Rote learning and critical thinking

The government initiative to reform and revamp the education system in the country is timely and most welcome, provided it paves the way for meaningful change.

- N. A. de S. Amaratunga

Past attempts at education reforms have not been very successful and that is why education is in a woeful state at present, requiring a huge effort and large amounts of funds for reform. If at least half of the planned objectives could be achieved, a foundation would have been laid, on which further improvements could be built without going at a tangent.

The initiative of the government has, as it should, stimulated a dialogue on several aspects of education including curriculum reforms, infrastructure development, school dropout issues, funding, maldistribution of resources, methods of teaching/learning etc. However, one would have liked to see a greater participation and contribution from stalwarts in the field of education to make this dialogue more valuable, for the country’s future may depend on these reforms.

Regarding methods of teaching/learning it must be said that at present teaching/learning relies far too heavily on rote methods. School curricula are too heavy and burdensome to suit any other method. Creativity and problem solving ability have no place in these curricula. This doesn’t mean rote learning has to be totally abandoned, it has its uses particularly to provide a stable foundation for other more important modes of learning.

Rote learning as practised in our schools is a method that attempts to fast feed large amounts of information that the student has to cram into memory. Not only the relevance and value of a significant portion of this information is questionable, but how long it would be retained to be of any use to the student or to anyone else, also is uncertain. The planned reforms must aim at making rote learning more meaningful by bringing in extensive curriculum changes so that instead of cramming, retainable knowledge could be instilled into the students’ brain more gently and effectively.