Population studies, need of the hour in schools

The total population of India has exceeded China’s to become the highest population in the world. Such demographic growth in India, especially without resources to sustain so many people, means a serious threat to economic development, especially concerning the improvement in per capita income.

In recent years, UNESCO’s mandate on the population has evolved steadily, reflecting its member states’ awareness of what demographic trends mean in social and economic terms. The activities in the field of population should aim at promoting a better understanding of the serious responsibilities that population growth imposes on individuals, nations and the international community.

UNESCO regards population education as an intellectual and intelligent approach, intended to bring about an understanding of the implications of the phenomena. It is not a programme of propaganda or indoctrination, so the population trends should not be presented as a “problem” in the classrooms.

The students should be urged to decide for themselves after the study and discussion of relevant data, whether the population situation in their community, nation or the world at large can be described as posing a “problem”.

If they decide that a problem exists, its nature should be clarified and a variety of possible solutions should be explored. Teaching methods that encourage enquiry, analysis and active student participation should be considered essential to this new form of education. The content must be relevant to the student’s needs and must prepare them for the unknown, namely a world situation within a few years, which will be different from today.

Students should learn how population changes affect them personally, and how they can affect population change, opening the door for their construction and participation in the process of social change.

When to introduce concepts?

Population education should not be thought about in isolation. It must fit naturally into the overall educational context of the country and be considered a significant factor in the process of educational renovation.

The level at which population education should be introduced is an important question. In developing countries, a large majority of the school population is in the primary and early grades, where such education can only provide the most basic population concepts and ideas for decision-making.

Moreover, a primary school child is usually far from the years when he ought to make decisions about marriage and family. Secondary school students who are older and more experienced can grasp population concepts more easily and in greater depth.

Although the numbers enrolled are much smaller, these are the students who will be taking decisions including marriage, family, politics and policymaking and more. Some of these secondary students may represent a small and influential proportion of their age group, who will be the policymakers of tomorrow. The students can also include future teachers who will be working with the younger population of rural and urban areas.

It is thus important for them to understand the causes and consequences of population change and learn about planning reforms in the interests of their communities and nation. Population education must start at the secondary level, accompanied by a parallel effort at the teacher preparation level.

Assimilating with other topics

Several school subjects, such as geography, history, biology, mathematics, economics, social studies, health etc can include ideas on population. For instance, in mathematics, it may take the form of a study of population graphs and the interpretation of their data. Health may include topics ranging from the influence of improved health on population growth to the advantages of child-spacing and problems of adolescent pregnancy.

The population studies should give the learner an insight into the totality of issues and positive aspects connected with the population, including the nature, causes and consequences of population growth, both at the micro and the macro levels.

Adult education centres and non-formal centres can be utilised as a proper ground to spread the concept of population education. The population wings of various states should take measures to disseminate the significance of population education, especially among villagers, through mass media.

The government, the press and educated citizens should enthusiastically play a vital role in checking population growth through meaningful programmes. This will result in fewer problems and an awareness will be created about the population problem.

Lastly, population education must be taken up as an essential programme in our teacher training programmes. NCERT, DSERT, SCERT, NIE and SIEs should come forward with positive functional programmes.

The present pattern of in-service education of teachers should be restructured with the help of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) to include population education as an important item in an integrated manner.

(The author was a faculty at the Regional Institute of Education (NCERT), Mysuru)