Same Old Rote Learning

Context: Analysing the opportunities for reforms in the educational sector that comes along as pandemic related issues.

Issues with education governance system

• Bureaucratic centralisation: Stemming from the bureaucratic attempt for standardisation of academic requirements, calendars, and teaching and learning processes amid the pandemic.
  • Unrealistic ‘one order fits all’ approach: Stressing on unnecessary bureaucratic centralisation.
  • Rigid insistence on rote learning,
  • Refusal to recognise the fact that marks obtained in exams are not the only markers of a student’s capabilities.
  • Reluctance to engage with fellow academicians and teachers to nurture academic engagement became a source of public distress.
  • Undermined proper and constructive academic interaction between teachers and students but also exposed everyone to new levels of distress.
    • E.g. While teachers conducted online classes daily, administrators were obsessed with monitoring them and showed scant interest in enquiring about the health and difficulties.

Way forward

• Multi-stakeholder approach: Consult academic stakeholders in policymaking.
• Reforms in exams and grading: Framework for continuous evaluation, open-book tests etc., shall be developed.
• Decentralise decision making: Extend powers to Universities/colleges regarding academic schedule, the conduct of exams etc.