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I know a person who had all the 26 letters of the English alphabet printed after his name in his visiting card. They represented the degrees and diplomas he had managed to acquire. That made him the most eligible applicant in the employment market. His c.v. carried the maximum weight.
When it came to facing an interview or the work situation, he found the going very tough. For two reasons: One, he was unable to articulate himself well, and two he was more a theory man. I found it very intriguing and interesting. Why is it that all his paper qualifications that he secured by diligent study have not enabled to face the challenges in real life?
Education for evaporation
The present day model of education, bequeathed to us by the British, aims at cramming down information than enabling the intellect. A student during the course of about a decade and a half, pores through enormous number of tomes and gets by rote voluminous information. He has no time or need to sift through the information to derive knowledge. Many a time the teacher fails to tell the significance of what is taught. Information, unless digested and assimilated, is mere burden to the brain. At the earliest opportunity, like immediately after the examinations, it evaporates.
Project work - a wonderful tool
A wonderful tool to make pupils imbibe the concepts is project work. In Tamil Nadu from 10th standard upwards, every year the student should be asked to do two projects in an academic year. One project per term will be still better, making it 3 in a year. The student will choose a topic for the project under the guidance of a teacher. The topic so chosen should give scope for fieldwork, study in the library and collection and interpretation of data. Thoroughness, diligence, discipline, people skills, analytical and presentation skills - all these will be put to test in the process. And such a grind makes the student an expert and spurs him to probe further.
Cent percent score but nothing else
Unfortunately, the matriculation syllabus of the Tamil Nadu does not provide for project work. Most of the schools do not encourage their students to make use of the library. Even a library hour is not provided for in the timetable. This makes the student totally dependent on textbooks and notes available in the market. What is worse is that most of the teaching shops with an eye on cent percent results totally discourage children from pursuing any extra-curricular activity. Adding to this is the electronic entertainment that makes them loners.
A curriculum that is broad based, that encourages original work and independent thinking and that which puts a premium on going beyond the curriculum to explore the vast ocean of knowledge - these alone would enable our children to excel in whatever they do. And that is the purpose of education.
Published on 22nd
April 2002
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