It is a common question asked by every student in their journey through school where practical skills should be prioritized or not. I had my own doubts for a long time, but after looking at from different point of views I realized and came to a conclusion. I would say both are important. To help understand how I came to that conclusion we can take a look at the story of humankind discovered fire for the first time. In the beginning fire was seen as a miracle sent to us by God, but it was understood that fire has always been part of the nature even before the beginning of life on earth. Without proper understanding fire we would have never come to thit conclusion. It is also that same theory that helped us recreate it, but even theory has its limits.
With the basic understanding of how fire works mankind began experimenting with it, which slowly evolved the use of flame and helped mankind evolve into the organisms that can utilize every aspect of nature. The experiment with fire helped us learn about it a lot more than what we have already know, this same concept can be applied to every topic even in terms of studies we can say that knowing its basic concepts and understanding it further with experiments help a child to become attached to what he/she is learning and love studying. It also helps children in developing their analytical skills, critical thinking, imagination, this has been confirmed by recent studies.
The current education system prioritizes theory over practical sessions by reducing the number of theoretical classes and increase the number of practical classes help students achieve their potential