SURGICAL STRIKE ON CURRICULUM IS TILTING AT WINDMILLS. 10 SUGGESTIONS FROM A TEACHER

In the much talked about 17th century novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, there is a beautifully narrated, humorous description of the protagonist – Don Quixote – fighting the windmills thinking that he is fighting giant enemies which gave birth to the English idiom ‘Tilting at windmills. While reading about the government’s decision to “cut” syllabus by half from 2019 session, I was reminded of Don Quixote for the simple reason that both are fighting presumed enemies.

In a nutshell, the scenario can be mathematically represented as follows:

                  PROBLEM = STRESS

                  SOLUTION = CUTS

                  RESULTS = NUTS

Let me explain: Sir/Madam, kindly understand that the content is not what pressurizes our students beyond measure. It is the way content is delivered, and the way learning is assessed. What linguistic skills are we assessing when we ask the following questions?

·       Who is the speaker?

·       Who said to whom?

·       What does the mirror reflect?

If you argue that these questions are aimed at assessing a student’s memory, you are 100 percent right. But is the memory a linguistic skill? Stupid questions, I must say. These kinds of questions force students to cram the entire textbook without even thinking that they are learning a language. In this sense, yes, most of the textbook should be thrown into the dustbin. It doesn’t make any difference.

If you wish to continue reading this article, I have two requests to you:

1.    I am able to differentiate between ‘update’ and ‘cut’. I am a staunch supporter of syllabus updates at least once in every alternative year, but at the same time I am a hard and fast enemy of ‘syllabus cuts’ for unscientific reasons.

2.    If you choose to discontinue reading this article, well… spare me from comments rooted in political affiliations and associations.  

Let’s get back to what we have been discussing. The perennial question (at least at the moment) seems to be this: “how do you reduce stress without REDUCING content of the syllabus? Here are some suggestions?

1.    Allow students to use scientific calculators in the examinations. Most progressive educational boards across the globe have already been doing this. The government must intervene to make sure that even in the entrance exams students are allowed to use scientific calculators.

2.    Provide data booklets in the exams for Math and science subjects as Cambridge Assessment International Examination does. At least include more data in the logarithm table so that students can eschew cramming. This serves their valuable time (being wasted on rot learning formulae that have already been proven), and students will be able to focus more on the application.

3.    Eliminate redundant content. Textbook writers in many subjects seem to enjoy verbosity to no particular avail.

4.    Redesign textbooks in a much more student-centered way so as to encourage children to do further research on topics of interest. Mention valuable URLs and reference materials.

5.    Continue the ‘no detention policy’ at least till grade X. Instead of detaining children for not performing in academics, introduce a two-tier system that allows the students to choose either the complete syllabus for a particular subject or part of it. Say for example X is a grade 10 student who has no inclination towards biology, but loves literature, and he doesn’t wish to graduate in Biology in future or do a course related to medicine or biomedical engineering. In such a situation why are we forcing this particular student to take up the complete bio syllabus as other students who are determined to pursue a course related to medicine? In this case, X should take the complete syllabus for literature and part of Biology which will be required for his day to day life. When we give an opportunity to students to choose, I believe they become more responsible and less lackadaisical about subjects of their choice.

6.    Restrict academic hours so that students who have non-academic interests such as sports, art drama, social service etc. can pursue them without compromising on their academics. As far as I know, very few government schools in India are well equipped to cater to students’ non-academic needs. Where does the question of all-round development pitch in?

7.    Stop blaming teachers for the non-performance of students. It is because of the polluted educational environment created by everybody that even dedicated teachers fail to bring about commendable results.

8.    Include more subjects to choose from. Let our students start learning subjects of their choice from a young age. Every school should turn out to be a kind of vocational institute. We can bring in subjects like tourism, photography, Physical Education (for which students have to sit for exams) etc.

9.    Spend more money on improving the quality of teaching, infrastructure, learning resources, life skills enhancement, conducting more and more co-curricular activities etc.

10.            As far as possible keep politicians away from academic decision making without consulting people on the ground. Decision makers and educators should work together without political leniency in order to change the fate of education in our country. The recent comment by a political leader on the veracity of the theory of evolution is alarming. Just imagine this ‘cut and edit’ process involves such people! Alas! OMG!