Yesterday I was scrolling through Facebook and accidently I found one of the podcasts of R J Umar Nisar in which he was talking to one of the well known political faces of Kashmir, SajadGani Lone Sahib about the scenarios of education in Kashmir in particular and In India in general. Lone Sahib’s opening words touched my heart and I suppose, everyone among us will testify it, as he said that we are still living in bygone days of colonialism where rot learning, mugging up the things and concepts was the order of the day. He gave some practical references from some well acclaimed universities of the world which are ruling the world not only in academia but also in present day knowledge systems like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Coding etc which have recently revolutionized the world and prompted people across the length and breadth of the globe to think on modern lines in order to compete on the international front. He remarkably discarded rather dismantled the present day education system of India which still values memorization, mugging up and marks…
Believe me, he spoke my heart out when he said that the present day teachers in this part of the globe encourage rot learning and then it is they who set the papers themselves and then grade the students on the basic of memorization and mugging up.
But the questions is- Do we know that this mugging up scenario was in vogue in the bygone days of Gurukul system and Vedic period when memorization was the only tool to preserve the ancient records (history), hymns and other prevalent knowledge. And then colonial period came with the same knowledge system during the ‘historic’ Macaulay Minutes in 19th century, though with some minor changes in order to serve ‘their’ interests.
After the independence, when the locals took charge of the administration, they hardly bothered to reform the system for the overall benefit of the Indian society and to pave way for reason and research. They somehow saw and encouraged the positives in the education system. They opined that the system builds high mental stamina, develops intense focus and rapid factual recall. But unfortunately, they could not find its lacunas as it discourages original thought, questioning and out of the box problem solving.
Secondly, they stressed that the memorization helps to remember the basic formulae and to learn primary grammar rules. Contrary, they could not trace that the students struggle to apply the concepts to the real world problems.
My point is that, our champions and patrons of educations of the bygone days could not pinpoint the pitfalls in the prevalent education. And subsequently, they miserably failed to pave way for the innovative methods and methodologies. With the result, we are, in one way or the other, still stuck there and living in our fancy world which, in reality, does not exist now.
NEP 2020 and the Way Forward:
And then one fine day, fortunately, our policy makers woke up from the deep slumber and they came up with the National Education Policy 2020 with a vision and mission to eliminate the rot learning system once for all and to pave way for the holistic education which makes students ready to face every life challenge by equipping them with the requisite skill set. There was a paradigm shift from mugging up the things to experiential learning of ‘why’ and ‘how’ of things.
The NEP 2020 also emphasizes critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, digital literacy and coding, vocational skills and practical skills, soft skills and emotional intelligence…
But there are still some challenges which need to be overcome sooner or later. The biggest challenge as of now is bridging the gap between the policy design, ground reality and practical implementation.
Also, millions of teachers have to be trained on the modern lines with the practical and viable skills which need time and sustained investment.
Additionally, change in mindset, not only in teachers but also in parents as well, who previously viewed through the prism of marks and percentage, is a cultural shift that cannot happen overnight.
To conclude, I, as a commoner, on the one hand, must be optimistic with the system while on the other, we need to be vigilant on the policy makers and the administration for the generations to come whom we owe a lot.

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