(Article written by Jibrael Jos for an online course on FutureLearn.com)
Students do not retain core
technical concepts by the time they reach the final semesters. It has been
observed that concepts which were covered in the first three semesters are not
recalled by students at the time of placement for a job in the sixth semester.
One of the main reason is that
the current
exam system encourages rote learning. Questions are mostly of “recall”
nature. Even though some questions
outwardly seem as an “application” problem, they are in reality a recall
question. These case studies are normally covered in the text book or in class.
Students in the semester system study the topics but invariably do not
appreciate the core concepts. They move on to next semester without imbibing
and understanding them well.
A second important reason is the ineffective
learning in primary and secondary school. The salary structure for
school teachers do not tend to attract the best talent. The student- teacher
ratio is heavily skewed. Most children generally have poor reading writing and
comprehension skills. For example some students are not able to extract the key
point in the paragraph, some students cannot explain the algorithm after
reading the text a couple of times. Students are not able to organize their
thoughts in interpretive questions and tend to skip them in case of a choice. By
the time they play catch up with the outstanding students in college, two three
semester would have gone by.
In good public schools, teaching
would be better than government schools but I feel what really makes it click
is the fact that parents are spending extra time and money to ensure they ward
gets one to one attention if possible. The middle class families in small towns
and metros make it a point to pick and drop kids to dance, karate, tuition,
sports etc.
Schools are worried about their
image and vary of failing students. Government is afraid if students will drop
out. The end result is that shoddy assignments are approved and failed exams
are absolved and child is pushed to the next class. Tenth board is made as easy
as possible, so as to paint a rosy picture. You spoil them for seven years and
want a miracle in three years in a graduate program. Sadly colleges also fall
in the same trap and when the time to place them in an organization comes we realize
there is a serious gap.
Some people wrongly assume that
students lack motivation and discipline. They assume the children are
addicted to Social Network, friends and parties. Children are the future of the
nation, every batch is generally smarter than the previous. Students generally
know what is best for them and realize when to put in the extra mile. You give
our students any system and they invariably crack it, may it be IIT entrance test,
IAS exams or Gate/GMAT Scores. Indians also know how to succeed at workplace
and all major of MNC have a healthy percentage of successful Indians in them
Exam System and Ineffective
Schooling is the main reason but tuition centers or finishing schools are not
the solution for this panacea. Is a change possible? We are seeing a revolution
in education here in urban India. There is a lot of focus on curriculum and
pedagogic changes. The sixth pay commission has substantially increased
teachers’ salaries and is now attracting good talent. How successful we are in
motivating the teachers, parents, educators and students today will decide whether
in years to come we will be able to take these advances to the remotest parts
of the nation. Progress for the top ten percent only can be catastrophic lets
unite for a better educated, motivated and skilled India.
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