4 reasons why quizzing is important for students

Many of us in the 40-plus bracket will recall youthful evenings in front of the TV watching students battle it out in the Bournvita Quiz Contest. But since its last episode was aired, there has been no all-India show mounted on such a scale.

In recent times, we have had the National Olympiads and NTSE (National Talent Search Exam) -- once again underlining the significance of quiz platforms at the national level.

To reinvent the education system and give students a break from traditional classroom learning, there is a dire need to revive the quiz culture in schools and colleges. And technology can act as a facilitator by bringing innovation to quizzes and ensuring active participation among students.

Besides the obvious academic benefits of expanding a student's knowledge and exploring new skills at an early age, quizzes redefine the education system in significant ways:

* Interactive platform: Today, quizzes are interactive platforms where students are not participating to take home a prize or get famous overnight, but to gain knowledge, seek opportunities to excel beyond academics and secure their future.

* Changes scope of learning: Since questions are based out-of-syllabus and require critical thinking and extensive research, students get into the habit of innovative learning from an early age.

* Encourages team work: Students need to form teams while participating in quizzes, giving them an opportunity to hone their teamwork skills.

* Bridges academia-industry gap: During interviews, recruiters have found that Indian students are good in theoretical knowledge but are not privy to industry knowledge because of the current pattern of curriculum. Hence, there is still a huge gap in preparing our students for the market.

Here, corporates can play a vital role by using quizzes to give students much-needed early exposure to make them skilled and job-ready. Many corporates have come up with their own unique online programmes in this regard.

The future of quizzing lies in our desire to transform learning for our students. While the tools are in abundance, the focus needs to be on the content. Quizzing is not just about GK, but about connecting the dots, reading between the lines and arriving at a conclusion. It needs to focus on logical reasoning.

(Piyush Gupta is President, Kestone IMS. He can be contacted at piyushg@kestone.com)

--IANS

piyush/vm/sac