Education- Is it synonym to rote learning?

"Education" has been derived from the Latin term "Educatum" which means the act of teaching or training. A group of educationists say that it has come from another Latin word "Educare" which means "to bring up" or "to raise".

According to a few others, the word "Education" has originated from another Latin term "Educere" which means "to lead forth" or "to come out". All these meanings indicate that education seeks to nourish the good qualities in man and draw out the best in every individual. Education seeks to develop the innate inner capacities of man.

By educating an individual we attempt to give him/her some desirable knowledge, understanding, skills, interests, attitudes and critical 'thinking. That is, he acquires knowledge of history, geography, arithmetic, languages and sciences.

Rote learning is a memorization technique based on repetition. The idea is that one will be able to quickly recall the meaning of the material the more one repeats it and not learning and understanding.

Wasn’t school supposed to be about learning and understanding? Instead of focusing on analyzing literature, or describing scientific phenomena, it seems like students entire future hinged on whether they could memorize and reproduce it exactly in the same way in examination.

According to a nationwide survey by EZVidya, 80% of principals believe that the emphasis on rote learning is leading to the poor quality of our education system. Rote learning has been the staple of the Indian education system for many years. While many Indians have attained success despite this system, simply being able to recall information is not enough in today’s world when that information is instantly available to anyone with a mobile phone. the question is -what about applying knowledge to solve real world problems?

The obsession with rote learning will only change if we have stronger leadership in our education system and schools. The leaders of our schools – block officers, inspectors, management, and principals – must shift their focus from administration to ‘leading learning’. Leaders should ensure that all schools facilitate deeper understanding of content, so that each child in each classroom is equipped with the ability to take information and apply it when necessary. This will begin to happen when schools are supported to implement three simple practices: planning, assessment, and accountability.

Most teachers do limited or no planning before they teach a class. This means that teachers tend to convey information in the easiest way possible – writing on the board or reading out of a book while students copy it in their books. The leaders in our schools must institute systems that support the teacher to plan not only what information they will present to students but also how the students will engage with this content. The process of thinking about this beforehand, pushes teachers to incorporate practices beyond the standard rote method of teaching.

Much of the discussion about assessment of students has been about the need for board exams or the frequency of assessment in policies like the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) mandated by the Right to Education Act (RTE).

However, there must also be a focus on the types of questions being asked to our students – whether in board exams, class tests, or even when a teacher is simply posing a question to his or her class. Students must not only be asked questions for which they must recall the correct information. Assessments must be designed to provide students the opportunity to show that they can analyze and synthesize content, and apply their learning to real world problems.

When evaluating the success of schools, leaders must not only ask, ‘What have the students been provided’ or ‘What have the students been taught?’ but also ‘What have students learned?’ School leaders must structure time in their day to observe classrooms for evidence of student learning. The leaders themselves must have clarity in what to look for, so that they don’t settle for checking the word for word definition of a science concept, but instead observe whether the student has attained the ability to use this concept.

Instead of fretting over losing marks because of a misplaced word, students could be spending their time understanding how the tangent function can unlock the secrets of our existence – how planets travel, how tall our highest peaks are, and how sound moves through the atmosphere. All of India’s students deserve this education and this is what will allow our country to flourish. Responding to the rote learning crisis is one of the biggest challenges facing school leaders and it is not an exaggeration to say the future of the nation depends on it.