortcut to access already compiled references at computer speed via Internet Search Engines. Would all this help or hurt their learning faculties? Is it better to tie a float around our waist instead of learning to swim just because both stop us from sinking? We learn to walk, run and climb by ourselves. Some risk their lives to scale the Everest even without oxygen cylinder on their backs. All this can be done with technological aids but still we aspire for and enjoy doing it ourselves. If a human being wants to remain a master of its own future, shouldn't she or he first learn to do everything on her or his own steam? How else can one master these newly invented beasts of the Knowledge Age.

Before we let our youngsters develop the handicap by growing up with machine aided learning and sacrifice the development of their mental faculties, let's think carefully. Computers are automating tools. They are designed to take over the functions that were hitherto human. Spell check feature is to replace our ignorance and not to teach how to spell a word. Let the glamour also not cloud our thinking. Information technology products are being marketed with a great skill. Let's not get carried away by either the fear they imbibe or by the high voltage propaganda they unleash about how important the IT is.

There is yet another myth to be cleared. Becoming a computer professional is entirely different than becoming a computer literate. In present times everyone above 18 has to be preferably computer literate. That's knowing how to use a word processor or a spreadsheet or learning to browse on the Internet. But that doesn't take too long. A couple of weeks of training is more than enough. In fact, new software packages will be designed to make everything more and more user friendly. Soon one may be able to vocally order a PC in ones own language and it will deliver the desired information to the colour LCD screen hanging on the wall! Soon all this would happen and that too at the prices much lower than those of present Pentium III PCs. Rapid changes in technology and falling prices is helping consumers. Therefore the fear psychosis being spread shouldn't at all scare the community. Fear of obsolescence is, in fact, a continuing preoccupation of the entire IT Industry.

Finally we have taken PCs into the classroom without bothering about the learning or teaching software. Computer is basically a self-learning tool. The quality of learning things on the computers depends solely on the availability and the quality of the software. There is little available that is field proven. Video games are known to teach partcipative violence. Then there is so much available on CDs including interactive sex. Police can act, if they wish, against the spread of pornography but even they will fail to track anything that's on a CD. In that context Internet is indeed a two edged weapon. For several years over 40% of Comdex show in Las Vegas was about interactive sex. Now that Comdex has banned it, there is a concurrent separate show that offers Aids free sex options. Young children indeed need to learn about sex but it is certainly not of the kind that Americans offer us on the Internet. No school- teacher can match the resourcefulness of our youngsters to get what they want to fulfil their curiosity in such matters and no politician or bureaucrat, in spite of their promise, can stop sex on the net. What do we want? Let the parents do the thinking. Don't leave this decision to the politicians; many of them probably get commission on the PCs sold to the schools!