Looking for a new culture of learning in 2025

As we welcome the New Year 2025 with usual excitement and festivity, I am assailed by my persistent worry about the new generation growing up in a world characterised by three evils: the horror of climate emergency; the brutality of war; and the aggression of hyper-nationalism and authoritarian leaders.

Will it be possible for them to evolve an art of resistance and move towards a new world free from these three evils? Or, is it that they are destined to accept the status quo and imagine their existence as nothing beyond compliant workers enhancing the 'productivity' of the neoliberal empire or obedient citizens saluting the bunch of narcissistic/neo-fascist political leaders?

Possibly, everything depends on the kind of education they receive. If education remains primarily technical and instrumental — merely a tool for economic productivity or a mode of indoctrination — the possibility of fighting these three evils will remain bleak. Hence, as a teacher, I plead for a qualitatively different culture of learning and education.

To begin with, let us ask some uncomfortable questions. Isn't it a fact that what we regard as the causes and symptoms of climate emergency emanate from the very logic of our modernity and associated modes of living? These symptoms include the rising temperature of the earth; 2024 as the hottest year in human history; the continual carbon emission because of ceaseless fossil fuel extraction; the life-killing pollution; and the recurrence of heatwaves, flash floods, earthquakes, cyclones and wildfires.

Think of the consequences of the greed and expansionist urge of techno-capitalism — the conquering of forest land, rivers and mountains for 'development' projects; and the sanctification of consumerism as a mode of 'good' living that invariably leads to the production of innumerable goods and commodities, further intensifying the degree of fossil fuel extraction and carbon emission.

Isn't it a fact that there is no 'green capitalism'? And, for a truly meaningful solution, we need a paradigm shift —from instrumental reasoning to communicative action; from consumerist extravaganza to simplicity of living; from the duality of man vs nature to intelligent and life-affirming symmetry.

Likewise, it is high time we realised that our modernity, far from civilising us, has created a new form of barbarity that is manifesting itself in the cycle of wars.

Yes, our children are seeing that war is normal; and our politicians, diplomats and religious leaders remain passive spectators — even when they see the aggression implicit in the deeds of Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu. Or, for that matter, in the age of 24x7 news, even you and I seem to have lost our sensitivity and become the consumers of wars as spectacles. To use the Freudian language, we are celebrating the triumph of the Thanatos over the Eros — death over life.

Is it that our modernity has further stimulated the expansionist ambition of the modern nations and normalised the production of military weapons and technologies as a profitable business?

Further, can we deny that there is yet another form of war — hyper-nationalists declaring a war against immigrants, religious minorities and political dissenters? And, quite often, this sort of hyper-nationalism is linked to the aggression of religious fundamentalism. As this right-wing nationalism spreads across the world, we see increasing scepticism towards democratic/liberal values, critical thinking and cultural pluralism. Is it that some sort of alliance between market fundamentalism and religious nationalism nurtures the ground for the emergence of narcissistic and authoritarian leaders?

The questions I am raising indicate that we need to rethink education if we wish to regain the power of imagination and critical thinking for striving for a humane, egalitarian and ecologically sustainable world.

As a teacher, I have no hesitation in saying that unless we broaden the meaning of education, the generation that is growing up cannot even see these three evil as evils. It is high time we questioned the purely neoliberal, market-driven, economistic notion of education — that education is merely for getting jobs and, thereby, enhancing the 'productivity' of the techno-corporate empire. Is it, thus, surprising that the likes of Narayana Murthy want the youngsters to work for 70 hours in a week and not bother about anything else, be it politics, aesthetics, philosophy or creative art?

Likewise, it is important to shift the focus of education from the obsession with performance in standardised tests to the liberating power of critical thinking and empathic, dialogic sensitivity.

It is sad that the formative years of this generation are spent on merely mastering the 'techniques' for cracking all sorts of tests; there is no creative surplus, no alternative imagination.

Furthermore, the damage that a purely instrumental, technical and economistic notion of education has done is that it does not encourage the youngsters to inculcate and internalise a new set of values — say, the courage to question what the 'hidden persuaders' ask them to do, say, buy, consume, possess and run after a mythical success like mad horses. They should acquire the wisdom to prioritise simplicity and the art of relatedness and ecological connectivity in the rhythm of everyday living.

Yes, it is not easy to implement a project of this kind. The obstacles are many. While the policymakers are often driven by the urge to promote and retain corporate interests, the ruling regime does not feel very comfortable with the kind of education that promotes critical thinking and democratic and humanistic aspirations.

Yet, in 2025, let those who still believe that education ought to have a higher and nobler purpose for creating a better world derive their inspiration from the likes of Rabindranath Tagore, Jiddu Krishnamurti and Paulo Freire and initiate a movement for saving education from the virus of the three evils I have referred to.