Technicalize general education and humanize technical education
-Narayan Prasad Sapkota
Once, my fifth-grade son returned from school with a project that required him to write a summary of one of the stories in his graded readers. Burdened with the work, he asked for my help. I asked if he was acquainted with the concept of summary and the techniques of writing it. He said, 'No'. I did not get the way to deal with him immediately. 'We should make it short,' he added. He was right – the summary is shorter. To cut a long story short, I guided him in an ad hoc manner. And, the task was accomplished.
I am not sure what other parents experience, but I face a similar situation day after day. The students are not made clear what the matter is and how exactly they can handle it. The students are then compelled to struggle simply to get things done. To my understanding, before assigning students to write a summary, the teacher must have a session on the summary itself with clear enabling objectives (EOs). The teacher should then provide step by step performance guide (PG) to create a summary. After this, she should also deliver a demo class involving all the students.
This is what we strictly follow in technical instruction. Whether it be preparing a cup of tea, we develop a performance guide, set enabling objectives, design terminal performance objectives (TPOs), develop check list for product evaluation, and ensure that the skill is learnt.
Writing a summary is, no doubt, a cognitive skill rather than a hands-on skill. A good instruction of cognitive skills, however, also requires fulfillment of enabling objectives and terminal performance objectives. What happens if we break the task, say summary writing, into small units and make students learn step by step?
Modern scholarship has treated general education and technical education as two separate and competitive streams. General education is often viewed as cognitive and theoretical, and technical education is considered practical and skill-oriented. This type of binary distinction and polarization cannot accurately reflect the realities of modern societies, nor can it adequately address the evolving needs of the world of work. If education is for guiding society, a radical shift in the understanding of general and technical education is urgent. Such a remedial approach is to view the two streams as complementary, not contrastive ones.
There can be give and take relationship between general education and technical education. Based on my instructional experience in both the technical and general streams, I find each stream is waiting for the scaffolding of the other. This new direction is to technicalize general education and humanize technical education.
General education is important to prepare citizens as desired by the country. It plays a crucial role in developing foundational knowledge, intellectual capacity, and civic sense in students. However, when general education remains vague, disconnected from practical application, students often lose motivation to opt for it. As a result, gaining education becomes something caught between a rock and a hard place. The solution is then to technicalize the general education. Technicalizing general education means delivering concepts like a skill.
Thus, technicalizing general education requires integrating systematic approach of delivery, practical skills, technological awareness, and problem-solving approaches into traditional academic subjects. Mathematics, science, language, and social studies become more meaningful when they are linked to real-world contexts and delivered in clear step-by-step methods within the classroom. It would be better if they are further connected to evolving technology and everyday experiences.
Technical education, on the other hand, must go beyond training students to operate tools, equipment, machines, or systems, and work like a machine. Technical competence is essential. However, it is not sufficient on its own. Humanizing technical education means adding softer sides of human life to skill instruction. It can be achieved by embedding values, ethics, communication skills, and social responsibility into skill-based training. The technical education curriculum should incorporate the spirit of empathy, creativity, critical thinking, human values, and emotions. Only then technical graduates can function effectively in modern workplaces and contribute to society positively.
Technicalizing general education and humanizing technical education is, thus, a holistic approach that ensures education is not only an economic enterprise but also a tool for social and cultural development. Let's march ahead together for the better future of humanity.
