Across countries and curricula, educational reform has become a global focus. From India’s National Curriculum Framework 2023 to regular revisions in international programs like the IB, Cambridge, and national boards across continents, there is a rising demand to rethink what students learn, how they learn, and why. These reforms spark mixed reactions of optimism, fatigue, resistance, and even ridicule. While some celebrate student-centered innovation, others rant about the burden of implementation or the loss of traditional standards. But amid these responses, one foundational question is often overlooked:

Do hierarchies in educational systems, both curricular and institutional, quietly suffocate the possibility of real learning? This question matters. Because even the most progressive pedagogies can fail when buried under layers of bureaucracy, rigid control, and top-down mandates. It is not simply a matter of how we teach,  it is how we structure the very ecosystem of learning.

Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, a key critical thinking exponent of his time, in his 1970s work, “Pedagogy of Oppressed” said, “Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and brings about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women creatively and critically deal with reality and participate in the transformation of their world.” There is a sharp articulation that captures........

© Eurasia Review