Quick Links

Dear Teachers,
For the last several years, I have made countless efforts to get teachers to modify their pedagogic approach to teaching from the current ‘recall’ method to’ critical thinking’. I must admit that it is a
difficult task, because the education model that we follow does not require the students both at the School level as well as at the University levels, to learn to think. They are required to pass the
exams. That is the reason why, each time we advertise for teachers, which attracts scores of applicants, less than one percent can even be called eligible. Given that the entire education
system, of which the present teachers are accredited products, and since the present school and its examination model are still tethered to the same system, it is natural that teachers found the
change difficult and not worth trying.

There is no alternative to the imperative that the teaching-learning must change to the ‘critical thinking mode’. This changed alternative is the only assurance that we as a School can give to the
students, so that they can face the world that is awaiting them. The specific nature of the AI driven world that will completely take over all operations in the immediate future, makes all recall based
knowledge redundant, because facts of knowledge and the processes of creating or manipulating facts, which can also be called knowledge, is already embedded in all sectors of human activity,
through generative AI.

There is nothing that one needs to ‘know’, if that knowledge already exists anywhere, or is the logical outcome of existing facts and processes, AI has it. The future of the world therefore is less
about knowledge creation and more about going beyond the existing knowledge and manipulate it in a manner that so far AI has not been able to imagine or fathom. AI has literally turned every
one, ignorant, because AI knows more than us, works faster than us, and has access and ability to process data, far beyond our known imagination. As a result of that, there is hardly any process
that AI cannot do, and if in the next level, humanoids are embedded with AI, there will be literally next to nothing that they cannot do, without us.

I am writing this not to belittle you, teachers, and the teaching practice, it will take less than 5 years to make our teachers redundant for the type of teaching that we do now. You will know it
sooner than you think. The role of teachers therefore is triple : (i). remain human ( caring, compassionate, etc.); (ii) learn to question, and (iii) remain relevant to reach out where AI in its
present avatar is not able to reach. In simple terms, and this is frightening, for every question that in the present knowledge inventory has an answer, AI rules over us. So, each and every question
that you can imagine, can be answered by AI, and this is absolute. Truly speaking, our utility as rational beings, living organisms that are endowed with the power of thinking has been rendered
redundant.

So, what is the future? The future is, the ability to look at existing evidence (knowledge) and question it, from another perspective, another function, even an imaginary one. The AI will be
able to perhaps answer that, but presently may not be able to raise the questions that we presently can. The only way we can be relevant, is not by teaching to find pre-determined answers, where
AI excels, and AI embedded systems can do better than us - but by raising questions about the evidence. This way we truly do not create new knowledge in the first place, but turn every learner
into an AI agent. Here the student creates new knowledge by his or her questioning process, ( and each time a person does that, that process becomes in the mind, a knowledge creating algorithm); no new
evidence may be created here, but through questioning the thinker (student) acquires the power to learn by questioning (thinking algorithm) and therefore becomes capable of creating entirely new
knowledge perspectives.

Here the human mind creates new and imaginary perspectives which AI cannot do, because it may not have been trained to imagine what a human mind can imagine. A student who learns
critically will not always be able to answer a question correctly but through questioning will create new evidence for himself and others. This is done by learning to look at an evidence
(answer) from a different angle. By looking at a fact, from a different angle, and raising questions about it, will empower our students to learn to think, and if they learn to think, they can turn
existing knowledge upside down and create new knowledge, which later AI will also master, but by that time the human mind, will have gone still further ahead. The difference is that AI can
process faster, but may not be able to process, something new unless it has been provoked to think in that particular manner or provided the prompts to think in the particular manner.
Dear Teachers, by the time you have arrived this far, you must be wondering where you stand. It is a relevant question and it is also frightening. But the world needs teachers, as I have stated
above, as human beings, kind, compassionate, empathetic and able to emotionally and physically reach out to students. And here is also enough opportunity and need to be a TEACHER – one
who teaches students to think, to ask questions.

To your question “ how can I (teacher), teach children to think? This is to assure you that you still can. In this process you do not have to navigate to the unknown world of ‘critical thinking’.
So, cheer up Teachers, we have a great task ahead of us, and together we will accomplish it. Together we will make it work, by going ahead with our plan, and some day soon, with the help
of hundreds of parents in the field of Deep Tech we may be able to train our own AI agent who learns to think like us and becomes our tool exclusive to our school!
A teacher’s job, is a great job, and there is no other like yours.

Cheerio, and wish you all the best for your Teacher’s Day.

Fr. Jose Alarico Carvalho

DIRECTOR