From Information to Transformation: It’s Time to Rethink Schooling

By Dr. Sunita Gandhi, Educator, Researcher, Innovator, Author, Founder, Global Education & Training Institute and Dignity Education Vision International (DEVI), Chief Academic Advisor, City Montessori School, Lucknow, World’s Largest School, PhD Physics, Cambridge University, UK

Let's call it what it is: schooling today still runs on a rinse-and-repeat loop—teach, test, score, repeat. We tick boxes. We move through chapters. We finish the syllabus. But is that the same as learning?

A child might sit through every class, pass every test, and still not walk away transformed: the ability to learn by oneself, determined, internally motivated, and more.

That's the problem. We have equated education with content delivery, and intelligence with marks. Real learning does not just add up information or marks. It reshapes how children think, how they see the world, and how they act within it. Until that shift happens, nothing meaningful has taken root.

The Power of Student Agency

Walk into most classrooms and you will find children being told what to do, when to do it, and how. But when children are allowed to make decisions about their own learning, something changes.

In a classroom in rural Lucknow, I met a young girl named Alka. She was shy and often kept her head down. But one day, she was asked to choose how she wanted to show what she had learned about the solar system. She lit up. She made a model from waste material she found at home. Next day, she explained every planet in her own words. She asked her classmates questions.

What changed was not the syllabus. It was her sense of ownership.

Giving students agency means allowing them to set learning goals, reflect on their own progress, and make choices about how they engage with the material. It means treating them as active participants, not passive recipients. Research from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), UK, shows that student self-regulation and metacognition strategies can accelerate learning by as much as seven months of a year, especially when tied to goal-setting and self-reflection.

We stop producing students and start nurturing thinkers. It turns education from a process of delivery into a process of becoming. That’s the upgrade education has been waiting for.

Let Children Teach Each Other

We often forget how much children can learn by working with each other. In fact, some of the best learning doesn’t come from the front of the room; it comes from the desk beside you.

Peer tutoring has been consistently shown to have high impact in international meta-analyses, such as those by Professor John Hattie, who ranks it among the most effective learning strategies with an effect size of 0.55.

This is the heart of ALfA, Accelerating Learning for All which is a peer-led pedagogy we have used with children in both government and private schools with quick gains in learning. In ALfA classrooms, children work in pairs. They take turns as ‘doer’ and ‘helper’ as every child is both a learner and a teacher. They help each other understand, step in with gentle corrections, and cheer each other on every little success. This is because in this new process, learning is something to be celebrated constantly, not occasionally. It is not about waiting for the final test. Progress happens in real time. Children feel it in real time. Every right answer, every breakthrough, every moment becomes a shared win.

They grow together, not ranked, not streamed, not boxed in by labels of “slow” or “bright.” And here’s the thing, when students learn like this, they don’t just grasp content, they practice the deeper skills life demands like collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity. The same 4Cs the NEP puts front and center. School is not just prep for exams. It is training for life. I once watched two boys struggling with subtraction. The teacher did not intervene right away. Instead, one boy used ice cream sticks and matchsticks to show the other how to “take away.” His face lit up when his partner finally understood.

That’s not just peer support. That’s deeper learning in action.

When children explain what they have understood in their own language, they are reinforcing their own understanding. They are also building empathy, patience, and clarity. All of these matter more than perfect recall on a test.

Redefining What a Teacher Does

We need to let go of the old image of the teacher as a dispenser of facts. The best teachers today are galvanizers who empower children to learn by themselves. Their job is not to teach, but instead to enable learning. The shift of focus from teaching to learning is specifically highlighted in the NEP2020. This means a teacher as a glavanaizer needs to demonstrate how to work in pairs, to listen, to nudge, and to open space for exploration. Studies in constructivist learning theory—from Piaget to Vygotsky—have long shown that learners construct knowledge best through guided exploration rather than direct instruction alone. Modern teaching frameworks like Danielson's also emphasize facilitation over lecture.

I once visited a classroom where the teacher started the lesson by saying, “Here’s a question I don’t have an answer to. Who wants to figure it out with me?” The entire room leaned in. Children scrambled for ideas. The blackboard filled up with drawings, guesses, and partial answers. Even when children fail, they are being productive in the process. This teacher was not leading from the front she was witnessing learning in action from the side. Great teachers create the conditions for learning. They ask more than they tell. They hold back answers long enough for students to struggle and grow.

This shift is especially urgent now, in a world where information is everywhere. We need people who know what to do with the information.

We Need a New Way to Assess

If learning is changing, assessment has to change too.

Right now, we mostly assess memory. But memory is not mastery. And exams are not the only way to understand what a child knows.

Instead of asking “What do you remember?” we should be asking “What can you do with what you have learned?” That means shifting from one-shot tests to performance tasks—projects, presentations, portfolios. It means giving children feedback that helps them improve, not just a score to live with. Authentic assessment models advocated by Wiggins and McTighe (Understanding by Design) stress that performance tasks assess application and transfer, which traditional exams often miss.

In a school we worked with in Bihar, the end-of-unit assessment was not a test—it was a market simulation. Children set up stalls, explained pricing, calculated change, and wrote down purchases. It was messy. It was loud. But it showed real understanding—in math, communication, planning, and teamwork.

That’s the kind of learning that sticks.

A Framework That Works: PATH

We don’t just need better techniques. We need a complete reimagining. That’s what PATH offers: an education that is Purposeful, Active, Transformative, and Holistic.

PATH is rooted in the ALfA pedagogy, but it’s more than a method. It is a mindset.

• Purposeful : Learning should answer the question every child quietly asks—“Why am I learning this?” When purpose is clear, motivation follows.
• Active : Real learning is never passive. Children should be building, debating, exploring. When their hands and minds are both at work, learning sticks.
• Transformative : If a child walks out of class thinking the same way they did before, we’ve missed the point. The goal isn’t just to finish content—it’s to spark change, in thought and self-belief.
• Holistic : School should build more than scores. It should grow character, courage, and connection. Academic skills matter, but so does the ability to listen, lead, and care.

In PATH classrooms, children learn in pairs. Teachers design learning experiences, not just deliver content. Assessments capture growth, not just gaps. And most importantly, students feel seen, not sorted.

We often say education should prepare children for life. But life will not come at them in neat, fill-in-the-blank questions. It will demand adaptability, collaboration, curiosity, and courage. The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs report consistently lists these as top skills for work. They signal a major shift in what schools must prepare students for.

That kind of preparation doesn't come from ticking boxes.

It comes from rethinking what school is for. It comes from giving students voice, purpose, and a real stake in their own learning. This is not an add-on. It is the core of what education should be. Transforming learners, not just delivering lessons, is the only path that makes sense anymore. PATH shows us how to make that shift—step by step, child by child.

A Checklist for Charting a New PATH in Education

Peer Learning & Collaboration: Are students learning with each other?

1. Are my students actively teaching, discussing, or reflecting with peers?
2. Are students regularly learning in pairs or small groups, not just alone?
3. Are children taking turns to explain, demonstrate, or guide each other?
4. Is peer learning part of my daily classroom practice, not just an activity?
5. Does my classroom invite every child to lead, not just follow?

Agency & Ownership: Are students thinking for themselves?

6. Am I creating space for students to ask their own questions, not just answer mine?
7. Do students see themselves as thinkers and problem-solvers, not just test-takers?
8. Are my classroom routines helping students build independence and self-direction?
9. Have I created a classroom where students feel purpose, not just pressure?

Deeper Learning & Application: Are students learning deeply, not just performing?

10. Do my lessons include moments of struggle, exploration, and discovery?
11. Do classroom tasks give students chances to apply learning in real-world ways?
12. Am I helping students celebrate small wins, not just final results?
13. Am I designing assessments that reveal real understanding, not just memory?

Whole-Child Focus: Are we educating beyond academics?

14. Do I treat emotional and social development as part of academic learning?
15. Is our school truly preparing children for life, not just the next exam?
16. Am I supporting teachers to be galvanizers, not deliverers?

These questions below can be used in our PATH book promotions. So also the 16 points in four sections above.

1. Are my students actively teaching, discussing, or reflecting with peers?
2. Do my lessons include moments of struggle, exploration, and discovery?
3. Am I designing assessments that reveal real understanding, not just memory?
4. Do I treat emotional and social development as part of academic learning?
5. Have I created a classroom where students feel purpose, not just pressure?
6. Am I supporting teachers to be galvanizers, not deliverers?
7. Is our school truly preparing children for life, not just the next exam?
8. Are my classroom routines helping students build independence and self-direction?
9. Am I creating space for students to ask their own questions, not just answer mine?
10. Do students see themselves as thinkers and problem-solvers, not just test-takers?
11. Do classroom tasks give students chances to apply learning in real-world ways?
12. Are students regularly learning in pairs or small groups, not just alone?
13. Are children taking turns to explain, demonstrate, or guide each other?
14. Am I helping students celebrate small wins, not just final results?
15. Is peer learning part of my daily classroom practice, not just an activity?