Karnataka Education Awards has redefined the scope of education to what it was originally meant to be that is holistic – imparting knowledge, skill and virtue. Recognizing the excellence in various areas of learning apart from the traditional academic subjects is a testament to their vision of Holistic education. Karnataka Education Awards felicitated the contribution not only the academic subjects such as languages, math or sciences that are traditional education, but also in the areas such as yoga, performing arts, sports, research, life skills and behaviour enrichment & character education.
This year the award in Behaviour Enrichment and Character Education segment went to Brain Behaviour Academy, founder Sridhar Pallia who is an Entrepreneur, Psychologist and Teen Adulting Coach. Sridhar believes that education should make a child grow into a well developed adult who is healthy, wealthy and wise. That means the scope of education is not merely imparting knowledge, but to nurture their behaviour and shape their character. He noticed from the career perspective that there is a significant gap in what the industry wants versus what the education is providing. On individuals personal front he noticed that the mental health and life style behavioral issues such as stress, depression, anxiety and suicides are on the rise due to our inability to strengthen the behaviour in the formative years. On social front the inability of people in building strong relationships, network and collaborate is due to a focused approach to build social skills. Not only is the divorce rate are on the rise due to failed communication but the reasons for separation are frivolous. Sridhar believes that current academic focused education may give employment (albeit only to some) but fails to give them a peaceful and purposeful life.
Even in this era where any subject information is on the fingertips many parents still are stressed about getting higher marks to their children, not realizing that they are futile without building strong personal skills. That’s a sad state because the parents ignorance is depriving their children of their rightful education needs to be future ready. Hence his organization is on a mission to help parents to get a peek into how their children’s future could be, equip them with the foundational knowledge parents should be aware and empower them with the strategies for them to direct their children. We need a paradigm shift in our understanding about the education says Sridhar Pallia.
The important thing that parents have to realize is that teenage (or early adolescence) is a critical phase for Brain and Behaviour development. Working on the Brain and Behaviour not only helps them improve the academic or competitive exams, reduce behavioural issues and distractions they are also setting a strong foundation for them to deal with uncertainties of adulthood with great control and thrive. Nurturing Brain and Behaviour has positive outcome across the entire learning and development. Leading organisations such as UNICEF, WHO or APA has been campaigning that adolescent is a critical age for brain development yet many parents miss this golden opportunity due to academic pressures.
It is evident from the publicly available sources such Time of India or as noted by the likes of UNICEF that there is a significant imbalance between the focus on academic and the life defining human skills. World Economic Forum has listed top 10 skills required for the future out of which 8 are the behavioral skills. The pedagogy prescribed by the boards such as CBSE, ICSE, NCERT etc. focus heavily on academic subjects leaving very little or no time for the schools to impart the human skills. Schools devote an overwhelming majority of time to academic subjects, which inherently focuses on rote learning and memorization of factual information, leaving crucial areas such as cognitive, emotional, social, and adversity management skills largely unattended. These skills, vital for holistic development, receive minimal attention, typically less than 5% of total educational time. This discrepancy not only sidelines the comprehensive development of children but also misses a critical opportunity to enhance innate abilities that are crucial for personal and professional success in a rapidly evolving world. Further to this the design of exams and evaluation gives weightage only to the academic or information-based subjects. This means that the schools and students are nudged towards investing their time only on academics.
Furthermore, the existing educational practices, heavily skewed towards academic achievements, fail to prepare students for the unpredictable shifts in the job market driven by technological advancements. The increasing irrelevance of traditional education in the face of such changes, coupled with the additional pressures of a competitive academic environment, leaves little room for the development of fundamental human skills. This situation is compounded by societal changes, including both parents working and the influence of social media, which reduce the effective parenting time available to guide children through these critical developmental stages. The need for educational institutions or after-school programs to take a more active role in imparting these essential skills is becoming increasingly urgent to prepare adolescents for the challenges of the future.
Current pedagogy addresses only 20% of the holistic development. Brain Behaviour Academy therefore has designed a pedagogy model called 5S that fosters the remaining 80% of the missing learning and development aspect. These 5S model has 5 levels of skills such as Intellectual Skills, Cognitive Skills, Social Skills, Emotional Skills and Adversity Management skills. The Brain Behaviour academy runs a parallel school adopting nurturing and coaching approach unlike teaching approach by the traditional schools. Sridhar Pallia has researched extensively the various education systems across the world, understood the cultural nuances of Indian families, studied the neuropsychology and developmental psychology of adolescent and has designed pedagogy based on psychological modalities. His vision is to make Behaviour enrichment and Character education part of main stream school by working with the policy maker and schools. He does free sessions for schools who needs his service. You can reach him at palliasridhar@gmail.com for learning more about skills beyond academics.
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