Travel Education in Schools: Can India Turn School Trips Into Career Learning?

School trips can be so much more than a break from the classroom for students who are interested in travel, tourism and hospitality. Travel education can be structured to make a trip an educational experience in geography, culture, business, history, sustainability and communication. But does India have such a framework?

Travel education is a method that links travel and destination based experiences with learning objectives. A school trip could be used as an opportunity to learn about a place before travelling there, to see it on the trip and to reflect on what they have learnt on the trip afterwards.

This concept aligns well with the current trend of experiential learning in India. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has emphasized on experiential and multidisciplinary learning and has explicitly mentioned that the students should learn about India’s diversity firsthand through travel to various regions of the country. It also recommended educational tours to the tourist places under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat.

What is a Travel Education Framework?

Travel education framework is best understood as a structured approach to using travel and destination experiences as part of learning. It is not currently the name of a single national Indian school curriculum. 

It’s the learning that happens before, during and after the journey that’s important. Students may investigate a place they would like to go, ask questions about it, gather observations, meet with local residents, keep a travel journal and share their findings upon their return.

Field trips are already recognised as a learning activity in the National Curriculum Framework of the Foundational Stage of NCERT and even a visit to places like markets, bus depots and post offices can make children relate to the real world. 

What is the value of travel education for students?

Travel experiences can bring students face-to-face with situations that may not be able to be duplicated in the classroom. They meet with other languages, food, customs, environments, professions and lifestyles.

These experiences can also be used to gain practical skills for students with an interest in tourism. Making a travel plan teaches budgeting and time management, interviewing local residents teaches communication skills, learning about a place teaches research skills, and writing about a trip teaches writing, photography, digital media and presentation skills.

Students can also learn about responsible tourism through travel. They can discuss issues regarding waste, local jobs, heritage protection, overcrowding and environmental effects of tourism.

Is there a Travel Education Framework in India?

There is no single national school curriculum in India that is officially known as a ‘Travel Education Framework’. There are, however, already a number of policies and programmes in place that can form the basis of such an approach.

Experiential learning is a key feature of NEP 2020 and it emphasizes the need for students to gain knowledge about the cultural diversity of India through their direct experiences. Another such programme is that of ‘PRERANA‘ under the Ministry of Education, which takes students to the heritage and archaeological sites of Vadnagar and conducts activities like storytelling, observation, hands-on work and field trips.

The Ministry has also noted the growth of experiential and skill-based learning in school education, such as activity-based programmes and exposure to vocational learning in the classes VI to XII. Although the schools are not yet aligned to one standard national travel-learning framework, India has the building blocks for travel education.

Why It Matters for Students Interested in Travel Careers?

Anyone interested in a future career in tourism, hospitality, travel management, aviation or event management and destination marketing can make use of the knowledge of how places actually operate.

These interests can be nurtured through a good school travel programme before students select a college course of study. An individual who is interested in how a tourist destination gets visitors may later explore tourism management; an individual who is interested in cultures and languages may consider travel operations or international tourism; and another student may find an interest in photography, creation of content, or destination marketing. Travel, therefore, can be an early experience of exploring careers.

What might the future be like?

A better travel education model in Indian schools may be able to integrate classroom learning with well-planned trips. Students could receive project credits for researching a destination, keep digital travel logs, learn about local economies and undertake sustainability projects related to the destinations they visit.

This may make school education seem more like the industry that students wish to pursue if they are already aware of their career aspirations. While India does not have a national Travel Education Framework at present, the trajectory of NEP 2020 is towards learning being achieved not just from books, but from experiences, communities and places. That might be part of the education for the next generation of travel professionals.