Critical thinking questions are increasingly becoming part of assessments in primary classes across schools.
Such questions enable children to think critically, analyse a situation, question instead of accepting things on face value and subsequently, prepare them for the board exams where the thrust is on such questions.
Both ICSE and CBSE have increased the percentage of analytical and critical thinking questions in the Class X and XII exams
For example, in a CBSE school Class V students were asked about one change that took place in the lives of the children during the Industrial Revolution and how they think their life is different now, instead of asking them about child labour as a direct impact of the revolution on children's lives.
"This is to enable them to question and not just go by what is being taught to them. It is a graded thought process that is being developed, so that in higher classes it becomes part of their thinking process," said Rupkatha Sarkar, principal, La Martiniere for Girls.
Sarkar said that developing the thinking skills of a child starts as early as in Kindergarten.
Instead of simply saying the lion is a wild animal and it cannot be tamed, they are given a situation where they are asked to describe the differences between a cat which roams around in the household and the big cat that lives in a jungle.
Such kinds of questions take children away from rote learning, teachers said.
"Everything has a reason and as children, they have to understand. For earlier generations one would seldom have turned around and questioned and those who did were often berated for doing so. But now it is the teacher's duty to stoke that curiosity," said Nupur Ghosh, vice-principal, Mahadevi Birla World Academy.
Such changes do make the teacher's task more difficult because they, too, have to change their approach to teaching.
Parents might be disappointed, too, because previous year's question papers do not hold good for them.
"The earlier we introduce such questions the easier it is for the children and so we have done it from Class III upwards. Class VI is a big leap from the primary classes but if introduced earlier by the time they are in middle and senior classes they will be prepared well to think critically at a more advanced stage," said Terence John, director of education and development, Julien Day Schools that has schools in Calcutta, Howrah, Kalyani and Ganganagar.
Principals agree that the thrust is now more ever since the boards have introduced critical thinking questions.
Every year both Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is increasing the share of such questions in the board exams.