Transformational Education — Educing Leadership from Rural India
In the age of ‘cutting edge’ technology & ‘cut throat’ competition, almost everyone be it individuals or organizations are caught up in the race to find their competitive edge. The flip side of globalization & the ever expanding urban culture has made this paradox a reality that we live in a digitally integrated world, and yet are isolated.
Though contemporary business practices like inclusive leadership & the teal model, flat structured organizations are beginning to create an impact in influencing rigid mindsets & shifting global consciousness, a vast majority still continue to find Inspirational leadership, a challenge. Most leaders today specifically undergo training in ‘people management skills’ to be able to lead effectively.
The Challenge & the Opportunity :
The challenge surely lies in bringing about integration in the truest sense of the word. It is quite paradoxical that while on the outside, we are heading towards embracing technological advancements like the Internet of Things (IoT) that promise a smaller, integrated world, yet within our own organizations, our homes & our minds, a deep sense of disintegration prevails. This surely calls for the need to include integration as part of our culture. The need to inspire our children, the future leaders of the nation to compete with a sense of cooperation & harmony.
The Opportunity lies in identifying the latent inherently strong aspects of our culture & grooming their development in the right direction. The rapid pace, over exposure to media & easy access to technology, nuclear families, concrete jungles, rising expenses, single parenting that have become the norm of our urban culture, children tend to lose touch with themselves, nature & human beings at an early age which is why they need to be retrained to connect when they become leaders.
However fortunately most of the households in the rural areas still uphold strong family values of cooperation, team work, interpersonal bonding, sharing, selflessness and harmony which are also some of the most essential attributes of a successful leader. Therefore there is a much higher possibility of rural children being more naturally connected with themselves, nature and other human beings which thus enhances their emotional quotient and therefore an important aspect of leadership.
Need for leadership Academies in Rural Areas : Apart from their ability to cooperate and correlate with people, many of these relatively underprivileged kids of the villages are also exceptionally brilliant and exhibit high caliber and creative strengths. All they need is high quality education that focuses on grooming them into leaders of tomorrow. They have the potential but lack recognition and opportunity.
Schools are the first training grounds to educe the leadership qualities of a child. The word ‘education’ is derived from ‘educe’ which means to bring out what is already inherent and latent. This is precisely the role of a rural leadership academy — to identify the early blooms of promise and help them transform into world class leaders by bridging all the possible existing gaps of the rural — urban culture divide. It calls for an inclusive, integrated, leadership oriented and practically feasible academic model under which children are exposed to the global environment from an early age while simultaneously retaining their own core values.
The role of a leadership academy is to nurture the already fertile soil and make it completely capable to bear healthy crop.
It is the call of time to major educational organizations, NGOs or just about anyone who really cares to turn their heads towards our potentially rich rural India. If enough educationists, leaders & philanthropists wake up to this call soon enough then the day is not far when some of the world’s most effective, transformative leaders will hail from the smallest towns and the remotest villages of this potentially rich country.
