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UPSC Prelims 2025 CSAT, question 31

Topic: Reading comprehension

Directions · Q31 to Q34

Directions for the following 4 (four) items :
Read the following two passages and answer the items that follow the passages. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

Passage · Q31 to Q32

In our country, regrettably, teaching and learning for the examination have been our forte but the new demands of society and the future of work require critical and independent thinking, learning through doing, asking questions from multiple disciplinary perspectives on the same issue, using evidence for building arguments, and reflecting and articulation. Higher education should not “either be a mere servant of the government policy or a passive respondent to public mood.” Higher learning is all about how to think rather than what to think. Teaching has to be re-invented.

Q31

Which one of the following statements best reflects the central idea conveyed by the passage ?

  1. (a) India does not have enough resources for promoting quality education in its universities.
  2. (b) The institutions of higher learning in the country should not be under the control of the Government.
  3. (c) Classroom approach to higher education should be done away with.
  4. (d) Classroom needs to be reimagined and teaching needs to be re-invented.Correct answer

Solution.

Answer: (d) Classroom needs to be reimagined and teaching needs to be re-invented.

  1. The passage contrasts rote examination-oriented teaching with the need for critical thinking, learning by doing, multi-disciplinary questioning, and evidence-based argument.
  2. It concludes that higher learning is about how to think rather than what to think and that 'Teaching has to be re-invented', which directly matches option (d).