Changing the system from theoretical to practical based requires a multi-pronged approach.
.
.
.
- TEACHERS:
We need to create an army of teachers capable of teaching skillfully. I’ve studied in 4 different schools, and I’m in the 4th year of college. I’ve seen my fair share of teachers, and I can say with conviction that not all the teachers today have the ability to teach with a practical and concept based approach. Not their fault. Even teachers require training. And that’s where our target is. So what do we do?
- Train teachers to adapt a concept based approach.
- Focus on CREATIVE EDUCATION PRACTICES and how they can be applied.

- Encourage the educators to adopt modern and innovative methods of teaching like videos, role-playing, kinesthetic activities, story-telling. (Yes, story telling is an art that can be used in education. People retain stories in their mind more effectively than they retain the information read from a book.)
- And hey, guess what? EVALUATE THE TEACHERS AS WELL. Evaluation and assessment of their knowledge, their teaching practices is also necessary.
.
.
.
- CURRICULUM:
In the current scenario, the curriculum leaves little or no space for the students to gain practical knowledge and understand concepts.
- The curriculum needs to be designed such that unnecessary and useless information is rooted out and useful, must know information is retained.
- That being said, students should also be taught relevant history of their country, of the world, and also to include some religious preachings. All of this because:
- Every person should know their roots, where they come from;
- They should understand how the world politics is working today and what past events in world history are influencing the current policies;
- They should understand what different religions preach and they should be sheltered from the present day communal and religious riots.
- Focus should be on making the students understand concepts, which can be applied later in life.
- Intelligent students have knowledge.
- Smart students understand the concepts.
- Wise students have the knowledge, understand the concepts and know how to apply them. We want wise students.
- The curriculum should include projects and practicals wherein students are made to apply their knowledge and understanding of the given subject. Learning has no meaning if it is not applied. Unless the students apply a concept practically and see results for themselves, they won’t achieve complete understanding of the subject matter.
- All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Focus should not only be on studies but also on extracurricular activities. Education means all round development of an individual. It includes sports, performing arts like singing and dancing, painting, writing – everything.
The brain has 2 parts: Left and Right. One is responsible for the analytical, mathematical and logical learning. The other, it handles the creative aspects like music and art. The curriculum should aim at developing both the hemispheres of the brain.
And lastly,
.
.
.
- ASSESSMENT:
Assessment of the students must be changed. Currently, the assessment is based on rote learning and reproduction in the exams. We have no way to assess what the student has understood. It calls for a change in the examination system.
- Reduce the number of questions that test their memory (rote learning).
- Give practical based questions. For eg., you want to test their knowledge about a particular topic in Science, let’s say Magnetics or Electricity. Give a problem or a situation which requires them to think about which concept of magnetic or electricity can be applied to solve the given problem, and how. A sub question can be added which says, “Write a short note on _____”. It covers both theory and practical.
- The assessment or examination should test their skills rather than knowledge. As I said above, we want wise students. Test their skills and abilities.

- Examination results are given in form of marks. While marks give a measure of their performance, it should not happen that the aim of learning becomes only to obtain more marks and not the learning part itself. Marks matter when opting for higher studies (better marks, better college), but they won’t help when the person is sitting at his/her job, figuring out what to do.
.
.
Education, if correctly given, has the power to change everything. Literally everything.
For those who reached the end of this long and boring post, thanks for reading till the end.