The education system needs to be revamped and the need of the hour is to do away with the age-old examination system, observes Professor Sugata Mitra.
Mr. Mitra, a professor of educational technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, England, is here to deliver talks at the ongoing TECH-2017. In a chat with The Hindu, he spoke about various facets of the education system here on Sunday. “The present examination system does not bring out creativity in a student. The toppers are good students but they are not creative,” he said.
When asked whether the examination system should be scrapped, he said, “Examination or some form of assessment should be there but the format should be changed. Instead of asking direct questions, the students should be tested for creative ability.”
According to him, the basic system of education should focus on two things – ability to formulate a problem and ability to solve the problem.
“It is more important to focus upon what a student should not know rather than what a student should know,” he said.
Quoting Greek Philosopher Socrates, he said, the students should be allowed to think and decide ‘what to ask’. “If this format is embedded, everything will fall in its place,” said Prof. Mitra.
On religious ideologies creeping into education system, he said, “It is present all across the globe, but children should be equipped to understand the undercurrent and stay out of it.”
A strong advocator of Internet in classrooms, he pointed out that Internet would evolutionise the present education and teaching system.
“Days are not far when Internet will be used in examination halls. Internet is a collective conscience of billions of people and students should be allowed to understand and pick ideas to formulate their perspective. Everything can be replaced, but ideas cannot. True education is the one where ideas are encouraged,” he observed.
Malicious content
On how bad and malicious content can be kept away from children, he said, “Increase the size of the screen. Remove internet from cell phones and desktops and connect it to a big screen and allow them to use it in the living room.”
