India is not merely a geography; it is a flowing river of memories, traditions, and lived wisdom carried across generations. From the silent stones of ancient monuments to the melodies of folk songs, from sacred rivers to intricate crafts shaped by human hands, India’s identity has been woven through centuries of dialogue between nature and culture. Here, heritage is not confined to museums or archives; it breathes through languages, rituals, landscapes, and everyday practices.
As of 2026, there are 1,248 UNESCO World Heritage Sites globally, of which India holds 44 — including 36 cultural, 7 natural, and 1 mixed site, representing nearly 3.5% of the world’s recognised heritage. Remarkably, despite covering only about 2.4% of the Earth’s land area, India supports nearly 7–8% of all recorded species, placing it among the world’s 17 Megadiverse Countries. This extraordinary density of cultural and biological diversity underscores both privilege and responsibility. The preservation of heritage is not merely an act of remembrance but a commitment to safeguarding the future.
It was within this larger civilizational context that I attended the training workshop titled “Role of Schools in Conservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage,” organised by the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT), New Delhi, from 2nd to 11th February 2026. The experience offered more than professional training; it invited participants to reimagine education itself as a living bridge between past wisdom and future possibilities.
Why Conservation? Understanding Heritage, Culture and Continuity
Heritage refers to the legacy inherited from the past, lived in the present, and passed on to future generations. It encompasses both tangible forms — monuments, landscapes, and artefacts and intangible expressions such as languages, traditions, rituals, festivals, knowledge systems, and artistic practices. Culture represents the collective way of life of a community: its values, beliefs, artistic expressions, social practices, and ways of understanding the world. Conservation is the conscious effort to protect, preserve, and sustain these natural and cultural resources so that they remain meaningful and accessible for generations to come.
In today’s rapidly changing world, conservation becomes essential not only to safeguard physical structures or ecological systems but also to maintain continuity of identity and knowledge. Heritage conservation reminds societies of their shared roots, while cultural preservation nurtures diversity and empathy. Education plays a central role in this process by enabling young learners to recognise the value of what they inherit and to become active participants in its protection.
Why Teachers and Schools as Ambassadors of Cultural Heritage?
Teachers and schools occupy a unique position at the intersection of knowledge, culture, and social transformation, making them natural ambassadors of cultural heritage. Schools are not merely spaces for academic instruction; they are environments where values, identities, and collective memory are nurtured through everyday learning experiences. By integrating cultural narratives, local knowledge systems, and experiential activities such as arts-based learning, heritage walks, and community engagement, schools become active centres for preserving and transmitting heritage. Teachers, as facilitators of this process, help students engage with heritage as a living continuum, cultivating cultural awareness, respect for diversity, and a sense of responsibility toward conservation.
Art, Culture and Pedagogy: Learning Beyond the Textbook
One of the most significant insights emerging from the workshop was the understanding that heritage education cannot remain confined to textbooks. Culture lives through practice, through music, theatre, crafts, storytelling, and everyday rituals that shape collective memory. When art forms such as drama, mime, movement, and traditional crafts enter pedagogical spaces, learning becomes experiential.
Art exists universally, yet each culture shapes its meaning uniquely. Fine arts allow individual creativity to flourish, while cultural arts operate at a societal level, preserving collective memory. Theatre-based methodologies demonstrated how storytelling can animate history and social themes, encouraging students to inhabit perspectives rather than memorise facts. Mime and movement revealed the expressive power of body language — the silent language of emotions and thought.
Traditional craft workshops illuminated indigenous knowledge systems embedded within artistic practice. Crafts emerged not merely as decorative skills but as repositories of ecological wisdom and cultural continuity. Such integration transforms schools into spaces where learning engages both intellect and imagination.
For heritage education to become meaningful, it must move beyond conceptual discussions toward practical implementation at school and societal levels. Schools can integrate heritage-based projects within the curriculum, establish Cultural Clubs, and encourage art-integrated pedagogy alongside regular field visits to local heritage and cultural sites on a fortnightly or monthly basis. Teachers can foster interdisciplinary learning by linking history with art, science with ecology, and language with cultural expression.
A Holistic Vision: Heritage, Values and the Future of Education
The workshop illuminated an educational philosophy deeply aligned with India’s civilizational ethos as well as contemporary reforms such as the National Education Policy 2020. It emphasized that heritage education is not confined to the preservation of monuments or traditions; rather, it integrates knowledge with values, creativity with responsibility, and individual growth with collective awareness.
Rooted in long-standing philosophical ideals such as Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam—the worldview that regards the world as one family, and the principle of unity in diversity, this approach envisions education as a means of nurturing ethical sensitivity alongside intellectual development. Learners are encouraged to respect cultural plurality while recognising the deeper threads of shared human interconnectedness.
Such a holistic vision also foregrounds experiential learning, art integration, and community engagement. By connecting classroom learning to living traditions, local histories, and intangible cultural practices, heritage education fosters empathy, dialogue, and civic responsibility. It prepares students not only to excel academically but also to become culturally aware, socially responsive, and globally conscious citizens.mIn this way, heritage-based pedagogy contributes to shaping an educational future that is rooted in values, responsive to diversity, and oriented toward sustainable and inclusive development.
CCRT: Bridging Culture and Education
The Centre for Cultural Resources and Training has emerged as a vital institution in integrating culture with education across India. With its headquarters at Dwarka, four regional centres, and with a modest staffing of around members, CCRT has so far trained nearly 2.5 lakh teachers and around 10 lakh students. Through interdisciplinary training, field visits, and creative workshops, CCRT encourages educators to view themselves as cultural facilitators, and as individuals entrusted with nurturing curiosity, creativity, and social responsibility.
However, at the systemic level, greater coordination between CCRT and respective state education departments is essential. With more than 50 lakh teachers working across nearly 10 lakh government schools, integrating culture and heritage into mainstream education is a herculean task requiring collaborative frameworks, structured training programmes, and sustained professional development. Partnerships between schools, cultural institutions, local communities, and artisans can strengthen awareness and participation, ensuring that heritage education becomes an integral, scalable component of the national educational landscape.
Unity in Diversity: A Classroom of many Indias
The workshop brought together 53 teachers from nine States/UTs, representing a remarkable spectrum of geographical and cultural landscapes — from the Himalayan regions of Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Assam, and Sikkim to the plains of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar; from coastal and western regions such as Goa and Kutch in Gujarat to the southern cultural milieu of Telangana.
Regional cultural presentations enabled participants to experience India’s plurality through music, dance, costume, and narratives rooted in local histories. These exchanges transformed the workshop into a microcosm of India itself where diversity was celebrated as collective strength. Such interactions fostered empathy and demonstrated that intercultural understanding is best learned through shared experience rather than abstract theory.
The case for Greater Regional Representation from Himalayan States
The workshop highlighted the importance of ensuring broader participation of educators from geographically and culturally unique regions such as Jammu & Kashmir, and North East in national-level training programmes like those conducted by CCRT. These regions possess rich yet often underrepresented cultural traditions shaped by Himalayan ecology, syncretic histories, linguistic diversity, indigenous knowledge systems, and refined artistic heritage. Providing greater access to such national platforms enables educators from these areas to engage meaningfully with diverse cultural narratives, and contemporary pedagogical innovations. Equally important, such participation helps break stereotypes and narrow perceptions about border and mountain communities.
The Vastness of India’s Cultural Universe
The experience of the workshop ultimately revealed the immense and layered vastness of India’s cultural universe, a civilizational expanse so profound that it resists easy summarisation. From living traditions and artistic expressions to ecological wisdom and diverse regional identities, the perspectives encountered during the programme reaffirmed that heritage is not a singular narrative but a constellation of countless stories unfolding simultaneously. It is therefore difficult to encapsulate the entirety of these learnings within a single article.
What has been presented here is only a glimpse, a humble attempt to reflect upon a journey that opened new pathways of understanding education, culture, and identity. The enormity of India’s cultural heritage invites deeper exploration, and an endeavour shall be made to write more detailed pieces on each of the mentioned aspects and perspectives.
In this sense, the workshop does not conclude with its final day; rather, it begins an ongoing intellectual and cultural journey. For in the vast tapestry of India’s cultural heritage, every journey into understanding becomes only a beginning, a reminder that heritage is not something we merely preserve, but something that continues to shape and awaken us.
(The Author is a Kashmir based educator, writer & poet and can be reached at: [email protected])
