Learning for exams vs. learning for understanding

Last weekend I was at my sister's place and was indulging in idle banter with my 6 year old niece. After various games of high fives and showing me all the artwork and craftwork that she had made over the last 6 months, she announced, 'I also know how to write an application'. Now I was reasonably proud and delighted at all the knowledge and skills that my niece had come to acquire in the 6 months since we last met. So in my enthusiasm I said, 'ok, tell me an application for building a house.' 'I don't know that one. We have just been told the application for issuing a new diary.' she said, slightly offended that I wasn't sticking to the script. Normally, in this situation, she would expect the adult to say indulgently, 'hanh, beta sunao (yes, please tell me) and she would go on to recite her carefully memorized application but this request from me, threw her off gear.

Of course my intention was not to throw her off gear. I was just assuming that if a child has been taught to write an application, she would be able to write an application, not just THE application for issuing a new diary. So I asked,
Me: How come you know this application?
She: Because I have learnt it, her tone clearly said that this was a silly question. You know because you learn, not because you know!
Me (persisting): But why did you learn it?
She (rolling her eyes): Because there is a test tomorrow! Of course the unsaid part was: why else would I learn if not for the test. Don't you get it my moron Mamu
Me: Did you write it yourself?
She (laughing at the absurdity of the question now): Arey no! The teacher wrote it on the blackboard and we noted it down.

My reactions were a mix of fond indulgence at her innocence and frowned exasperation at the jaundiced experience of learning that we were subjecting her to. Unable to give up, I went forward...
Me: Beta, why do we write an application?
She (almost instantaneously): Because there is a test tomorrow!
Me: No, no! Not that. In life, when do we need to write an application?
She (innocently): Humein yeh nahi parhaya

And with that declaration, she decided she had enough and walked away slightly disappointed that she had not been afforded the opportunity to recite the application that she had so diligently memorized.

I was left wondering, at the kind of education she was getting. Was she really learning anything? What purpose would memorizing an application serve if she didn't know why needed it. Or being able to gain an understanding so she can apply it in any circumstance. What was her motivation to learn? Was it to really imagine all possible scenarios where she would need permission or approval and hence need an application. Or was it to pass the test next day?

Are we creating an education system or an exam system?

Later that day, I went upto her.
Me: Ria, when Papa was building this house, who's permission did he need?
She (thought for a while and then said): carpenter's?
Me: Yeah, the carpenter made all the furniture and there were lots of times when Papa discussed things with him. But Papa didn't need his permission to build the house. Whose permission do you think Papa needed?
She (innocently): Mama's?
Me (suppressing a smile at what she had revealed unwittingly): Who is responsible for buildings in Pathankot?
She (getting interested now): Municipal Corporation?
Me (enthusiastically): Very good thinking! And who runs the municipal corporation?
She (tentatively): municipal head
Me: Yeah, that's what he is. Municipal Head. He is called Municipal Commissioner. Now what do you want him to do?
She (excited now):  Build a house!
Me (prodding): Will he build the house or give permission to build the house?
She (nodding in agreement): Give permission
Me: And why should he give permission?
She: Because I want a house
Me: And why do you want a house?
She: Because I want a place to play, study, eat food and sleep
Me: Ok, so if you tell him that you need a place to play, study, eat and sleep and you tell him that this land belongs to you, he should be give you permission?
She: Yes
Me: So let's say this as if you are writing an application to the Municipal Commissioner. You want to try?
She (halting, searching, guessing, faltering but trying): To The Municipal Commissioner, Pathankot. Respected Sir, I want a place to play, study and sleep. I want to build a house. This land belongs to me. Kindly allow me to build a house here. Thanking you, Yours truly, Anika Sarpal

BRAVO! Well tried. I shrieked! 'See, if you think deep, you can write an application. Good job Ria'

'Let's do another one!' she cried enthusiastically. There it began. Ria's love for applications. We ended up making several applications. From widening the street to allowing her school bus to reach her home to changing the menu in her school to keeping the playground near her home clean - Ria was unstoppable! Then I slipped in the obvious one. 'hey, what if you lose a diary?' She went, 'I know this one! I'll ask the class teacher to issue me a new one.' 'And, why should she issue you a new one?' 'Else, where will I take notes and write homework?' 'Hmm mm...makes sense. Chalo, let's play something else!'

Learning can be fun. When children are taken from the known to the unknown, they are willing to try. When they see the relevance of what they are learning, they are enthusiastic to learn more. But if it is all about passing an exam, they'll do what it takes to pass the exam - in most cases, this means mugging up before and forgetting promptly after.

Let's create an education system built around learning for real understanding NOT learning for passing exams.

Why India won't produce a Steve Jobs

Last Sunday, we went with our daughter for her to participate in a drawing event at a Landmark bookstore. She was beaming with excitement, prancing in front of us, carrying her drawing board and set of crayons and color pencils under her arm. As we entered the bookstore, we quickly realized that we weren't the only parent escorting my child to the bookstore on a hot Sunday afternoon. There were 50 other committed moms and 2 isolated dads with their children aged 3 to 7 year old.

The bookstore staff was clearly unprepared for this big outpouring of parental indulgence and children's enthusiasm. While they went about gathering drawing sheets and colors for the children on hand, I noticed something subtle but definitely present. This did not seem to be an idle Sunday activity to keep the children busy. This was clearly a COMPETITION!

As I was trying to re-calibrate my bearings to deal with 50 competitive moms and 2 dads, the Landmark staff started distributing blank sheets to the children. After about 5 minutes, I noticed something stranger. No child was doing anything. They were just staring around with blank sheets and crayons in their hands. Now in my world, I expect children to be excited to scribble, draw, paint - do whatever they want to do when given a blank sheet of paper  and colors! But no, not these children. With my curiosity getting the better of me, I nudged close to a child and said, 'Beta, why are you not drawing anything?'. He looks up to me as if I'm from Mars and says, 'we are waiting for them to tell us what to do.' Now this stuck me as odd because children intuitively know what to do - scribble, draw explore.  They are innately curious and would have a go at things trying out things, taking a chance unless told not to! But these children, 50 of them were just sitting, waiting for someone to tell them what to do! I went ahead and said, 'Beta, why don't you just have fun and draw what you like?' He turned to look at his friend sitting next to him, exchanged a glance which was a cross between 'has this man lost his mind?' and 'why do I have to talk to him?' and then said, 'but won't they tell us the topic?' I felt as if someone had hit me in my guts and my intellectual and professional being had crumpled under the sudden realization that here, right in front of my eyes, the future of the country was going to the dogs!

I turned around and hoping to find an ally in a mom standing nearby, asked her, 'why don't they just have fun and draw what they want. It's drawing after all!' What she said jolted me into realization that far from being my ally, she and most of us parents are the culprits. She went, 'what if they have fun and draw something and then the Landmark people come and announce a topic and they get disqualified? Who would handle that? They need to understand that fun is alright till 3 but then they have to follow rules!' Was she for real? I couldn't believe my ears!

As I looked around, I realized that she was not alone. One mom was fighting with the Landmark staff that they should not have given blank sheets for 3 to 6 year olds. They need outlines to color. How presumptuous of us to estimate what the child is capable of! When the staff brought out an outline book and tore pages to distribute to the younger children, another mom mumbled, 'How are we supposed to teach them not to tear pages from books if these guys tear pages and give it to them here!' Another one was shouting, 'What's the topic? Should they start? How much time do they have?' And I was wondering how easily they had made a fun activity for the kid into an exam with lots at stake.

Once the drawing started, performance anxiety took over the moms and made them into monsters. One mom was shouting across to her 3 year pretty little daughter, 'Color within the lines, look at how didi is doing!' The poor girl who seemed to be having fun till that point, filling in different colors in the butterfly outline, started panicking. Her lines went haywire and tears started streaming down her eyes. Another mom stopped a child from talking, insisting that she was disturbing her daughter! There was a mom who was insisting that her boy draw a straight line under his name. There was still another who threatened, ' Don't copy'. And this was a drawing activity, not a Board exam!

How did we come to this? I know for sure that all of us love our children and want the best for them. But then why do we go ahead and do things that kill their curiosity, snub their risk taking ability and take the fun out of learning? Why do we insist that all lines should be straight? Why do we want them to color within the lines? Why do we want them to wait for instructions? What will happen if children are left to be children?

Is it any surprise that we don't produce an Einstein? Do you see why India won't produce a Steve Jobs?

Distortions due to RTE

In my last column, I had mentioned that RTE Act in its current form will introduce distortions in the profile of schools. The latest news from Karnataka confirms my doubts. More than 50% of Private unaided schools in Karnataka have claimed to be minority institutions whether on linguistic, religious or community grounds! Instead of affirmative action, this will make school education more and more exclusive for specific communities.

The 25% reservation should not have happened in the first place. It seems to be driven by the misplaced desire of socialists to teach 'elitist' schools and 'elitist' parents a lesson, get rich people to share the spoils with the 'have nots'. It forgets that philanthropy can be inspired, not forced. There are enough philanthropic institutions that have seats reserved for the poor, which offer freeships and scholarships for the disadvantaged. Why take that intrinsic motivation away by forcing an external diktat down their throat? 

Now that it has happened, the 25% reservations should have been applied as a blanket to all private unaided schools. Forcing it down for some and not on others, creates distortion. People start to consider that opening a minority school or a residential school might be better because then 25% reservation doesn't apply even though the area might not need a minority or a residential school! Schooling starts to become more about avoiding the 25% reservation instead of educating children!

The larger point however is that 25% reservation does not create new capacity for the whole system! As per article 6 of the RTE Act, Government is responsible to ensure that there is a primary school within 1km and secondary school within 3km of every child within 3 years of the act coming into being. That milestone is on 26th August, 2012. Is there any progress towards that end? Public opinion and media focus has to shift from whether 'rich, elite schools are willing to implement 25% reservation?' to whether Government is taking concrete steps to enhance supply of schools and meet the requirement under article 6 of the act.

Else, we'll miss the substantive for the populist.