Every democracy ultimately rests on the ballot box decisions its citizens make. It is important, therefore, for all voters to be alert, informed, and active. This raises the question, ‘Where do such ACTiZENS come from?’ Do adults suddenly become responsible citizens at the age of eighteen? By that age, they have spent fourteen years in school. If democracy is not experienced during those years, how will young people understand what it actually means?
A democratic society requires certain habits of mind and relationships among people: the ability to question authority respectfully, listen to different viewpoints, examine evidence before forming opinions, participate in decisions affecting one’s life, and recognise every individual’s dignity and voice. These habits are formed through experience, which is why schools matter so deeply. School becomes the first experiential model of society. For fourteen years, children observe how power works around them. They notice who speaks up and who stays silent. They see whether questioning is welcomed or punished. They learn whether fairness matters more than hierarchy. Most important, they learn what fairness, equity, and respect for multiple viewpoints actually look like in practice.
Unfortunately, most schools operate in far from democratic ways. Children are told what to think rather than encouraged to think for themselves. Rules are imposed without explanation. Questioning is often interpreted as disrespect. Authority flows in only one direction. In such environments, children may learn discipline and compliance, but they may never experience citizenship. This becomes a problem for democracy itself. A society where citizens are not used to questioning, dialogue, and participation becomes vulnerable to manipulation, propaganda, and authoritarian tendencies.
Democracy requires citizens who can think, question, and engage. In today’s age of misinformation, emotional polarisation, and increasingly prominent influencers in public life, citizens must be able to evaluate evidence, distinguish facts from opinions, recognise manipulation, consider multiple viewpoints, and listen to opposing perspectives without fear. Critical thinking grows only in environments where questioning is safe, which brings us back to schools.
What would a school that enables critical thinking, communication, and the confidence to interrogate and challenge anything look like? For many children, school is the first institution outside the family. This matters especially in societies where children grow up in hierarchical or patriarchal family structures where questioning elders may not be encouraged. Schools can gently expand such children’s horizons. They can show children that authority can be accountable, disagreement can be respectful, leadership can be collaborative, and every voice has value. In doing so, schools prepare children for not only exams but citizenship.
Many years ago, at Shishuvan School, we set up a student council and parliament, which became the bedrock of the school’s culture. Students from different houses were elected to represent their peers. The elections were fair, and students ran them themselves. The council and parliament met regularly to discuss issues affecting school life, from playground use to canteen food, from library access to environmental practices. The student council and parliament proved to us that children learn democracy when they experience the following:
1) Fairness – Rules must be applied consistently and transparently. Students are included in the justice being practiced instead of being merely its recipients. In our school, the student code book was developed with students’ input. It was agreed that a student breaking, for example, a behaviour code had to read out the code in assembly and explain why it had been included in the code book. Justice was developmental, not punitive.
2) Equity – Diverse learners need different kinds of support to flourish. In one classroom, a teacher noticed that a student with dyslexia struggled with written assessments. Rather than simply marking the child poorly, the teacher offered an alternative: the student could make an oral presentation. When the class asked why he was allowed to do this, the teacher explained that fairness does not always mean treating everyone exactly the same. It means everyone getting what they need to show what they know.
3) Multiple viewpoints – Classrooms must allow students to explore different perspectives, debate ideas, and recognise that complex issues rarely have simple solutions. In a middle school civics class, students were discussing an environmental issue: the construction of a road that would improve connectivity but cut through a patch of forest. The teacher divided the class into groups and asked each one to represent a different perspective: villagers who wanted better access to markets, environmentalists who were worried about biodiversity, government planners who were responsible for infrastructure, and students who were concerned about the future. The discussion was lively. Through such exercises, students learn that people can experience the same problem differently. Learning to hear multiple viewpoints without immediately dismissing them is one of the most important skills a citizen can develop.
4) Voice – Students must have genuine opportunities to express ideas and concerns. Their views are heard and sometimes shape decisions. One year, the parliament brought up a problem: the older students dominated the playground during recess, leaving them with little space to play. During the parliamentary debate, some students argued that older children need more space for sports. Others pointed out that fairness meant everyone should have access to play. Eventually, the parliament proposed a rotating schedule for the playground so that various age groups could use its separate sections at different times. What mattered was not the schedule itself but whether students experienced how fairness is negotiated, how different viewpoints are heard, and how collective solutions emerge.
5) Dialogue – Discussion and disagreement are a part of learning, but students must learn to challenge others’ ideas without attacking them. Council and parliament rules stated that three solutions had to be proposed for any problem accepted for discussion. The option that was acceptable to the maximum number of students would be presented to the upper house (the teachers and school leaders). The upper house could send it back to the parliament if it did not align with the school’s vision and values. The parliament would then debate it again. This back and forth strained students’ patience at times, but it also taught them to take the school’s constitution seriously.
6) Shared responsibility – Students must participate in solving problems, from improving school spaces to addressing conflicts. In the council and parliament, the citizen was the most important person. All meetings were town hall meetings, and citizens participated in debates, discussions, and decision-making. No child was left out. All holders of positions were held accountable for their promises.
In schools like Shishuvan, democracy stops being an abstract concept found in civics textbooks. It becomes a lived culture.
Laws do not sustain democracy; citizens’ everyday habits do. Those habits are formed long before people cast their first vote. This leads us to a question every school leader, teacher, and policymaker must ask: If children spend fourteen years in our schools, do they leave as compliant subjects or as ACTiZENS?
Democracy’s future may depend on how we answer it.
Ms. Kavita Anand is the Founder and Executive Director of Adhyayan Quality Education Services. An Ashoka Fellow and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (UK), she has spent over three decades shaping schools and education systems in India.