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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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Reducing study pressure
Danger of underage schooling
Fewer students interested in working in, not just on, computers
Resurrecting higher education Campus Notes
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Reducing study pressure THE education system must be systematic, motivating and value additive to students, and convenient and economical for implementation to administration. The success of the education system is quite dependent on sub-modules of teaching scheme. Therefore, the issue must be properly addressed. Different sub-modules of teaching scheme, viz. annual, semester and trimester have been in practice. The sub-modules play a significant role in education by causing varying level of motivation, value addition and pressure among students; demanding varying level of implementation efforts from teachers; and offering varying level of implementation complexities for administration. Therefore, choice of an appropriate sub-module for a particular level of education is very important for the designing of a useful education system. In general, the annual sub-module, along with the system of half-yearly examinations, has been a common feature in primary and secondary education. The annual examination covers the entire syllabus specified for the academic year. The policy provides reasonably sufficient time to students to learn and understand the subject. Therefore, the annual system seems to be quite appropriate for a sound education system at the primary and secondary levels. Half-yearly examinations in each class with appropriate weightage are necessary to motivate the students for continuous study, and provide a performance assessment. There has also been a practice whereby students from Class IX used to be promoted to Class X based on their performance in an in-house examination. The Class X board examination used to cover the contents for both the classes IX and X. Similar practice used to be followed for Classes XI and XII as well. The subject contents covered in the board examinations formed a complete module at respective levels. Although such a practice would have definitely increased revision load on students during the examination, for sincere students, this was not a difficult task. Rather this scheme provided an additional opportunity to students to learn and understand the subjects properly. It was beneficial to the students preparing for competitive examinations for admission to diploma programmes (after Class X), degree programmes (after Class XII), and other tests conducted for recruitment to different posts as per qualification. However, some policy makers taking the plea that the scheme causes heavy burden on students, advocated for separate syllabus contents for examination of each class in secondary education. Thus, the teaching scheme got modified accordingly. During ongoing reforms, it would be better to reconsider this modification of the teaching scheme to bring about the quality in education and usefulness of studies to students. Nowadays, the semester system being followed in engineering education is much in discussion for implementation in secondary education. The purpose of engineering education is to widen the horizon of students, and improve the imagination, thinking and analytical power. More importantly, it is also to enable the students to learn new subjects when required. This is accomplished through a properly planned teaching scheme, covering a large number of subjects, including those belonging to basic sciences, humanities and basic engineering in various disciplines. It is very difficult to accommodate all these subjects in addition to the discipline-specific subjects in the most popular, annual system in the stipulated duration. Perhaps for this reason, the semester system-based sub-module was implemented. Though the semester system has not been universally accepted in engineering education, majority institutions have been following this. In this system, the main examinations are conducted twice a year, in addition to mid-semester tests for continuous assessment. Thus, as the examinations and tests are conducted almost throughout the year, the students remain under relatively more pressure than that they would have been in the annual system. In the semester system, the shortage of time compels the students to study the subject contents for short-term goal (examination) basis, which may adversely affect the level of understanding. Also, the system poses difficulty in handling the semester, supplementary and re-appear examinations due to dropping of a semester or exam by some students. This also dilutes the education system, as the students are generally promoted to next semester, irrespective of their performance in the current semester, because of implementation complexity. Thus, insincere students may become more careless. Accordingly, for poor performing ones a large number of subjects may remain pending, and get piled up towards the end of the education programme, which may be a cause of concern, mental pressure and frustration. Some more enthusiastic policy makers and educationists proposed and implemented yet another sub-modular system called the ‘trimester system’ in a few engineering institutions. The purpose was to work out a new teaching scheme so as to reduce study pressure and strengthen continuous evaluation. In this system, the main examinations are conducted thrice a year, along with the mid-trimester tests for continuous assessment. The condition of students undergoing this system can be imagined. Most of the time the students would keep preparing for examinations and the teachers would remain busy in evaluation activities. Ultimately, the institutions switched over to the semester pattern. In the non-professional higher education, the annual system without half-yearly examination seems to have been quite common. Here an appropriate choice can be made between the annual and the semester system depending on the number of the subjects in the teaching scheme. In case the annual system is adopted, the half-yearly examinations with appropriate weightage can be useful. The purpose of the semester-based sub-module seems to accommodate a large number of subjects in a given duration, and not to reduce study pressure on students. These facts must be paid due attention while formulating policies.
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Danger of underage schooling IF I ask you, “Are you ready to marry off your daughter before she turns eighteen?” you are surely to answer, ‘Oh no, it is not legal and she is not physically and mentally prepared for marriage!” But if I ask you, “Would you send your daughter to school before she is physically and mentally prepared to start serious studies?”—most of the parents will find no issue in it. However, this is only the lesser evil. Another very harmful practice is going on rampantly in school admissions—schools are admitting underage children to higher classes. This is not even discussed openly as the parents are only too happy to cooperate, unaware of the damages this can cause to the child’s overall development. In most of the schools, there is a cut off date for admission at the entry level, say, September 30, to count the age of the child. By this date, the child should have attained three years of age. This means all children who are not yet three will not be admitted that year even if they are younger by only a week or even a day. On the sly, schools are admitting such kids too through an indirect route by not admitting them that year to the entry level class but taking them in the next higher class next year. For example, the child can get into nursery without having studied in pre-nursery. Parents are happy because they have saved on the school fees of whole one year and they think that the child has saved one year. Schools are happy because they have admitted more children without burdening their entry level class and without breaking the rule of admitting less than a 3-year-old child. The only loser is the child struggling hard to be at par with other kids of his class who are now well versed in the basics of alphabets or numbers having practiced them for full one year in the previous class. This focus on teaching 3- to 4-year-olds has become a thing of past in most of the developed countries where regulations regarding age of the child at school entry level of 6-8 years are strictly enforced. It is a well-researched fact that the child’s brain is yet to make the neural connections at this age, which will anatomically enable him to develop the skills and concepts needed to learn. Before a certain age, their hand muscles are not developed to perform fine motor skills. However, in our schools, if we have a casual look at the syllabus of kindergarten, one will be surprised to find that it includes lists of 20 each names of animals, birds, flowers, body parts, modes of transports, days of weeks, months of the year, five-six line compositions, opposite words, counting in numbers and figures etc. The child has to mug up all these lists. We as parents and teachers are totally oblivious of the danger we are putting our children in through this pressure situation. What this underage child will do in the classroom? When the child is not able to pick up things as fast as his classmates, he feels like a failure. A child cannot differentiate between effort and ability. When they try hard to learn and fail, they conclude that they are good for nothing and can never accomplish anything. They feel depressed, stressful, loose confidence, resort to cheating, start hating schools and give up on learning, and subsequently give up on their own selves. Thus, the seeds of a problem child and a problem adult have been successfully sown. In our hurry to give the children a head start in life, we are on the contrary making them handicapped for life—emotionally and mentally. By forcing them to read and write in spite of their physical and mental inability, we are breaking their spirit. How many children need to suffer before parents and teachers consider this issue serious enough to be examined and pursued with urgency?
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Fewer students interested in working in, not just on, computers It would be hard to find a student at Stone Bridge High School who has never used the Internet for a research assignment, socialized with Facebook or played a video game. But few know much about how computers and the Web actually work. About 70 students at the school in suburban Loudoun County, are taking introductory or Advanced Placement courses this year in computer science, getting a glimpse behind the games and Web sites they use all the time. For 1½ hours, they enter a bracket-and-parentheses-laced world and practice speaking and writing in Java and C++. If they stick with it, they will be part of an elite group that is exceedingly employable, economists say, even in a recession. In suburban Loudoun County, sometimes called the Silicon Valley of the East, fewer than 5 percent of all high school students took a computer science class in each of the past three years, and the numbers are slipping slightly. Nationally, the portion of schools that offer an introductory computer science course has dropped from 78 percent in 2005 to 65 percent this year, and the corresponding decline in AP courses went from 40 to 27 percent, according to a survey by the Computer Science Teachers Association. In the spring, the College Board, citing declining enrolment, cancelled its AP computer science AB class, the more rigorous of its two courses in the subject. The result of sporadic or skimpy computer science training is that a generation of teenagers great at using computers will be unlikely to play a role in the way computer technology shapes lives in the future, said Chris Stephenson, executive director of the New York-based Computer Science Teachers Association. “Their knowledge of technology is very broad but very shallow,” she said. That has economic implications. “If you look at history, the nations with economic superiority are building the tools the rest of the world is using,” Stephenson said. The slide in computer science education is surprising at a time when politicians are bent on fuelling innovation by sharpening the math, science and technology skills of the future workforce. Stephenson said computer science classes might be an unintentional casualty in the push to increase academic standards. Computer science is not considered a core subject by the No Child Left Behind law, which influences school priorities and budgets. That makes them vulnerable to cuts, and computer science teachers are often reassigned to teach core math or science classes. As states increase high school graduation requirements in core subjects, students have less time for electives. Some states have tried to increase enrolment in computer science classes by allowing them to count as math credits. Computer industry leaders and policymakers are trying to raise awareness about the field. This fall, the House of Representatives passed a resolution creating Computer Science Education Week, which began on December 6. John White, chief executive of the Association for Computing Machinery, says: “Computing is fuelling countless advances, from improving communications and advancing health care to protecting national security and improving energy efficiency to helping understand the depths of the universe,” White said. — By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Resurrecting higher education WITH the change of guards in the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), the skeletons have started tumbling out, which seemingly should only be the tip of the icebergs. Professional education has been badly mauled as arrests of some regulators and educationists indicate. In the present knowledge-driven world, fake degrees from fake universities would do the society more harm than any good. Thus, higher education needs immediate corrective measures to arrest the falling standards. First of all, there is need to evolve a common curriculum in healthcare, engineering and management at the undergraduate level to maintain standards. There can be common term-end examinations and well-defined yardsticks for internal assessments. States and universities can be persuaded to accept common denominator in national interest rather than infringement on their rights which are only concurrent. There should be no place for fake degrees in our education system. Professional degrees should be awarded through a regular study-based programme as medicos cannot be educated through distance modes nor can we have engineers without practical and lab training. MHRD should ensure that degree equivalent courses in professional institutions are not misused. The bunching of university MBA with add-on autonomous courses like public speaking or personality development sold at fanciful fees needs to be curbed. Finally, the regulators like UGC, AICTE, MCI etc, should put their acts together and ferret out fake and futile instead of watching helplessly while the students lose their formative years.
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Campus Notes Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR) recently. Dr S.P. Vats, registrar, MDU, and D. V.K. Dua, director, NIMR, signed the MoU to facilitate scientific, educational and infrastructural collaboration, along with faculty exchange. As per the terms of MoU, NIMR will be an official research affiliate of MDU. Further, there will be academic and research collaboration between the scientists of NIMR and faculty members of pharmaceutical sciences, life sciences and physical sciences. NIMR and MDU will also conduct joint programmes including courses, workshops, conferences, training modules, etc. Research scholars of the university can avail training facility at NIMR laboratories. Ten PG students of the Advanced Centre of Biotechnology will also undergo summer internship at NIMR as per the agreement.
Rathi is MDUTA president
Somvir Singh Rathi, a lecturer with the Institute of Management Science and Research (IMSAR) of MDU, has been elected president of the Maharshi Dayanand University Teachers Association (MDUTA) in the elections held on the university campus recently. Rathi defeated his rival, Dr Ranbir Singh Gulia, by a margin of 136 votes, while Dr Jaiveer Dhankar was elected general secretary by defeating Dr Ashwini Kumar by a margin of nine votes. According to Dr Surender Kumar, dean, academic affairs, and returning officer, Rathi got 217 votes against 81 secured by Dr Ranbir Singh, while Dr Jaiveer Dhankar got 154 votes against 145 secured by Dr Ashwini Kumar for the post of general secretary. Nine teachers who were elected to the Executive Committee include Dr S.C. Malik, Dr Sewa Singh Dahiya, Goldie Puri, Prakashwati, Ateeque Khan, Vipin Kumar, B.S. Sindhu, Mehtab Singh and Dr Dilip Singh.
Fight social evils, exhorts Asha Hooda
The development of any society, state or nation is dependent upon the quality of education. So, girl students must utilise education as a tool for empowerment and to bring about societal change in society. This was stated by Asha Hooda, vice-chairperson, Haryana State Children Welfare Society, while addressing girl students during the foundation stone laying ceremony of 'Sabarmati Girls Hostel' held on the university campus recently. The three-storeyed hostel, which is well-equipped with all local amenities, can accommodate 240 students. Addressing the girl students after laying the foundation stone, Asha Hooda gave a call to the girl students to fight social evils, work for the under privileged, preserve the rich cultural heritage of the country and be the harbinger of change in society.
Community radio station to come up soon
The university has decided to set up a community radio station and TV studio on its campus. Vice-Chancellor Dr R. P. Hooda said this modern facility would be established soon on the campus in technical collaboration with BECIL (Broadcast Engineering Consultant India Ltd.). Dr Hooda said the facility would benefit not only the students of Department of Journalism & Mass Communication, who'll get hands-on training, but also the entire student community.
National youth festival
from Feb 2
MDU will host the National All-India Inter-University Youth Festival from February 2 to 6, 2010. According to Vice-Chancellor Dr R.P. Hooda, the university is gearing up for holding of this mega event on its campus for which new auditorium will be the main centre.
Results declared
The university has declared the results of BA/B.Sc/B.Com (Part I & II) supplementary examinations held in October, 2009. According to MDU Controller of Examination, results of these classes are available on the university websites www.mdurohtak.com and http://mducoe.blogspot.com. —
Contributed by Bijendra Ahlawat
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It’s that time of the year again when we find parents leaving no stone unturned to get their child admitted to the so-called ‘top-notch’ school, even if it means goading three-year-olds into cramming irrelevant bits of information for school admission interviews.