What does one call a country that is not developed? A country that has the ability in mind and body to become a powerhouse, but has not yet become one? A country that has innovations arising out of every corner on the regular, but has somewhere stalled in achieving its full potential? I call this a ‘developing country.’ And yes, our country is an ever-developing country. From the ashes of separation, division and pollution to the flames of unity, peace, democracy and eco-friendly living, our fire is yet to die out. This is because every time one has tried to douse our spark, a new ember makes its way into the fodder of the fire and keeps it burning.
The impact of the pandemic revolutionized the method of education in the country. Abruptly, institutions were forced to move their syllabuses onto an online platform. Schools and offices closed while school bags zipped shut, seemingly forever. Weeks and months passed by until finally the move was made for online education. However, even though the switch has already been made, the dependency and urge for offline education still persists. And this, I feel, is partly because of our under-developed structure of education. It remains an innovation we could use to make our country an exemplary model for other countries to follow. Switching completely to an online mode by moving lessons and other material to virtual platforms, inviting specific industry experts and resource persons to interact with students as proximity is no longer a concern is clearly the way ahead. Giving assignments that prompt students to use modern ways of completing them, such as conducting online surveys, having virtual hosting for aspiring mediators etc.
However, all must not change. Some things in this world are constants, for if they change or deteriorate our world as we know it would change; and research shows that this is not a change we will be happy or satisfied with. One of those changes is our environment. Our desire for comfort and convenience has pushed us to be in arms against Mother Nature, knowing that she cannot defend herself strongly enough in reality. But then again, that’s a need. In order to use our technologies, we need to infringe upon our natural resources to meet our energy demands.
The only way forward is in the form of cleaner and sustainable living on our part. If we try our hand at capturing cleaner energy that does not pollute and destroy, like energy from the sun, from the waves of tides and flow of waters, we are leaving more green corners on the surface of the earth. As the earth becomes warmer, a new opportunity to trap the energy of the sun presents itself. Solar power is a very economical prospect in out state. St. Britto’s at Mapusa, Loyola High School in Margao and PAI institute in Raia are institutions that have managed to harvest the sun to meet all of their energy demands as well as supply power to the national grid. Numerous other individual houses have moved to this cleaner source of energy in our state.
And thus, the embers of new innovations must make the flame of our nation burn brighter, bigger and hotter.