The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

De-stressing students
Pradeep Kumar Singh

Of late, the burden of study has tremendously increased on students, especially at the primary and secondary level, leading to cramming-based education. In general, parents, teachers, social reformers and policy makers, all desire to improve the education system so as to reduce the excessive burden on students, avoid rote learning and pressure of examination.

The fear of failure, pressure and desire to achieve something are the natural driving forces that guide the millennium child. These are the important factors applicable in every walk of life, and must be taken in the right spirit.

In the education system, a few students learn the subject seriously to enrich their knowledge, but the majority becomes serious to succeed and excel in examination. It is only the examination that compels the students to learn the contents of a subject in a planned manner.

The root causes of our faulty education system need to be identified. The government schools provide education from Class I onwards with admission to students at the age of 5 years plus. This seems to be quite judicious and useful. However, in recent decades, particularly in urban areas, there has been a trend of pre-primary education (nursery, LKG, UKG, etc.) where children as young as 2 years are being admitted to schools.

All this has emerged mainly because parents want their children to excel and therefore, they make all possible efforts to admit the children to school as early as possible. Working parents find it hard to give proper attention to their children due to lack of availability of time and sending them to school is the easiest option. From the business point, some private schools also encourage pre-primary admissions.

When children join school at an early age, they are deprived of their childhood. At the age of 5, they are too young to bear the burden of education. It is surprising that on one hand, the parents raise a hue and cry regarding pressure of examinations on students; but on the other hand, they admit their wards to pre-primary and pre-nursery classes creating unnecessary burden at an early age.

The policy of government schools to provide education from Class I onwards (primary education), with admission to students at the age of 5 years plus, can be considered for implementation uniformly throughout the country, including private schools. This will help save the childhood of children, permit more time to parents to give attention to them, and reduce tendency of useless cramming of contents in lower classes. The poor can also afford the system of education, as they need not spend their hard earned money on unnecessary classes.

A few decades back, Hindi and the regional languages were the medium of instruction, but now English as the medium of instruction is finding favour among the masses. In our society, whether rich or poor, almost all make use of the mother tongue or the national language in their daily conversation.

A major proportion of our population belongs to villages, where English is rarely used in conversation. Under these circumstances, barring a few exceptions in metros and a few major cities, students find it difficult to understand the subject contents in English, and therefore resort to cramming.

Most of the parents also are unable to help their children and are forced to engage a tutor who often fails to fulfil the purpose. It seems to be the major cause of pressure of examination among students at least up to Class X.

Therefore, the policy of medium of instruction needs to be reviewed. Up to matriculation, Hindi or the mother tongue as the medium of instruction will serve better than English. However, English should continue to be taught as a language, preferably from Class III onwards, or from an appropriate level.

In the late 90s, computer education was introduced at the primary and secondary level, especially in self-financed public schools. This has helped schools collect huge fees to enrich their financial position; and it often misleads the parents in thinking that the children are learning something extraordinary.

Parents have to shell out extra money for their children to be tech savvy. Working with computers is skill-based, and it can be developed at any stage. After developing this skill on a particular software package, it can be maintained only with continuous usage.

Moreover, computer technology is highly dynamic; most of the contents taught to the students at the lower level are likely to get changed at a later stage, thus reducing the very usefulness of computer education imparted to them. Therefore, introducing computer education at a lower level is nothing but the increase in unnecessary burden on students.

A major portion of our population resides in villages, which lack proper supply of electricity. A large number of cities also do not have regular supply of electricity. Under these circumstances, computer education cannot be implemented uniformly throughout the country, and this causes an imbalance of education between rural and urban students.

Computer education is important in the modern era and it will be better to introduce the subject in matriculation and at higher levels as an optional one. A robust and sound education system is the foundation for development of a nation.

For the education system to function satisfactorily, continuous monitoring and corrective action is very important. Factors causing excessive burden on students, cramming-based education and pressure of examination are quite important and call for a redressal.

Educate yourself to boost kids’ success
Parents educated beyond high school do have
a role in bolstering their kids’ language skills
and academic success, says a new study.

“If you want your kids to do well in school, then the amount of education you get yourself is important,” said Pamela Davis-Kean, psychologist at the University of Michigan. “Even after controlling for parental income, marital status and a host of other factors, we find that the impact of parental education remains significant,” Davis-Kean said.

One of the studies examined the long-term effects of parental education on children’s success in school and work, beginning when children were eight-year-old and extending until they were 48. Another study examined how language skills and school readiness of three-year-olds were positively affected when mothers returned to school. “In every case, we’ve found that an increase in parental education has a positive impact on children’s success in school,” said Davis-Kean. “And this impact is particularly strong when parents start with a high school education or less.

“These findings may be reassuring to parents at a time when many are unemployed or worried about future job prospects,” she said. “They clearly show that in terms of the effect on children’s achievement, it’s more important for parents to get a good education than to get a high-paying job,” she said.

“Of course, the more education you have, the more likely it is that you’ll find a good job, so an increase in education often leads to an increase in income.” More education might mean that parents are more likely to read to their children, she suggested. Or it could be that parents who are in school need to be more organised in order to get everything done, so they tend to create a more structured home environment, with dinner and bedtime occurring at regular times, for example. Creating a more structured environment for children—as opposed to giving them lots of free time—has been getting something of a bad reputation lately.

But she believes that for the vast majority of American children, the value of free time has been exaggerated. “There’s this idealistic, nostalgic idea that free time gives children a chance to go out and play, and just experience nature,” she said. “But in reality, in today’s world where both parents are likely to be employed outside the home, what free time means for most kids is sitting in front of the TV, playing video games and generally being bored with no stimulation.” — IANS

Campus Notes
Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar
MoU for placements

Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology and Venus Medicine Research Centre, Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, have inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for collaborative research, training, and placements. The MoU was signed by Devinder Dayal Singh Sandhu, Vice-Chancellor, and Manu Chaudhary, deputy managing director, VMRC, on behalf of their respective institutions.

VMRC is a duly approved research centre of Venus Remedies Ltd. and ranks amongst the top 50 pharmaceutical companies of India with manufacturing units in India and Germany. The Vice-Chancellor said the MoU would facilitate joint activities for the mutual benefit of the two institutions. It would help execute research projects and Ph.D programmes. He said the MoU would bridge the gap between the industry and the academia. The students and faculty of university would be able to advance their skills and knowledge.

NSS volunteers lauded

The university honoured its National Service Scheme (NSS) volunteers for their contribution in establishing a helpline and helpdesk during admissions for the current academic session. The Vice-Chancellor handed over the letters of appreciation to more than a score of volunteers at a function. Those honoured included Dinesh Kumar, Pradeep Ambedkar, Sunil Kumar, Ajay Yadav, Amit Kumar, Randhir Singh, Renu, Chitra, Sukhdas, Vivek, Sunil Kumar, Khusheed Ahmad, Poonam, Kavita, Ravinder, Amit Kumar, Ashish Kumar, Dinesh Reddu, Keshav Garg and Sudhir Kant.

CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar
HoDs appointed

The university has appointed five head of departments. Vanita Kapoor has been appointed as head of the department of animal nutrition while Arjun Singh is the new head of the department of agricultural economics. R.S. Hudda, N.K. Bansal and B.S. Dudi are the new heads of departments of agricultural extension education, farm power and machinery and vegetable science, respectively. These appointments were approved by the Board of Management of the university.

The board also approved promotions of S.K. Sharma, Ved Parkash Luhach, V.K. Batra, Des Raj Aneja, Trilok Nanda and B.S. Beniwal as professors under the Career Advancement Scheme. The board has allowed filling of 19 posts of assistant professors in its various departments through direct recruitment.

— Contributed by Raman Mohan