World is changing rapidly, newer technologies and discoveries are made each day, making the life easier and smarter. We’ve seen a shift from large car phones to hand-held smart devices within three decades. We saw the rise and fall of major companies and corporations. We experienced a shift from carts drawn by horses to cars travelling at the speed of sound.
Something we never saw was innovations in teaching methods and syllabuses.
The instability in the education system was vividly seen when the schools were closed due to the pandemic and the class of 2020 graduated with traditional examinations. Online exams were not a possibility due to the chances of cheating, which lead to two pertinent important questions:
What is the need to use unfair means to cheat?
The answer is simple but alarming, grades are given more importance than learning. Parents, teachers and employers favour better grades than the skillset. Society and parents discriminate and compare the high achievers with the average students that outrage those who cannot get better grades. Often the teachers also favour the already bright student and the weak one may feel isolated.
What can be done to stop it?
Creating Stronger and more efficient programs and technologies would never be a permanent solution to the problem. A permanent solution would require a change in educational methods, where we transition from a remembering to understanding the material. A student is well aware that in the practical life, remembering the quadratic formula would not help, it can be browsed any time from the search engines. Therefore, students should be taught practical applications of what they are studying. The exams should also be based on case studies where the student will be tested on how he/she will handle the situation. A student will then be motivated to learn and improve his/her response rather than cheating.
I believe each person has special abilities and limitation which can never be judged by a standard exam that tests the memory rather than skill. Countries like Finland are already adopting newer ways of teaching and are yielding much better responses from students and teachers. Companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and other industry leaders are favouring the skills over the professional degrees. If we all work together, we can built a safer and more accessible system where no child feels left out.
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