Masnoon Malik

The Education System of Kashmir: Cramming Knowledge but Forgetting Skills   *By Masnoon Malik*   When I look back at my school life, I realize most of it was about memorizing, not understanding. From the first day of school till almost the end of my 12th mid-session, my days were filled with notes, guidebooks, and late-night revision sessions. I studied in schools in Shopian and Pulwama and was also a student of several coaching centers in Srinagar and Shopian. Every class, every test, every conversation about the future revolved around the same thing: exams and marks.   We were told that the key to success was memorizing entire chapters, formulas, and definitions word for word. It did not matter if we understood what they meant. The goal was to fill our notebooks and, later, our answer sheets. I still remember how proud some students felt when they could write down an entire page exactly as it was printed in the book, as if education were about perfect reproduction inste...