Let's Go Out of Syllabus

Context: A case for dismantling our exam-centric education system that only creates hyper-competitiveness and perpetuates inequalities.

Qualities provided by education for children: Sensitize them; make them humble wanderers; activate their patience and endurance; cultivate the ethics of care; prepare them to pass through existence with the songs of collective redemption.

Problems with exam-centric education system:

• Standardized exams are not neutral: Despite having diverse and asymmetrical socio-cultural context, students are required to master the same texts, equate knowledge with the same official curriculum and write the same exam.
  • The digital divide in the country suggests that “online” teaching/learning is a myth and has done injustice to those who cannot afford it.
  • Thus their performances are bound to differ and will perpetuate social inequality.
• Not the substance of meaningful education:  The ritualization and tyranny of exams cause immense psychic anxiety, generate widespread fear, and deprive the entire experience of learning/unlearning/exploring of a sense of joy, wonder and self-discovery.
  • Every subject is reduced to a set of exam riddles: It transforms one into a clever strategist; one is trained (by coaching centres as well as school teachers) to master the technique of giving the “right” answer.
  • Kills the spirit of learning as self-exploration: One-sided emphasis on exam performance at the cost of reading books, exploring scientific reasons for ones experiences etc.
• Ethical issues:
  • Legitimizes hyper-competitiveness as a way of life: By breeding fear, envy and superiority/inferiority complex.
  • Against the spirit of reciprocity, symmetry and cooperation: Thus, “successful” products of the system (“toppers” and “gold medallists”) tend to be egoistic. 
  • Provides no room for developing good qualities: like the art of relatedness, humility, the ethos of sharing, and trust.

Conclusion: Neurosis of exam-centric education shall be replaced with something truly challenging and life-affirming.