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Help-books ruining students
Graduating without honours Campus Notes |
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Help-books ruining students
Unchecked use of guidebooks in most of the schools of Haryana, especially government schools, is ruining students. Most of the students of high and senior secondary schools do not know the meaning of even simple terms of different subjects they have memorised blindly from their guidebooks with a view to clearing the examinations. They develop neither critical thinking, which the latest National Curriculum Framework asks for, nor simple understanding. Dr Mahesh Baranwal, who has done extensive groundwork in this area after completing his Ph.D from the University of Chicago, said in his report that there was a dire need to provide students with positive substitutes for guides He came to know in a prosperous village of Kurukshetra district in November 2004 that a Class XII student did not know the meaning of the English word “of”. He thought it might be an exception, but nine months later in August 2005, when he discussed this incident with a group of students in Class X in the government high school of the same village, none of the students in the class knew the meaning either. As he moved from classroom to classroom, he found that none of the students in that high school of more than 400 students knew the meaning of the word. Guides, says Dr Baranwal, are favoured by two groups of persons: lazy students and lazy teachers. Students in secondary schools use guides for every subject, except mathematics. At the senior secondary level in government schools, lecturers in history, political science and sociology ask students to buy guides instead of textbooks and then teach from these rags. In recognised and respected private schools, at the secondary level, students are asked to buy guides for subjects like social science and science and technology. In the short term, the guides help them pass the coming examination. In the long term, these leave them unprepared for the higher class. These unprepared students, then, reach for another set of guides, and as a student moves higher, the gap between what the administrators plan and what the student actually knows keeps widening. Dr Baranwal suggested in his report that one of the ways the students and teachers could be weaned off from guides would be to provide them with good alternatives to guides. For language subjects, students should be encouraged to buy dictionaries and authoritative books on grammar and composition. Contrary to the fears that schoolchildren would not know how to use a dictionary, many English-medium schools prescribe dictionaries even for primary-class students, and well-respected publishers cater to their needs. Oxford University Press has a Primary Dictionary which the publisher’s website claims caters to students as young as seven. Government high school English teachers concede that, today, a class VIII student with uneducated parents simply cannot read the English textbook at home by himself, without the help of a dictionary. Language textbooks provide little help on topics for examinations—which is why students take to guides.
Also, since textbooks cost more, guides are likely to rule the young mind for long, only to ruin it slowly.
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Graduating without honours WASHINGTON,
DC: Nearly 30 per cent of the US college students have only basic quantitative literacy skills, meaning they are unable to estimate if their car has enough petrol to get to the next filling station or calculate the total cost of ordering office supplies, according to a new national survey by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). “The surprisingly weak quantitative literacy ability of many college graduates is troubling,” says Dr Stéphane Baldi, who directed the study. “A knowledgeable workforce is vital to cope with the increasing demands of the global marketplace.” The literacy skills of college students is directly related to the education of their parents: It is significantly higher among students who say their coursework places a strong emphasis on applying theories to practical problems. “Higher education institutions should take careful note of the important benefits derived from emphasizing analytic and critical thinking, and the application of theories in preparing students,” says Peter Ewell, vice president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. —
American Institutes
for Research
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Campus Notes Guru Nanak Dev University has once again been adjudged overall best in the All India Inter-Varsity National Youth Festival. It created history by winning the Overall General Championship in the cultural field for the sixth consecutive year. The festival, organised by the Association of Indian Universities, concluded at Kurukshetra University,
Kurukshetra, on Sunday evening. Mr Baljeet Singh Sekhon, Director, Youth Welfare, said the university had also won the music and fine arts trophies in the competitions. The university, representing North Zone, participated in 14 competitions of fine arts, music and theatre etc. and won top positions in almost all categories. Mr Sekhon said the university also had also won first positions in the light vocal (Indian), group song (Indian), folk orchestra, western vocal, western group song, mimicry and one-act play competitions. “The university also got the second position in classical vocal, clay modelling, poster making, rangoli and collage; and was third in skit and fourth in cartooning,” he added. The university has decided to felicitate the students who had averted a possible mishap recently by helping douse the fire on the campus. The fire broke out in an under-construction studio at Teaching Block-4 in the dead of the night. Kashish and Hitesh, students of the Physiotherapy Department, who were returning to their hostel from the library, noticed smoke originating from the building. They ran up to the scene and contributed their mite in putting out the raging flames. With their help, the security personnel were able to control the fire. Dr R.P. Bajpai, GJU Vice-Chancellor, has announced a cash reward of Rs 2,000 for each of the two students in appreciation of their courage. The amount would be given to the students during the Republic Day function on the campus.
— Contributed by Pawan Kumar and Sunit Dhawan
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