The bell rings—but this time, no one rushes to sit behind a desk. Nisha and her classmates are under a banyan tree, sketching its leaves while learning about plant biology. Tomorrow, they’ll visit a farmer’s market to understand supply chains and pricing. This is experiential learning in action: children learning by doing, seeing, touching, building—and wondering.

As NEP 2020 emphasizes, learning should be “more experiential, discovery-oriented, learner-centred.” From urban coding camps to rural science labs, Indian education is embracing this curiosity-first approach.

Learning That Lives Outside the Textbook

At the Agastya Foundation’s mobile science labs, students explore how the eye works by using physical models, not just diagrams. They test hypotheses, sketch ideas, and collaborate on mini-experiments. In the process, they build not just knowledge—but confidence and wonder.

This kind of learning sticks. Research shows students who experience concepts hands-on retain information better than from lectures alone. Imagine a history class taught through village storytelling, or math through solving real-life village problems. These aren’t fantasies—they’re happening right now in schools that value experience over rote.

Turning the World into a Classroom

Experiential education transforms daily life:

• Farmer’s market = economics class
  
  

• Kitchen = chemistry lab
  
  

• Dance = geometry in motion
  
  

• Community mural = social studies project
  
  

Even sports and arts are reimagined. One school teaches physics through building kites, while another uses folk tales to explain ecosystems. Storytelling, tinkering, theater, design—every experience becomes a learning opportunity.

And students thrive. They ask deeper questions. They make connections. They own their learning.

What’s Stopping Us?

Challenges exist—many schools lack resources or trained mentors. A national report found that only 3% of schools have trained counselors. But where experiential programs are implemented, students are more engaged, and teachers more inspired. Foundations like Agastya prove that with creativity, even low-tech solutions can work wonders.

Your Role as a Parent

You don’t need a lab to bring experiential learning home:

• Cook together and explore measurements
  
  

• Build a LEGO bridge and learn engineering
  
  

• Start a garden and track plant growth and soil types
  
  

• Go on a nature walk and count species or angles
  
  

Ask your child’s school: Do you offer field trips, science fairs, group projects? Encourage active learning wherever you can—because learning by doing stays for life.

What experience will spark your child’s next big idea?

👉 Share your favorite hands-on learning moment with us! Or join a creative challenge at Wizkids Gurukul—where curiosity meets action. Let’s raise a generation that doesn’t just learn facts, but lives them.