A Culture Cross

RECENTLY CAME ACROSS two interesting articles that were both informative and analytical in their respective areas. One was on how to tackle under-performing cultures, and the other was a worldwide indexing of countries by their capacity to provide education for the future. The digestion of these two pieces side by side brought up some intersecting concepts in my mind. Let me elaborate.

- Indranil Gupta

India traditionally boasts of a rich culture built on values. But today India ranks alarmingly low on several indices such as Happiness, Human Development, Quality of Life, Corruption Perception and Rule of Law.

The truth is that the real culture of a system is not merely based on its espoused values, but on the extent of behaviour deviation that can prevail. Often values and mission statements adorn corporate walls but what takes place within the corridors is a totally different ballgame because no-one had realised or intercepted the aberration. A school where students are seemingly ‘happy’ (because they are left unchallenged) may lose sight of its core objective of ‘effective learning’, and choose to dispense with rigour altogether from its processes.