Reflections About Examination & Education Systems
Indias Learning and Examination System are based on Rote not on thinking and reasoning and discovering ones talents and developing ones skills
As we come to the annual examination season and the Annual State of Education Report (ASER) has been released by Pratham Education Foundation it has got me thinking about Indias examination and education system.
My friends were examination students, they used to just study for the exam and reproduce it, receiving good marks in the process. However, if you were to ask them anything about what they had studied after the exam, they would have no clue. In my case I could not just blindly study in this way, I needed to understand the concepts and the content and only then could I be prepared for the exam. However as I did not reproduce the matter verbatim and instead wrote it in my own words I never received high marks. Is this the point of our education, to just study and reproduce without understanding and reflecting. Is it just centered around exams or can be other ways which can showcase that the person has understood the necessary concepts or subjects.
This is not just a problem in India, when I went to study in the Netherlands I found the same, in a particular subject if the answers were not reproduced verbatim then you would be graded poorly or even fail, both of these consequences did occur to a few of my classmates. The other side of writing in your own way also has a drawback which I found out, the way must conform with how the educational institution wants and thinks otherwise the same consequences will apply, once again both occurred to a number of my classmates.
So what is the solution? One could be first developing various creative ways and methods of teaching and learning through which creative assessment systems could flow. Another could be developing certain assessment indicators and criteria through which various creative methods could flow. Both systems could be incentivized. Either way a move out of this archaic way of learning is desperately needed. The assessments need to be develop the creative thinking and reasoning of the student. The system must award creativity and must encourage ideas.
With regards to the learning and the curriculum there are various teaching systems like in the ones in Finland and Japan which can be adopted. Some components can be adopted from the German Education System which seeks to prepare the student more for skill based livelihood.