Education (Through and not despite, schooling)

Yesterday, I noticed a huge advertisement hoarding at a busy intersection in Bangalore. It related to a school, and had an image of a father saying, “After ten years, all my daughter is good at is writing exams? No, I wanted more from her school!” I stopped in my tracks for a split second, reflecting on what was simultaneously, the boon and bane of the typical Indian student.


In my graduate training class at my workplace, I realized that my colleagues from across the world were in awe of the practiced ease with which we Indians prepared for tests and our evident skill in attacking (especially) the multiple-choice test format. (Eliminate the wrong ones first, narrow down your choices and use intelligent guesstimates – takes me back to the mantras for cracking the CAT and other competitive exams that dominate the mindspace of Indians) At the same time, I’m keenly aware of our sad shortcomings in several other key areas. The Indian student lacks unshakeable confidence, the enthusiasm not to be daunted by open problems that require divergent thinking, the fearlessness to explore novel ideas without fear of failure, to name a few. As I look back at my twenty-one years of education, while I’m thankful to have been schooled in institutions that valued and honed various skills (apart from the art of succeeding in exams), I’m struck by how much broader the focus could have been, and how much more we students could have been prepared to tackle the tests of life.

Through the course of our studies, we have been made to place inordinate focus on examinations, on integrated thinking, on arriving at that “one correct answer”. I have come across very few classrooms where creative thinking takes precedence over mindless application of formulae, where imminent exams do not constrain exploration of new topics, where active engagement with fundamental principles is not brushed away in order to stick to the “typical question format”. Such classrooms should shift from being the feature of isolated pockets, to being the standard in our country.

It is a testimony to Indian determination and spirit that so many of our fellow Indians have emerged as influential thinkers, and as leaders in the corporate world, in spite of these initial, system-bred handicaps. However, that very success is detrimental in some sense, as it takes away the critical, pressing need to review the manner in which education is imparted in our country. It is all too easy to rest on our (scarce) laurels, to cite a few lone achievers to comfort ourselves as to the quality of our system. It’s important to understand that our system can go from producing a few black swans to one where excellence is a matter of course, where outstanding achievement becomes a habit. How can this change come to pass?

Some progressive steps in this direction have already come about. The CBSE’s decision to migrate to a letter-grade based system can prove to be salubrious if it is implemented in such a way as to shift from a narrow focus on examination scores to a system where students are given enough opportunities to develop other skills. When students no longer need to grasp at each fraction of a mark like a drowning man gasps for air, the classroom atmosphere is conducive to change…only if schools streamline their energies to explore creative avenues of problem solving, clarifying first principles-level concepts amongst others. I’m not against competition or ranking… in certain types of jobs, it’s important to be competitive, it’s just that I think it’s wholly unnecessary to turn 14 year olds into super-competitive robots – there’s still enough time in their lives for that, for those who choose to take that path. 

Talking of competition, and competitive exams, it is to be noted that the kind of skills that are actually required to be successful in life and in the workplace are not the ones that are tested in these exams. An article by an eminent Professor that I read a few days ago in a national daily had some great ideas about how the power of these exams can be tapped to enhance the skills of students. It is a well-known fact that students leave no stone unturned in preparing for these exams. Why then, should these exams not be structured to test a different set of skills than the ones they currently test? The focus of these tests can be realigned with the new values that are identified as critical. Move away from tests of abstract theory to tests of creative problem solving. This will result in whole batches of aspirants reschooling themselves in these values and will improve the quality of Indian scholarship.

It is disheartening that some universities have done away with rigorous selection methods, and are subjected to pressure and undue influence in the admissions process. Independence of education systems cannot be emphasized enough. The job of designing the selection process should be left to the discretion of the professors and should not be allowed to slip to the hands of administrators with vested interests.  

It is certainly not for lack of ideas that our systems continues to be found wanting. What’s needed is for the collective will of society, students, statesmen and educators to come to the fore, to commit to and deliver a system that is best suited to tap the enormous reservoir of scholarship in this country. And it is the duty of each one of us, not just to demand the right to a better system for students to come, but also to contribute our mite – in the form of ideas in public forums, volunteering to work with those who are willing to implement our ideas and by encouraging, even actively helping students in our family/friends circle to rise to the levels of scholarship that we know Indian students are capable of.

What are the other values and skills that ought to be developed in a student? How can our system be designed to impart these values and skills?