STUDENT's SHORTFALLS

Student’s Shortfalls

Talking about Education everybody accepts that it has problems. We discuss, sometimes debate and argue about what has gone wrong but in the end always give up; throw our arms up and say only God can save the education. One of the major stake holders is the student community. If they are good everything would fall in place. It is our wishful thinking that they should do something to correct the system. But it does not seem so.

Over a period it is seen that the students today have following problems.

1.    Lack of acceptable language

2.    Lack of memory

3.    Lack of comprehension

4.    Lack of belief in teachers

5.    Lack of faith in any system as a whole

6.    Lack of patience to go through the process of education as a whole.

With all of the above problems present in the students either in isolation or in various possible combinations, it is really a tough challenge for the teachers and trainers to imbibe the true values and education.

1.    Lack of acceptable language

 The language being the sole tool for effective communication assumes the top priority when the students are to be educated. The problem is double edged as the ability of the students is not alone responsible for the education. In most cases the teachers also have shown a marked inability as far as the fluency in the language of teaching medium. The problem complicates in direct proportion with the increasing demands of standard language required for effective delivery in the professional courses. How the instruction can be imparted without any acceptable language is beyond understanding of many people like me. That the classes are held and students somehow learn is pure miracle. The pure joy of listening correct language in a college is very rare and far between the usual trashes dished out by the commonly available teachers.

2.    Lack of memory: The lack of accepted level of memory is yet another major hurdle, which is to be tackled by all of us. The learning is a classical process comprising of three major paths. One can learn by applying experience, which is called as ‘pratyaksha pramana’. What we see is not many times accurate so we start investigating and in the process learn. Secondly, we estimate or we try to imagine about things. We learn by anumana. Again it has its own limitations. Thirdly we learn by instruction from the teachers, which is called as the shabda. The last is by far the most used and popular method for ages and for having effective outcome the students and the teachers must have acceptable memory. It is here the present day systems are failing. Even though the students can memorize like a parrot they can rarely say that they have understood what they have memorized. All the future problems start here. How to develop memory simultaneously with understanding is the biggest problem, which we need to address. The students have to have implicit faith in the teachers if the shabda system has to work.

3.    Lack of comprehension: Lack of comprehension is a major issue. What students learn and what the world wants form them are two separate issues and hence we spend millions of dollars in training the graduates we employ. The turnover and attrition of the employees is a direct index of the gap in knowledge and now all organizations have started developing comprehensive attrition analysis models. There is no assurance from the universities about the minimum academic standards as most of them are trying to meet their both ends. The classic conflict of commercial compulsions and academic requirements reflect in each walk of academics. There is a continuous struggle and a compromise between the standards and the quality, resulting in a below par output of the graduates. The technical graduates whether engineering, medical or management generally learn what is expected of them when they are employed which results in a huge drain on the exchequer.

4.    Lack of belief: The student’s lack of belief in the teachers as well as the teaching ability is a well-known fact. The absence of the students in the class rooms and their overwhelming attendance in the private tuition classes bears a testimony to this bitter fact. The concerned (?) authorities are trying to get this issue resolved, but at least today do not seem to have any plausible and acceptable solution. That the teachers even though qualified cannot teach is a direct reflection on the quality of the education the institutes are dishing out. The universities find themselves in a hopeless situation when they talk about tuition menace. They cannot criticize the quality of teachers as they are aware about their part in the mass production of graduates, post graduates and now a day’s Ph. D. Degree holders. They know the worth of what they have produced and hence find it very difficult to talk and mend the situation. The students find themselves in a situation where they know that going to college is for attendance necessary for appearing for exams and if they have to learn they have to attend the coaching classes. Most of them pay for the “paper” and that is what they get. What boils down is a simple fact: imperfect teachers cannot produce perfect students.

5.    Lack of faith: Lack of faith in the education system: the biggest irony of modern day teaching is that none of the stake holders has any faith in the ongoing process. The government and the ministry has never understood what they are doing which is quite obvious from what we are seeing. The reforms, redesigns, improved course corrections, reviews, new patterns and many such things are simple eyewash. By now everyone is aware about what is and what shall be the result of this lopsided activity. They say that a lot has been planned, done, reviewed and improved but the results are not visible in proportion to the efforts put in and financial resources consumed.

6.    Lack of required patience: Student lack required patience to go through the process of education. The folly of being impatient is relatively new. A lot has been already said about the instant results culture prevalent in the students. They are not equipped to sustain the pressure created by the waiting. The problem is complicated by the “end first” approach. That the expected results are subject to a sincere effort put in is not advertised. Most students because of this created misunderstanding have inflated and unrealistic ideas about their future. Even though every stake holder accepts that unless required effort is put in there would be no appreciable outcome, none of the stake holders dares to express for the obvious reasons mostly on a commercial front. Nobody wants to become unpopular by calling a spade. As compared to earlier times, the effort level has gone down and yet the students are not comfortable when required to stretch. The ease with which the students have access to information, the lesser and lesser alignment of the curricula with what the industry wants, very little practical exposure, lack of sincerity in efforts both by the students and teachers has created a student with all right sounding and looking degrees, but in practice they are inadequate. The sooner the focus shifts from paper-centric education to value based education is better for all people involved in the education process. There are lot of comments, criticisms and generally requests for short circuiting the process.

There is nothing called as instant gratification in the education. One has to slog for years, and then claim any substantial and convertible comprehension of the subject. The comprehension alone can create practical application benefiting the society.

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