In a lecture titled, 'Why are kids not learning,' Abhijit Banerjee, 2019 Nobel Laureate in economics and co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), says, "I think at the heart of what we’re hitting at is the attitude, I must say, I faced at school. The teachers were seen as a vessel full of knowledge and they poured it inside you and if you didn’t keep your mouth open, they’d beat you. I think that particular model creates that pattern where you don’t question why this algorithm is right or why this algorithm is for you… That particular mindset of the teacher having the answer and you’re supposed to just imitate, I think that is at the heart of the problem. If we’re supposed to find an answer to why are kids not learning, it’s because we’re not teaching, we’re pouring into them."
Excerpt
Nobel Laureate Prof Abhijit V Banerjee Wednesday said the main problem with learning among children is “we are not teaching, we are pouring into them”.
“I think at the heart of what we’re hitting at is the attitude, I must say, I faced at school. The teachers were seen as a vessel full of knowledge and they poured it inside you and if you didn’t keep your mouth open, they’d beat you. I think that particular model creates that pattern where you don’t question why this algorithm is right or why this algorithm is for you… That particular mindset of the teacher having the answer and you’re supposed to just imitate, I think that is at the heart of the problem. If we’re supposed to find an answer to why are kids not learning, it’s because we’re not teaching, we’re pouring into them,” Prof Banerjee said.
Conducting the Institute for Human Development (IHD) silver jubilee lecture titled ‘Why are kids not learning?’, Prof Banerjee’s lecture was based on a study he, along with his colleagues, conducted in 2017.