The key finding in a recent study that even top schools in major cities in India suffer from the entrenched tendency to impart rote learning may have some shock value to those who believe that private educational institutions place greater emphasis on quality and holistic education.
However,for those closely observing the school education scenario,it is a re-affirmation of a bitter truth:schools in our country are,by and large,quite far from seeing education as a process of learning with understanding,acquiring knowledge through self-discovery and conceptualisation;rather,education remains a mere transmission of information in a rigid classroom atmosphere,where the emphasis is on memorisation and the objective is to rush through a pre-determined syllabus and prepare children for examinations.
While on the scholastic side the WIPRO-Educational Initiatives ‘Quality Education Study,’which covered 89 schools,shows a fall in learning standards among students in classes 4,6,and 8 over the last five years,it also flags a disturbing deficit of social sensitivity on the part of a sizable section of students. Responses to some questions relating to the education of girls and attitudes towards immigrants,the disabled,and HIV-positive patients,indicated biases that could,over time,grow into prejudices.
Exploring the mind of the young at a formative stage in this way,which some might consider methodologically challengeable,is a particularly valuable part of this study. It will be a serious mistake to ignore the broad trend that indicates misconceptions of early years being carried on to a higher age and the possibility of these children imbibing biases they see in their family atmosphere or social milieu.
Over the years,there have been some serious efforts to put in place a national curriculum framework. For instance,the Yash Pal committee’s progressive report of 1993,Learning without Burden,demonstrated how the curriculum load was a burden on the child and highlighted the defects of the examination system.
The National Curriculum Framework 2005 was a game attempt to provide a vision of education as a pursuit of both quality and equity. Yet,despite increasing awareness that learning is not mere information accumulation and that teaching ought to be recast into a facilitation of children’s discovery of their own potential and understanding,the emphasis in practice continues to be on textbooks and exams.
Conceptual understanding is not encouraged anywhere near enough,and sport,art,debate,and cultural activity are kept at the distant
periphery. It is time not merely for fostering greater awareness about the need for holistic education but also to chalk out more imaginative pedagogic means to make education an inclusive and quality-centric epistemic process.
I agree with the editor that in our education system we focus more on rote learning,memorising and how to pass the exam with flying colours. Focus should be on concept based learning. It is the duty of the parents first,and teacher,second,to impart value education to the children. Our children do not enjoy reading,in one survey it was found that below class 10,about 6 hours was spent on watching useless stuff in the television and not even one hour on enjoyment reading. Children spend most of their time in speeing,then in school,then television,then internet or indoor games,then outdoors and curriculum studies;there is no time for fun-reading. This is scary and not good for our country’s future.
from:Aiman Reyaz
Comment received from The Hindu Link
When it comes to education,it is the quality which matters not the quantity. Extra curricular activities serve as as catalyst in an individuals all round development. Students must be set free to explore their own potentials. There must be surveys like the Yash Pal committee’s progressive report of 1993,Learning without Burden,kept at regular intervals to minutely analyse our education system.
from:Mukul Chhabra
Comment received from The Hindu Link
Your editorial is welcome for a quality change in the perspective of stakeholders in education of children. As J Krishnamurthi puts it,the holistic personality of the child is the first &foremost objective of any education system.In my long experience and many experiments as a motivator with many institutions and students,I found that even inborn qualities like curiosity are killed in the spirit of the child in most cases.Of course,many experiments and efforts are taking place now in many institutions in the name of fine-tuning of personality. But the campaign of unnecessary comparison of one child with the other and creation of unnecessary bias towards the future career opportunities has not allowed the normal of growth of children. In fact,they lost their innocence and became restless about future in the name of ‘maturity’I feel,in this context,that there is a necessity of functioning of an unbiased motivators at schools and colleges,who will help the students very much.
from:selvaraj
Comment received from The Hindu Link
The people with degrees from many institutes seamlessly have no qualms in following casteism or having outdated thoughts on the place of women,etc —in fact,these “big”people try to make regressive thoughts more mainstream than anyone else. Any good human being is an educated person and anyone burning in jealousy,hatred,greed and lust is uneducated. Emphasis needs to be on having good values like respecting everyone as equal rather than in saying and acting out with good etiquette outside but having regressive thoughts inside.
from:Yashwanth P
Comment received from The Hindu Link
There are many factors which mandate the teachers and students to opt rote learning.In our country,In order to get a seat in best college for a professional degree,simple knowledge is not enough.Even If a person gets around 90% in a particular qualifying exam,there is a possibility that he/she could not get a seat in desired college because of their birth of which he/she is not responsible. So now,what is the alternative,except to memorize a lot so that they could get it.And how’ll the student know how to memorize till the teacher tells him a way.And even parents want their children to study in reputed colleges who bring pressure on teachers telling that their child performance is not upto their requirement.What will the teacher do now?Neither the teachers nor the students are left with any option except memorizing. This case runs till a person is employed… All this is because of over competition among individuals. I think the entire process is in a loop..a tangent is to be found..
from:Krishna
Comment received from The Hindu Link
A beautiful analysis on the current education system. Along with the conceptual knowledge and self exploration,our system also miss to impart a social learning and awareness about responsibilities to the future citizens. Humanities subjects which are very much relevant to society and country,national goals,welfare etc. every such thing remains missing. The end product of such education is self centered foot soldiers not broad minded leaders. We should inculcate into the process the making of good citizens along with employable individuals. All technologies are to serve humans and not the vice-verse.
from:Brijesh Rajak
Comment received from The Hindu Link
The problem is that we have failed to come up with a good alternative which would replace the present system. This present system (established by Britishers) is so much entrenched in our psyche that it would not be easy to replace it. It existed because it suited the needs of the government/administration,and it has (and had) tacit support of the masses too. Believe me,there is a huge chunk of parents and students who favor this present system (especially those who do “good”in schools) because it suits them. And,unfortunately,these are the very people who reach the top and are policy makers;and thus the vicious cycle. Anyway,cutting it short,I suppose the solution,albeit a temporary one,should be to focus on tweaking the present system (rather than replacing it) so as to create enough spaces for any new sub-system to survive within the larger domain of the present one. How to do it is the challenge!
from:Yogesh Pant
Comment received from The Hindu Link
For many of the problems,the sources are outside the educaional system. For example,with regard to sports and games,it is the real estate which is the real culprit,not so much the school managements. Our town planning has no space for schools,parks etc.,–therefore,schools have come to run in Apartments! The Zilla Parishad or Mandal Schools are better in this regard,but they dont have teachers! Next,understanding,potential etc.,these are possible when we have good lab environments. Now a days,there is not even enough space for children to sit,or even for toilets,where will schools have labs? And how many lower and mid-middleclass can pay the small premium this may demand? Nothing less than another independence struggle can set these maladies straight,only it cannot be radical or overnight,but resilient and sustained reforms with POLITICAL WILL. Kurukshetra battle was fought with some base rules,why cant we agree on some fundamentals to live and thrive?!
from:Yanamala Subbarao
Comment received from The Hindu Link
It is an interesting topic. It is true that curriculum in our schools today are rigid to the extent that children in their primary and secondary level ,have forgotten to enjoy their school days. they have become monotonous,going through their daily rigours thrust on them by their teachers,parents and peers.they are conditioned to appeal to the society and the surroundings.But there is another side of this story. Are the students of the resent generation,dumb in their outward looking? certainly not. the internet has opened their world to a wealth of information.all of them are teach savvy nowadays. Students in their primary are creating their own accounts in all the social websites.web chatting is the order of the day. they flip through the mobile with ease and sophistication.Listening to music on the move is their style statement. talking about all the gizmo gadgets is their way of showing off. No need for pocket money.give them a laptop with internet access.they say goodbye to u.
from:P.G.RAVIKUMAR
Comment received from The Hindu Link
Totally in agreement with the author.The education system in our country is flawed.We seem to focus on preparing for exams and scoring marks.Seldom has there been an emphasis on exploring our potential or encouragement to take up sports and arts as career options.But the flaw is deep rooted and would require a genuine effort to revamp the whole educational system of our country.
from:raju
Comment received from The Hindu Link
entire story has one more point to state that our sysyem has been failed to produce good teachers..mushroomed b,ed college and poor quality of training..unqualified trainer- what we could expect with this kind of scenario.its fact that we are in british influence but how long we could state this reason.teaching is tough job and all teachers should realize that teaching has moral connotation,dont take this job as a take off point.goverment should give healthy amount to teacher.goverment must move forward to create INDIAN EDUCATION SERVICE (as suggested by ARC 1969) .
from:Jitendra kumar soni
Comment received from The Hindu Link
I was thinking what is quality education? Can I say,that which meets the need of our country. It can include the following. Learning the fundamentals of science,maths. How to communicate effectively,good ettiquets,discipline,respect for another indiviual. It is a sad fact many of us do not know how to behave in public. Who should teach children good toilet habits. Many of the toilets if any available for public use are made very dirty. What is the use of knowing Einstien theory without imbibing basic commonsence?
from:Ayyappa
Comment received from The Hindu Link
The school has been a solitary confinement giving some solace to the parents as per the need of time. The flow of todays’education is preparing a person start self educating. The introspection by the learner will sometimes open his own inner eyes before going to the tombs. The need of the hour is to let the person breathe and survive in the business oriented school syllabii that is churning the so called graded scholars. Few exceptional talents really cope up the present trends but,the large populii still are left with no choice but fulfill parents dream. The gurukul tradition has to be imposed at least during vacation to have a twist in the peacful learning mind that will inculcate a habit to nurture the mind within exploring a universe within through self education.
from:ilyas ahmed
Comment received from The Hindu Link
A Tamilnadu govt school teacher in the primary level gets three times the salary of a private matriculation school teacher and naturally one must observe three times capability of this govt school teacher in comparison. Reality is totally different –terrible drawbacks in imparting English language is the first minus point and many other issues follow. Most surprisingly the govt school teachers send their children to private schools only. That shows the duplicity in their actions. They are aware of their shortcomings. The govt has not taken any action on the govt school teachers so far.
from:chandrasekar
Comment received from The Hindu Link
There need be no surprise if education remains the way it does now in our country. The Centre and the various States have made a mess of our educational system. As the maxim goes,the people get a government it deserves,the educational system is also tailored to the needs of the parents. The latter,crave for transforming their wards to technocrats,doctors,engineers and the like and our educationists also formulte policies to suit the quest of these parents. Schools and colleges have become production units of professionlas. Even the basic tenets of education to metamorphose the individual to a acvilized being are given a goodbye! Education is a tool to re-form or remould the mind of the individual. It should create a conducive atmosphere that enables the student to learn things by absorbing and assimilating lectures and texts and not merely by rote. It is not a repressive measure merely to ram in millions of information bytes to prepare him solely to face an examination.
from:N. Sadasivan Pillai
Comment received from The Hindu Link
Great article. They create an illusion that education is all about
getting good grades in examination and getting top ranks. This makes the student think that all his/her efforts and thinking should be focused on how to excel in exams. It is high time we get out of this illusion and truly understand the need for education.
from:Karthik Srinivasan
Comment received from The Hindu Link
The editor is right in saying that our system focuses on conceptual
learning. Emphasis is on scoring good marks in exams and promoting the children to the next class. Nobody cares to teach them basic manners and ettiquets. Along with teaching the students fundamentals of science and maths students should be encouraged to take up curricular activities like dramatics and sports. Emphasis should be made on all round development instead of laying stress on increasing the beauty of marksheet with more and more marks.
from:sumangla sharma
Comment received from The Hindu Link
jay mataji.
the editor is very right…i think everyone knows that our education system have lot of defects.we just always talk about this defects,even every 15 or 20 days we read about education system in INDIA…but we fail to materialize the concept based education….fault is not in our education bt the fault lies in our decision making power to correct it….
from:rajdeepsinh
Comment received from The Hindu Link
In our time there were periods of Pressies”,Essays,Poetry,outing,debates etc.not seen in many schools.We have outstanding schools but the system must spread everywhere.More than students teachers work for money not for the fondness.Educating is just pass time for them.See how teachers change jobs today.In our time there were teachers in one school for their life time.They had the feeling of attachment to school and students Training and selection of teachers is the first priority.
from:Ashok
Comment received from The Hindu Link
I know that rote learning is there in indian schools,but i didn’t
perceive that top schools are using same pedagogy methods.This
competitive world makes every one achieve some how top position in
education with out firm basis on rudimentary concepts.students are
made to do so because of their social milieu or parents pressure at
home to study .So it is easy for a child to get habituated to rote
learning than conceptual study.A part from laws and legislation,we
need to change our children mindset for conceptual study.Not blaming the government,students in top schools have their parents educational profile at high standards,and their children are habituated to rote learning.isn’t that a bit unusual?
from:vemu suhal
Comment received from The Hindu Link
“Process is just about to mug up the lessons clear examinations with flying colors but focus should be given in clearing the concepts and basics and to develop a good reading habit within child instead of hours spent on television serials and virtual Internet world. Extra curricular activities will carve a unique personality of child and will demolish bias stages between a boy and a girl,resulting in a better society.
from:Gaurav Mishra
Comment received from The Hindu Link
Technical education alone will not suffice without the complementary social sciences and humanities. The latter help students to be free from biases and become broadminded when they become adults. We have to focus on turning out students with creative and critical thinking abilities . We need to emphasize less on marks and ranks and develop their interests in sports,literary activities and other extracurricular activities.
from:J.Ravindranath
Comment received from The Hindu Link
Your editorial on Quality education still elusive is highly thought provoking.The educational system should be dynamic in nature.The present day teaching is mainly textbook oriented.It doesn’t provide anything for life.In order to improve he quality of education the content must be oriented towards developing essential life skills like self awareness,critical thinking,effective communication,creative thinking,problem solving,interpersonal relationship,coping with emotion,coping with stress,empathy and decision making.
from:Rajan KVarughese
Comment received from The Hindu Link
Education has nothing to do with the development of. rote or memorizing skills. It is a process through which all round personality of the denizens of this planet can be developed. It is the third eye of human beings. The dissemination of proper ideas is possible only when the subjects of humanities would be taught to science and commerce stream to inculcate good moral values in students.
from:rajan kapoor
Comment received from The Hindu Link
Both your editorial and the study on which it is based,stops short of probing into the factors responsible for the sorry state of schooling in India. All the fancy policy documents and curriculum frameworks too refuse to take cognizance of the fact that the main reason for poor and shallow learning would be the absence of committed school teachers who are sensitive to a child’s socializing experience and teach in a fashion that students can relate to and understand. But given that teaching itself is so belittled a profession that possibilities of reflective and meaningful learning are slim. What we need are committed teachers who are cared for and valued. Again a bureaucratic approach to resolve this by making B.Ed compulsory,as RTE now mandates,would hardly help. Indeed it is time that we recognize teaching as more an art and less a skill that could be imparted to all and sundry. Major rethink is needed on schools,learning and teaching to fundamentally refashion them.
from:R S Krishna
Comment received from The Hindu Link
While great grades and good colleges need not be good,they help you get a 9 to 5 job. While extra curricular activities are good,they do not pay as much as the drab IT job which might kill your soul. It is a choice which one has to make. Very few can afford to make that choice. The rest of us have to study and work twice as hard to ensure that our children get lucky enough. Not all are going to Einsteins and Madam Curies. The average engineer need not be exceptionally brilliant. He just needs to be of average intelligence. You can always have elite institutions which can cater to future wannabe Einsteins.
from:Siva Bhaskaran
Comment received from The Hindu Link
Dismissing rote learning completely is naive and display ignorance about its benefits. In fact,rote learning is central during the early years,for the capacity of the brain to absorb and retain material is phenomenal during the early years. A child can easily learn several languages,whereas an adult will find it difficult to learn even one additional language. Once all that is essential is memorized,the later school years can start to train the brain on analytical skills,reasoning,problem-solving,etc. But all this rests on the foundation of rote learning. In a recent neurological study on adults,the authors state that,“It can be cautiously asserted that an extended period of rote rehearsal leads to enhanced future learning accompanied by changes in the markers of cell health in a key memory structure of the brain.”Rote learning has its place,an important one at that!
from:C.S. Ramalingam
Comment received from The Hindu Link
‘Rote’learning and learning by Reasoning/Conceptualizing should co-exist at the lower classes;the mix depends on the extent of development of the child’s capacity to reason/conceptualize,say against a global bench mark. While ‘rote’ is primary to the learning process as evidenced by the child’s inherently endowed tendency to learn by mimicking ,reasoning or conceptualizing starts relatively later;how much and when,differs from child to child. Each child blossoms at different threshold ages to reason out and understand. I have known several children who have shown little promise in their early years of schooling;but,have gone on to achieve high academic and holistic development both professionally and socially.‘Rote’ and ‘Reasoning’ should supplement and complement each other in the learning process,without prejudice to the editorial call for a “holistic education and a more imaginative pedagogic means to make education an inclusive and quality-centric epistemic process”.
from:M.R.Sampath
Comment received from The Hindu Link
yes,i totally agree with this editorial.Especially in our country scoring higher marks is more important than understand things conceptually.private as well as government institution both are focused on number rather than concept.they show there result on the basis of marks.recently k.narayenmurty said that iit student even has not conceptually sound than before.they not believe on seminar,debate,inter college debate,cultural activity,case study base study.
from:md zahid hussain
Comment received from The Hindu Link
unless and untill we donot have a good governing system we donot expect revamp a change in our education system and our country must have private based education not to compete exam but to innovate new ideas and new concepts,this is possible when we change our mindset to do something different and contribute in development of our country.
from:satish singh
Comment received from The Hindu Link
Rote learning every where from elementary to your undergraduate degrees today. Suddenly you are to apply mind how is it possible Mr. Educator from HRD ministry. Kapil talks too much did he really made proper study on Yash pal committee report.
Governments talk on economic development how that can take place in real terms if your education system is terribly flawed. Some commentator said India Education service,true but what are the inputs? Governments send committees to visit other states to study on education do we really see correct committee members are there. What is the point of hoarse talk when your own system of education administration itself flawed. Child needs time to first assimilate the surroundings. Understand it. What are the social needs it has to understand. No point you telling them you do this and that. What use it serves? You think you are arbiter on the child. You give D.Ed.,B.Ed etc courses in which you do not talk about what teacher has to assess in each child..
from:Dr.G. Balakrishnan
…it is a world known fact that every individual is just unique and there is no replacement at all. When that is the fact of life how you can grade in your so called parameters? You have to see what the child is capable of and what the child needs and how you will help and how your efforts can be helped by so called governments in power. Most of the time governments waste their time in politicking and not interested in child mental development and what contributions child can make and these kinds of studies are needed but simply giving just some big names Research Institute of Education cannot fill up the issue perhaps you may give sinecure of offices to your men and women for whatever reason you may have. But big zero in real meaningful research. See in USA,I am on a visit for six months,carrying out studies on early childhood care. In USA governments want its childhood educators running care centres for toddlers shall have to do continuous courses on child psychology of toddlers.
from:Dr. G. Balakrishnan
just for toddlers,the child care centers should be fully qualified.
Besides a center cannot admit more than 6 toddlers if they have 2 well trained child early educators they can have 10 toddlers.. or 6/10 children only in the age group of 15 days infant to 6 -8 years child and if you have infants ..
from:dr. g. balakrishnan
Here in USA no classroom up to High school do not have more than 22
students,while in middle school up to 20 students. Here all students do a lot of small projects and given a lot exposure to their creativity. Teachers work with students in primary,middle and high schools. College admissions for under grad courses are selected on the basis of their extra curricular activities and certificates and medals. School grades are given on extra curricular activities too. so it will be interesting to know that children get scholarships and grants from thousands of institutions including from veterans too. That is the way children are given opportunities to open up mentally certainly Indians and educationists as also so called HRD ministries need to know. Simple dramas are indeed no use. In fact our children
can do a lot of meritorious things given proper environment. Truly
environment relevant to education is indeed missing terribly. Our govt ministries really waste time on higher education.
from:dr. g. balakrishnan
I think we all know that problem exists in the present education
system. We should focus on the solution. Does the society,parents
likes such school which give more emphasis on the extra co curricular
activities ? No way. For this we must first review our examination
system. Why a student who is good at dancing,singing,drawing etc.
does not get any extra marks ? The examination system should be
changed in such a way that the parents,teachers and society start
giving importance to conceptual understanding and overall development
instead of just memorizing power.
from:chetan shah
I am a student. I know how people only study from the exam point of view. They just get the marks they get for a better position in class…it’s the same as saying ‘If they were no marks allotted for any of the tests,no one would even think of opening their book’…That’s completely WRONG! Students should study as to develop a scientific temper,humanism,the spirit of inquiry and reform,not just because of any kind of ‘PRESSURE’,the ‘pressure’(though it is not at all a pressure) their parents put on them at home –only to pass or anything like that,or the ‘pressure’ teachers at school give them beating them black and blue. THAT SHOULD BE STOPPED! The consequential nervousness leads to wide disasters. Everyone should be taught fairly,no teacher should have any kind of grudge against anyone just for someone else he/she wants to favour. Parents who do not understand the importance of education SHOULD NOT deprive their children of good education! That’s the root cause of all evil.
from:Shaista Farheen
Thanks for all your efforts that you have put in this. Very interesting info. “The rule is perfect in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.”by Mark Twain.