Are Strict Teachers, Rote Learning Responsible For The Indian Education Turmoil?

“We score good marks to prove ourselves in front of others. We cram the concepts and forget after writing in examinations,” says Riya Airy. Studying in class 6th, Riya believes that this kind of education is useless to us.

When the earth is about to add one more rotation in its history, Riya is pacing the roof. She adds that it feels boring when the teacher teaches in the classroom through textbooks. But it is fascinating to do the activities related to the concepts of books themselves.

Riya’s coeval cousin, Tanmay Bora, while plunging over the conversation, speaks – “By gaming activities, we can easily make children understand the addition and subtraction.” He agrees that teachers seem unwilling to engage students in other activities than studying bookish concepts. According to him – “Teachers think that if students indulge more in activities, then they will not concentrate on academics.”

On this note, the statement of Dr Kamlesh Atwal, an educationist working with school children for a decade, seems apt. “School is part of a structure and system. It is effortless to run a system with a monopoly of teachers. Alternative learning needs a lot of trained human resources and dedication. So our education system and schools do not plunge over other activities rather than course books.”

An article published in Forbes India blog analyses that – “Most Indian graduates learn by rote from school till college. So they are unable to cope with the thinking skills modern workplaces demand. The Economist magazine reports that less than 25 percent of Indian graduate engineers are employable.”

Only 40% of our 14-18-year-olds can determine how much a blouse with a 10% discount costs. Only about 60% of people can tell the time on an analogue clock. The conclusions of the Pratham Annual Status of Education (ASER) 2017 report are dismal.

Recalling her school days, Sheetal Bhatt, 2nd year graduating student from Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state, says – “What we learn in school is meant for our classes and passing exams only. Textbook knowledge is not useful in society. Our education should prepare us for the challenges we face in life, but this is not the case with our education system.”

Sheetal is one of the critical members of a team in the state of Uttarakhand, which started a reading campaign of ‘Community Libraries’. She believes that low exposure of opportunities and lack of a learning environment are the main reasons teachers cannot create a creative and innovative space for children to learn.

With her experience of working with children in community libraries for years, she adds that – “Fear is such an element in our classrooms which restricts students from learning new things. In addition, there is a relationship of fear between students and teachers, which is a significant hurdle in learning. For creating a real learning space, we need to remove the fear element from our classrooms.”

Riya Kunwar has the solution to the concern of Sheetal. “If all teachers will be friendly with us, then we can share our feelings with them. We can clear our doubts from them with ease. It’s frightful even to speak in front of strict teachers.”

These are the words of a 12-year-old student in 7th grade. Further, she adds, “I never liked to mug up things as a cramming parrot does.” She believes if one has listened to the story with all ears, they should not be compelled to write precisely what is written in a notebook or book.

An educationist, Mahesh Punetha, working with school children in a Government Inter College of Uttarakhand, says – “The evaluation method of our exams is very superficial. There is no space for the original expression of students in it.”

In most cases, innocent voices of students like Riya Kunwar always go unheard. “If any student tries to write his/her views in exams, then most probably the teacher would deduct the marks.” Says Mr Mahesh. Glimpses of his understanding of education can be traced in the writings of litterateur educationist Mahesh Punetha.

In his book “Questions Of Education” or “शिक्षा के सवाल” (Hindi Ke Sawal), he mentions that education should be such that it helps students to get through ground reality of their surroundings and prepares them for upcoming future situations.

Taking the conversation further, he adds – “Our present education system creates a sense of competition among the students. There is no room for creativity where students are in the race to be at the forefront. Their only focus will be on how to get ahead. If their peers would perform better, then it would be more depressing for them.”

The competition creates anxiety and pressure among students. This can be seen in an anecdote of an African teacher mentioned in the class 11th NCERT book of Sociology ‘Understanding Society’.

It says as – “The anecdote refers to the teacher’s assumption that the children will naturally rejoice at the idea of a competitive race where the winner would get a bar of chocolate as a prize.

To her surprise, her suggestion not only did not evoke any enthusiasm but instead seemed to cause considerable anxiety and distress. On probing further, they express their distaste for a game where there would be ‘winners’ and ‘losers’.

This went against their idea of fun, which meant for them a necessarily cooperative and collective experience and not a competitive one where the rewards necessarily exclude some and reward one or few.”

Aanchal Joshi, a student of 10th standard, says on the competitiveness among students that – “In the race of being ahead of everyone, we forget that we aim to learn new things not just to cram.”

Criticising the classroom structure, she speaks – “In many cases, teachers give more priority to the fast learners. Slow learners always remain slow in learning because of less attention. The same happens in a society where prosperous people always remain prosperous, and the poor become poorer.”

In the words of Aanchal, after getting the aura of creative learning, students feel free and start asking questions. This makes teachers uncomfortable because our education system considers students as intelligent until they obediently study and learn. So from the day, a student starts questioning, teachers feel uneasy.

Dr Kamlesh believes the same. In a brown study, he says – “Our society and education system is intimidated by student centred classrooms because students will demand to change the world if they have the right to express themselves and if their voices will matter.”

He further adds that it is the speciality of a system that it doesn’t change. The school system is meant for preparing a uniform labour force in the post-industrial world.

For creating uniformity, regimentation is practised. Dr Kamlesh says – “Those students who ever faced regimentation can’t even think creatively. Once I asked my students to draw a picture of their dream school. It was surprising that most of the students had drawn the same pictures.

Many of them had portrayed some students being punished outside the classroom. It clearly illustrates that students learn what they observe around them. With regimentation, for sure, we can’t develop the values of love and friendship in society. Only ‘workers’ can be produced from it.”

According to him, a school is a tool for maintaining social order, class, hierarchy, and structure. He ends his talk with the words – “The day when we realise the necessity to make a change in our social, economic and political order then we would demand to change our education policies too.”