the real essence of good education

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Iwould ask you to take whatI say as an offer for debaterather then me telling the

world what to do and what’s rightbecause that’s certainly not the case.It’s not often that I agree withmanagement consultants but in thisoccasion I do agree with the McKinseyfinding. The Infrastructure,wraparound and environment ofschools that learners and young peoplehave in which to learn is extremelyimportant but I think its missing thepoint to spend all your finite valuableresources on infrastructure such asInformation and Technology,important as it is, if you then neglectthe real essence of education which isreally the fundamental resourceswithin schools.

And my thesis for today, which I offeryou for debate and criticism is actuallythat, no, we should not be happy withthe status quo but let us look before weleap because its probable that it’s amodification to the status quo that’srequired rather than a huge revolution.

So to tell you what am about to say ina nutshell, and I say often that this is adebate, I would say that we cant tell thefuture, there is no way we can predictfor the future and what we need to bedoing is we need to be giving young

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THE REAL ESSENCE OFGOOD EDUCATION

Paul Sellers suggests that there are two distinct elements of a good education - one is thatlearners need to learn the codes of communication and the other to give them an educationin the true sense - which is drawing out the potential of the individual and nurturing theircapabilities.

Illustration by Amruta Patil

MF16 Pg 22-28 Sellers:Layout 2 11/07/12 8:37 AM Page 2

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people the best possible education.Now it’s easy to say the best possibleeducation, of course it goes withoutdebate. But now let’s have a look atthat to make sure that we aredelivering the education mostefficiently and meeting the needs ofyoung people for them to then go onand address the future challenges wellequipped with all the tools they need.And my suggestion is that its ratherless complicated than we sometimesmake out.

My suggestion is that there are two keyelements of a good education, and theyare very distinct. One is that learners,young people and individuals andsociety need to learn the codes of thatsociety. These are the codes we use to communicate – the script, thenumbers, the communication. Theyneed to have those codes to a very highdegree and indeed you can never stoplearning the codes, it’s a lifelonglearning thing, and these codes can be taught.

On the other hand, young people alsoneed an education, and these twothings are different. They need aneducation, which is education in thetrue sense of the word, which isdrawing out the potential of theindividual, making him aware, andmaking a way available for theircapability and to be able to nurturethese capabilities.

And that is a very different thing fromtraining on the codes, its aboutdrawing out, it’s the real meaning ofeducation, which, I am no scholar but,I am reliably informed comes from theLatin root, ēducātiō, where ē- is “from”or “out of ” and dūcare which is root ofthe verb “to lead.” So “to lead from” or“to lead out of.”

And my suggestion is that we don’thave this right to lead at the momentbecause we have over-engineerededucation and this is where the debatebetween the public and privateeducation can come in because the

issue about private schools and state’seducation and what the role for thestates and many state run schools arevery good.

The political rough around toeducation often gets in the way and welose sight of the actual objective ofeducation in this jungle ofinfrastructure and assessment andcurricula and so forth. Let’s analyzethis a little bit.

I’ve mentioned the codes and you’reprobably saying yes this is nothing new,you may remember the three R’s, atleast in the UK we talk about the threeR’s—R for reading, the second R wasfor writing, and the third R while somepeople say was for arithmetic, the R inarithmetic, other people say its for“reckoning” which is archaic word forcalculations in arithmetic.

So the three R’s reading, writing andarithmetic are the codes of thelanguage for communication thateverybody needs to a very high degree.But I say it doesn’t stop there, these areabout communication, they are aboutchanging the semantics, the meaninginto a form, which can then be

communicated and adapted andutilized.

To that I would then add the auralskills, and by aural skills I mean thespeaking and listening skills which arejust as important because we spend ahuge part of our lives speaking andlistening. We should do that becausethat is how society communicates,that’s the way that people learn andteach and that’s the way peopleinfluence decisions and their lives andtheir future.

And from now when I use the wordeducation I’ll use it in the pure sense,educare – as to lead out/ to lead from –because I think this is one of thehardest points to nail down, butsomething we have to get rightbecause, as well as a knowledge andunderstanding of the codes with whichwe engage with society in life, there isalso this whole area of developing anindividual’s potential, giving her thetools and skills to learn for herself,giving her autonomy, giving her thetools with which to form opinions, thetools to be original and be creative andanalytical.

So I am suggesting that these twofeatures—one, a really good andongoing grasp of the codes ofwhichever society you are in, and two,a broader pure education combined iswhat the young people need to as largean extent as possible.

Obviously you are constrained withtime, money and other resources butlet us not forget that these leanings donot necessarily need to be confined tothe classroom because people learndespite their classroom. We allcontinue learning outside theclassroom and we should never stoplearning. And even if we think we’vestopped learning, we don’t, because wecontinue learning and developing ourskills and that’s a challenge we all needto take up to keep developing our skillsas life goes on.

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The political rough around toeducation often gets in theway and we lose sight of theactual objective of educationin this jungle of infrastructureand assessment and curriculaand so forth.

Obviously you are constrainedwith time, money and otherresources but let us not forgetthat these leanings do notnecessarily need to beconfined to the classroombecause people learn despitetheir classroom. We allcontinue learning outside theclassroom and we shouldnever stop learning.



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Let me just go back to the codes in abit more detail. With the basic codes,here we’re talking about the script, thealphabet and word formation – thewritten word – reading and writing. Ineach different country, each having adifferent language the code is different.And those of us who have learnedanother language, when we start weknow that when we start to learnanother language you have to startfrom scratch, you have to learn thatnew code in order to be able to engage.

You might say well babies learn tospeak and listen that’s the aural codeautomatically, instinctively. But Iwould say that that is not true actually.They learn probably the hardest waypossible and that is by trial and error,by hearing the same thing over andagain and linking it up to thesemantics, linking it up to the action orthe message that’s being related and inthe end they assimilate that. And allthose around the baby, the parents andthe family are the teachers and it a longand laborious process but when theyget to a certain point they have thebasic tools of the language, not thereading and writing, but the speakingand listening.

Then the teacher can come in and startdeliberately teaching the codes, whichwould then allow them to develop thereading and writing – the broader auralskills. The same is true for examplewith mathematics, that’s the other onemain code I would say is essential.Numbers themselves are symbols, justlike words and letter are symbols,which have a meaning, which you canthen put together, manipulate andform. We use the symbols ofmathematics to multiply, divide, etc., tocommunicate around mathematics.

And I am sure there are math teachershere I am not going to lecture aboutmathematics because I was a low-grade mathematics student. But youknow mathematics is another form ofcommunication.

Codes are intricately linked to theculture. They allow you to describe theculture, to enter into that culture, tolearn that culture. If you learn the codeyou are well on your way to learningthe culture, so of course learn your ownculture, or at least learn it first becauseyour culture is your life, it very valuable,every different culture is of equal value.

Times have moved on now and we areconducting this conference in Englishand I know many of your schoolswould be English medium and this isbecause things have changed, Englishis no longer the code of the colonialBritish situation, English is now a codeof international communication andtransaction. So it’s a different story.

So if you want to equip young peoplethese days with the code which willallow them to interact internationally,with people from other countries andtherefore be successful, becausegenerally speaking this internationaloutlook is very healthy not only fromthe commercial point of view but also

from the cultural and personaldevelopment point of view. Then yesyou have to learn English; if it weren’tEnglish it would be another languagethat had become the world needing forcommunication.

In Sci-Fi movies you have aliens fromMars landing on the earth and veryoften they can happily speak English,which is very fortunate, but some ofthe films are a little more enlightenedand tackle this problem of the code.And when the Martian says in theirlanguage “take me to your leader,” thefirst thing will be the problem ofcracking that code, “what’s he saying? Idon’t know, sounds ridiculous.” But thecode will have to be cracked before weget off the ground on that relationshipwith the Martian.

The codes can be taught and they canbe rote learned. There’s the neverending debate about rote learning, andI would suggest that if you’re going torote learn anything its going to bethese codes and that actually with adifference because what we need toteach is not the scripts or the words orthe numbers or the formulae, we needto teach the code behind the word andnumbers, which will allow the peopleto decipher them.

If you focus on word recognition whenteaching students to read then you’redoing them a bit of a disservice. Youmight be helping them in the shortterm because actually there are a finitenumber of words that the youngstudent needs to deploy until theyenter a professional scenario. So it isactually possible to rote learn thewords as sort of pictograms.

It is much better to deploy the manymethodologies around phonics thatshow students how the sounds formand the letters interact together toform different sounds of words so thatthey will never come across a wordthey cannot decipher. With this theywill always have the tools to crack thecodes to decipher.

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Codes are intricately linked tothe culture. They allow you todescribe the culture, to enterinto that culture, to learn thatculture. If you learn the codeyou are well on your way tolearning the culture, so ofcourse learn your own culture,or at least learn it first becauseyour culture is your...

And when the Martian says intheir language “take me toyour leader,” the first thing willbe the problem of crackingthat code, “what’s he saying? Idon’t know, sounds ridiculous.”But the code will have to becracked before we get off theground on that relationshipwith the Martian.



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The same goes for mathematics. Iremember when I was in school and Itold, “we are not really worried aboutwhat the answer is, we just want to seehow you got that.” That was the mainthing; they wanted to know if I couldcrack the code or not which I couldn’tas I wasn’t particularly good in math.

I have a teaching background, I amqualified as teacher in the UK, but Ivery quickly found that it was far toomuch like hard work being a teacher,so I switched over to the managementpart in the cultural relations sector, so Ihave great admiration for teachers whostick on to it and who do such awonderful service for students.

There are things that can be taught andindeed should be taught. Everyone,including the government and thepublic sector, has a duty to provideevery learner with these basic codes. Ifsomebody else didn’t teach them thecodes then they should because it’s intheir national interest. Because if youdon’t have the codes and you don’t haveaccess to learning of the codes, thenyou can’t become part of the society,you are marginalized you don’t havethe tools to build on your knowledgeand learn for yourself, you will not beproductive in this knowledge society,this hi-tech information age. You willnot be productive even in an industrialage situation. And it must be providedto an acceptable level, and I am notgoing to stand here and try to definewhat an acceptable level is, that’s fordebate, but the idea is to give peoplethe essential tools and it is theresponsibility of the government andthe public sector to ensure that.

Education, on the other hand cannotbe taught, its about bringing potentialout of people, e-ducare, bringing out orto lead out. There is nothing abouteducation that means putting in, it’sthe reverse. The codes can sort of beput in, but education is the other way round.

This is where we have to pause and this

is where we have to go to educationwithout boundaries and think aboutour infrastructural resourcingdecisions, because we spend a lot oftime putting content into youngpeople, even at the primary and thesecondary school levels. I suggest thatthis is wrong because as soon as youput content in, first you are notencouraging the intrinsic faculties, youare not encouraging them to think forthemselves, then you’re also adding avery strong element of bias intoeducation at a very young age. Howdid you decide on the content? Howdid you decide on the curriculum?What is it you teach?

Now schools and government have aduty to teach the indigenous culture totheir citizens – of course there is a rolefor that but let’s not confuse that witheducation. Education is about drawingout the individual. And this can be

done in many ways – engaging youngpeople, asking them to problem solve,to engage in logical thoughts,introducing them to discourse anddebate and analysis because that is themost valuable thing in addition to thecodes. All these are capabilities areresources which you can inculcate inchildren especially when preparingthem for the future, which as I said inthe beginning is something we can’tpredict.

The future, now from where I amstanding and where you are looking, isthe same as the future must havelooked 20 years ago. Like InformationTechnology today, a hundred years ago,energy technology like electricity wasa massively new technology, whichtransformed people’s lives. You knowbefore the discovery of electricity couldanybody have anticipated what it coulddo? Then there was anothertechnology, the telegraph, acommunication technology. Whocould have stood here the day beforethe telegraph was invented andpredicted what the telegraph could dofor society. Nobody!

All we can do is equip kids withgeneric skills and good education withwhich to engage with the future.Education is about focusing on theindividual because the value of anindividual is what they bring to agroup and we should celebrate thediversity there, we should celebrate thefact that individuals bring differentthings to the table. Whatever you seeof people’s strengths and weaknesses,abilities or lack of abilities, everybodyactually at the bottom level iscompletely whole. And bringing thatstrength to the table is what createsteams and we all know that a goodteam is composed of individuals whosestrengths compliment each other andthat way you get a fantastic team.

We all know as well that if we get ateam of people together who have thesame strengths, even though they are

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Education, on the other handcannot be taught, its aboutbringing potential out ofpeople, e-ducare, bringing outor to lead out. There is nothingabout education that meansputting in, it’s the reverse. Thecodes can sort of be put in, but education is the other way round.

... we spend a lot of timeputting content into youngpeople, even at the primaryand the secondary schoollevels. I suggest that this iswrong because as soon as youput content in, first you are notencouraging the intrinsicfaculties, you are notencouraging them to think forthemselves, then you’re alsoadding a very strong elementof bias into education at a veryyoung age.



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wonderful strengths it’s a completedisaster. You have to havecomplimentary skill sets in a team. Soits important to encourage teamworkbut at the same time to focus on theindividual and to give the individual aself-knowledge, an awareness of wheretheir strengths and capabilities lie sothat they can deploy these tomaximum.

Going back to the codes, and to use anIT analogy, the content area is a bit likea computer operating system, whenyou press the button (and I’m not goodwith IT either) something happensand the computer starts up, almost bymagic it comes up with a screen and apicture, but that’s because it has theoperating system inside, an electricspark kick starts a process of electricalimpulses which generates a language,which then allows the computer tostart running and presents you with aninterface which then you can becreative on, you can write things, youcan draw pictures you cancommunicate with people.

The operating system is essential andhas to be put in the computer beforeyou can use it and I would equate thatto the codes. But on the education sidethis is about creativity, this is aboutpeople being able to deploy the tools attheir disposal - to be original and thisis the key word for me in education. Italked about individuality. Now amtalking about originality because this ishow societies progress isn’t it? And thisis how things progress, societiesprogress – because somebody had thatoriginal thought, that original strengthwhich moves things in anotherdirection, and this is what we have toencourage in young people and Iwould suggest that many of ourmethodologies today discourage this.

But it’s a risk because this sort of thingcan’t be tested. You can’t testsomebody’s originality by giving thema multiple choice test, you might beable to ask him to write an essay but

that focuses on a particular strength,doesn’t it? Very hard to assess, veryhard for you to prove, to yourstakeholders and your parents thatyou’ve actually added value to a learner,apart from some instances where ayoung person is extremely original.

There is one area where I feel thateducation and codes do coincide andthat area I would broadly term as art.So artists, painters, writers, dancers,they have a very high levelunderstanding of the codes of thediscipline, the technique of eachdiscipline. Successful original artiststhey bring to it that spark, thatindividuality, that creativity whichtransforms what they do intosomething that’s priceless, taking theindividual forward, to fulfill theindividual and to maximize hispotential.

Let’s pause here on codes andeducation and focus back in on theschools. It is hard to assess thesethings, its almost a challenge that’s sort

of too big because schools are asked tobe guardians, they are asked to bealmost sort of parents, you are asked totake care of kids for 12 years, 12 whole years!

To learn the basics and rudiments ofthe codes, taught in an effective andefficient manner, would take at themost two to three years maybe. The restis a great long span of time, of coursefor developing those codes and forgetting that education going. But why12 years? Why not ask people to moveout of education at 14 or 16 into work,leaving the entire education for lateron. This is where I think we have toreally focus on the future andeducation without boundaries, to offerthat flexibility, because not everyone isacademic but everyone has thatpotential in different fields of life.

But we are under legal constraints toprovide an education up to a certainage and to keep the students in theschool for that time; we have to offer asort of 9 to 5 service. Society expectsus to provide sports facilities and artseducation in order to develop theindividual into to a well-roundedpersonality. But why do these thingsneed to happen in the schoolenvironment? Why do they need tohappen with 18, 25 or 30 kids sittingin the classroom?

I am not criticizing that, that’sabsolutely fine. But when we havethem sitting in the classroom let’s notcompound it by having them rote learnand read the text books and go throughlots of assessment. We have theassessment, young people have to goon to college and they have to passtheir entry exams, fine. But I wouldsuggest, and this is where you have totake the big risk, I would suggest thatif you give those young people a propereducation which includes a properdelivery of the codes and a propermore liberal education, drawing thatout from their own selves, discoveringtheir own capabilities, if you do that, if

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There is one area where I feelthat education and codes docoincide and that area I wouldbroadly term as art. So artists,painters, writers, dancers, theyhave a very high levelunderstanding of the codes ofthe discipline, the technique ofeach discipline.

Why not ask people to moveout of education at 14 or 16into work, leaving the entireeducation for later on. This iswhere I think we have to reallyfocus on the future andeducation without boundaries,to offer that flexibility, becausenot everyone is academic buteveryone has that potential indifferent fields of life.



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you give them the basics, then you willhave to spend a little bit of time oforientating them to what a test is andthey are in a much better position toscore well on a test than if you gavethem a lot of practice tests. So bite thebullet and try that one.

Thinking about the codes and highereducation, you say but people have togo on into professions and there aremany codes in life, moral codes, codesof behavior, dress codes, the legalcodes, and the legal profession is onethat fascinates me because, I don’tknow if it’s the same in India as it is inthe UK, but the legal profession isquite a closed profession and you haveto be accredited before you can appearin the court, its probably the same herein India, we have that joint legal sortof past. And somebody who doesn’thave that accreditation can’t do it, theyare not allowed then. And what does ittake to get that accreditation? Itactually takes a serious study of thecodes around the legal profession.

I don’t mean this disparagingly at all ofany lawyers or judges but in the UKthe language of the law is archaic. It’s alanguage from about 200 years ago ormore. When I read it as a fairly welleducated person, I read a sentencefrom the legal handbook, and I don’tunderstand a word. And the point is tounderstand it you have to be trained inthat code. Now am not saying we trainall the kids in that code, but what itdoes mean is that they have to have thebasic codes of the language first, then ifthey should go on to study a legalcareer, they are well equipped to crackthat next code that’s coming.

Even with computer software, youknow once you get into theprofessional level, people are dealingwith codes and the codes have to becracked, and you are successful in lifeif you crack it and you can become agreat software programmer or a greatlawyer. If you don’t have the ability tocrack those codes and if they haven’t

been instilled in you from an early ageyou’ll have a hard time.

Talking about practical issues, whatdoes it leave us with? Lots of issues. AsI said, schools are under an obligationto deliver a service and that’s great.And I should say at this point that allthe schools here are well ahead in thegame because either you are on oraspiring to be part of XSEED’sprogram, iDiscoveri’s offerings ofsweets, which represents anenlightened way forward. You mightbe on or interested in the BritishCouncil of international schools award,a similar program which offers anothertake on curriculum. Of course you havea great curriculum, you have a planthere’s no getting around there, butwhat’s in the plan that counts.

We also have to think about the issueof bias and culture and I go back tothat earlier point I made about culture.It is of course in the interest of anynation, government, community,society, school or institution to educate,

to give cultural values and culturalnorms to the individual because we allhave to live in the society and I suggestthat this is all large amount of what wedo in school.

Take a very basic example, let’s pausefor 10 seconds and think of examplesof ways you give cultural guidance toyour students in the daily schoolroutine. Do you for example sing thenational anthem once a week or once aday in your school? Ok great. Why doyou do that? That’s because you arereinforcing the students are part of thenation and they should be proud ofthat. It’s not really about education it’sabout cultural achievement. Yourschool might have a religious backing,in that case you might give themreligious tuition during the week.

Of course all that is absolutely fine, wecelebrate the diversity, but be clear thatyou are offering the students, thelearners a type of culture, an entry intoa culture. There are many other ways todo this. More subtly, on the choice ofcontent to the curriculum, why do wechoose to study climate change andnot disability, or disability and notastronomy? Who makes those choices?Who makes those decisions? Nowincreasingly we make those decisionsbased on what content we think thelearners need to engage with in future.But that’s not right I say. We need tomake these decisions based on whatcontent will best ferment the processof education, or what content will bestget the students thinking, get studentsproblem solving.

Socrates had the method ofquestioning and answering, normallyon a one to one basis. And this methodis adopted in some of the famousuniversities in the UK, Oxford andCambridge and many in the US andmany here in India and this methodhas made the difference. Thesequestion-answer sessions are intensive,often one to one, very senior academicquestion and answering the student.

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...people are dealing withcodes and the codes have to becracked, and you are successfulin life if you crack it and youcan become a great softwareprogrammer or a great lawyer.If you don’t have the ability tocrack those codes and if theyhaven’t been instilled in youfrom an early age you’ll have ahard time.

Do you for example sing thenational anthem once a weekor once a day in your school?Ok great. Why do you do that?That’s because you arereinforcing the students arepart of the nation and theyshould be proud of that. It’snot really about education it’sabout cultural achievement.



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But the value of these sessions areenormous. The students of course comeout tearing their hair out because theysay he didn’t give me any answers, hedidn’t tell me what to think, he didn’ttell me what to do, he didn’t tell me theanswer. No they spend the wholesession challenging, and every time thestudent came back with an answerthere was another challenge, anotherchallenge then another.

The challenge would go on foreverbecause it enriches the students, itenables them to think for themselves,it triggers autonomy; it triggersoriginality of thought which is sort ofthe key to creativity, which societiesreally need. It crucially gives the

message that you should never believeanything that you read or are told untilyou’ve verified it for yourself oranalyzed it for yourself. If we givestudents content because we are inpositions of authority at a young agethey are going to think that that is thetruth. So we have to be aware of this.

So in our teaching methodology, in ourcontent, in our curriculum we need tobuild in this element of debate anddiscussion, and throw it back to theindividual. We have to be assessment-light – we have to have test, we have tohave exam but try not to teach to theexam. If you teach and give thestudents the proper understanding ofthe codes and a proper educationwhich sows the seeds of autonomy and

creativity and originality, then theexams will be a cakewalk, unless ofcourse they are not very good exams.

I would like to close with thesethoughts. In our educational processeslet us focus on equipping young peoplewith the elements of judgment, theability to discern for themselves what’sthe truth and what is faulty, what isright and wrong, give them anunderstanding of what is selfknowledge, self awareness, so that theycan understand themselves that theycan understand their strengths andweaknesses, crucially that they canunderstand their aspirations anddesires and they wont be distracted bypeer pressure or other pressures, whichtells them what their desires should be,because if a person follows the paththat they are most motivated to followthey will surely be successful.

And last of all, if you can, let them takeaway from you a couple of seeds, tinyseeds of wisdom because wisdom isreally the ultimate goal, wisdom is thegateway to creativity, enlightenmentand at the end of the day, let’s not betoo soppy about it, at the end of theday to happiness. And to finish it off,let me say that I have the ultimaterespect for educators, it is the mostimportant job in the world, youngpeople are our resource of the future,they have a right to be given the wholerange of tools and equipment for thefuture because they will ne lookingafter us in the future, they will belooking after the planet, ourcorporations our governments. n

Adapted from a talk by Paul Sellers at the XSEED

School of Tomorrow Conference 2011

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Paul Sellers is British Council Directorfor South India, based in Chennai, withresponsibility for British Counciloperations in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka,Andra Pradesh and Kerala.

Paul is a cultural relations andeducational professional, with abackground in international teachingand management. Before taking uphis post in South India in September2010, he was the British CouncilDirector for the United Arab Emirates,and prior to that held senior positionsin Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Mexico, Italyand China.

As a UK-qualified teacher, Paulcombines a traditional academicbackground with experience of thewider international educational arena.He has worked with a range ofeducational institutions in the publicand private sectors, ranging fromschools to universities, to guide theirinternational development strategies.

He has also been a regular contributorto the annual UK World Learning &Technology forum for ministers ofeducation and sector leaders. Paul'scurrent areas of interest arecurriculum design, learningmotivation, and learningtechnologies.

So in our teachingmethodology, in our content,in our curriculum we need tobuild in this element of debateand discussion, and throw itback to the individual. We haveto be assessment-light – wehave to have test, we have tohave exam but try not to teachto the exam.
