Promise of a transformed academic environment

The sweltering heat and elusive rains notwithstanding, thousands of students are back to school this week. Each year in June, students head back to new classrooms, new teachers, a new grade, new books and more challenging syllabi. This year, there is an added aspect, albeit unsaid — a promise and an opportunity of a new learning environment.

The recent changes in the school acts have made schools take a second look at the way the curriculum is being handled inside the classroom. This year promises to be one of transition, and all the seeds of change sown this year will bear fruits in the future.

Comprehensive continuous evaluation (CCE) is the key tool for bringing about fundamental changes in the learning environment, since the entire assessment pattern is making a distinct shift, away from the marking system. CCE gives equal weightage to scholastic, non-scholastic and co-scholastic performance.

Curriculum handling in the classroom will therefore have to move away from an intensely academic focus. The practical approach to learning will be heightened. Students have a lot of stress-free days to look forward to.

The Right to Education (RTE) Act to be implemented across all schools from next academic year, demands that all schools admit, at the preschool entry level, neighbourhood students from economically marginalised groups. The RTE act understands that these students will have little or no support from home to complete their homework and their assignments. The focus of the education reforms is clearly on education for the sake of creating an educated critical mass of population. Students can look forward to learning how to mingle with one another, without a hint of snobbishness or a sentiment of superiority.

CBSE's promise to do away with the board exam toppers' lists next year is another strong indication that education in schools is taking a definite turn away from rote learning for the sake of securing good marks. The absence of a ranking system will remove the fierce competition that students and parents had among peer groups, and will shift the focus to conceptual and application-based learning.

The astounding success of grade X results this year reiterates the point that grade X board exam marks will have little meaning in the years to come.

All these reforms suggest that the government is slowly giving up its involvement in educating future citizens, and private industry participation in education is being heralded.

For parents and students, it will mean better schools and wider choices in the future.

The Indian government spends $30 billion on education every year; while the society spends an additional $50 billion on private education. The schooling segment alone is worth $20 billion. The education sector is poised to be bigger than the IT sector in future.

It is time now for the old ways of education to be replaced by new ones. It will be shameful if institutions do not take a cue from these clear signals being sent out by the HRD ministry.

The tuition menace should give way to conceptual and differential learning. These education reforms will receive a boost only when all schools and parents accept and enforce them in the spirit that they are intended for.

The writer is an entrepreneur and educationist.