A couple of days back, my mom was telling me of this incident in her school. My mom is a Montessori adult and she teaches kids of ages 3-6. There is this child currently in 9th standard. She had been detained in 9th last year because of poor performance in her exams. This kid is extremely weak in her academics. Her english vocabulary is bad. She communicates only in her mother tongue. Her math skills are equivalent to that of a 4th standard student. I'm very surprised how she managed to reach class 9.
Recently, the principal was informed about this kid's condition when a few teachers complained against her because she wasn't able to keep up with the academics. The principal then decided to demote her to class 8!! This whole incident has shocked me and has forced me to think. There are many questions which arises in my head.
Why is the student in such a situation?
Whose responsibility is it to ensure the child's continual development?
Why was she promoted at the first place?
Who is responsible for the fact that the child has effectively lost 4 years?
The student is not the one to be blamed here. The child may be a slow learner. I feel it is the teacher who is actually responsible. Yes, even the parents to an extent. The teacher meets the student every single day and knows each and every kid's strengths and weaknesses. It has to be the responsibility of the teacher that all kids in the class are doing well. Since this child was a slow learner, the teacher must have given some extra attention to this kid. All kids are not the same. Maybe, just after a week, the kid might be back on track. But even if after a couple of months of extra care the child doesn't improve, the issue must have been bought to the principal's notice. Then, the principal must have spoken to the parents and taken suitable action. This must have happened at least 3-4 years back, when the kid was in 4th-5th. Am I wrong if i say that the teacher is to be held responsible that the kid is now losing 4 years?
I see a major flaw in the whole educational system here. At least in bangalore, i feel education has been put up for sale. Trustees have started commercializing. They are looking at their schools/colleges as a major source of income. In engineering colleges, you literally 'buy' seats. Recently a friend of mine and I had been to a college in bangalore to meet the principal for some official work. We were waiting outside his room and there were three people ahead of us. Two of them had suitcases in their hand went they went in, but came out of the room empty handed. Later we realized it was admission time and the two people who were ahead of us had 'bought' their seats. Lets leave engineering colleges aside because one can argue that they need money to run.
Lets talk of schools now. Recently 'Chaitanya'(The famous IIT-JEE coaching 'company' in hyderabad) has set up a school near my house. They name in 'Shri Chaitanya Techno School'. And whats surprising, they offer IIT-JEE coaching to students of class 6!! There is nothing more ridiculous than this. 6 years of IIT coaching to do 4 years B.Tech course?? Dude, in 6th I didn't even know that a word like calculus even existed. Having cleared the JEE myself, I will state that 1 year of dedicated work is sufficient to crack the exam. The reason why such institutions are offering such courses is so that they can charge a higher fees from parents.
Now, this new trend has come up among teachers. They feel what defines them is their pay package. Actually a teacher is defined by his students. A good teacher is one who can train an average student to excel in academics. A good teacher is not one who takes students scoring 90% and make him score 91% at the end of 2-3 years. It is very common nowadays to see teachers changing their jobs every 2 years. The main reason behind this is salary. What the teachers fail to understand is how this will affect the students. As a students, i just used to hate it when my teachers would change. It takes some time for the teacher and students to get adjusted with each other. Citing an example, when i was in my eleventh, the math professor who was coaching me for JEE abruptly quit in the middle of the year. No doubt, he was an excellent teacher and we loved him a lot. But his decision affected all of us. After him, we got 4 different teachers in a period of 6 months. And effectively, we didn't learn anything in maths for those 6 months, and that is one of the reasons why a few of my batch-mates weren't able to clear the JEE. So such decisions affect the student more than the teacher himself.
Well, this is what I feel and I'm pretty much sure all of you will have different views on this. So please leave behind your comments!!
With all due respect and regards,
Recently, the principal was informed about this kid's condition when a few teachers complained against her because she wasn't able to keep up with the academics. The principal then decided to demote her to class 8!! This whole incident has shocked me and has forced me to think. There are many questions which arises in my head.
Why is the student in such a situation?
Whose responsibility is it to ensure the child's continual development?
Why was she promoted at the first place?
Who is responsible for the fact that the child has effectively lost 4 years?
The student is not the one to be blamed here. The child may be a slow learner. I feel it is the teacher who is actually responsible. Yes, even the parents to an extent. The teacher meets the student every single day and knows each and every kid's strengths and weaknesses. It has to be the responsibility of the teacher that all kids in the class are doing well. Since this child was a slow learner, the teacher must have given some extra attention to this kid. All kids are not the same. Maybe, just after a week, the kid might be back on track. But even if after a couple of months of extra care the child doesn't improve, the issue must have been bought to the principal's notice. Then, the principal must have spoken to the parents and taken suitable action. This must have happened at least 3-4 years back, when the kid was in 4th-5th. Am I wrong if i say that the teacher is to be held responsible that the kid is now losing 4 years?
I see a major flaw in the whole educational system here. At least in bangalore, i feel education has been put up for sale. Trustees have started commercializing. They are looking at their schools/colleges as a major source of income. In engineering colleges, you literally 'buy' seats. Recently a friend of mine and I had been to a college in bangalore to meet the principal for some official work. We were waiting outside his room and there were three people ahead of us. Two of them had suitcases in their hand went they went in, but came out of the room empty handed. Later we realized it was admission time and the two people who were ahead of us had 'bought' their seats. Lets leave engineering colleges aside because one can argue that they need money to run.
Lets talk of schools now. Recently 'Chaitanya'(The famous IIT-JEE coaching 'company' in hyderabad) has set up a school near my house. They name in 'Shri Chaitanya Techno School'. And whats surprising, they offer IIT-JEE coaching to students of class 6!! There is nothing more ridiculous than this. 6 years of IIT coaching to do 4 years B.Tech course?? Dude, in 6th I didn't even know that a word like calculus even existed. Having cleared the JEE myself, I will state that 1 year of dedicated work is sufficient to crack the exam. The reason why such institutions are offering such courses is so that they can charge a higher fees from parents.
Now, this new trend has come up among teachers. They feel what defines them is their pay package. Actually a teacher is defined by his students. A good teacher is one who can train an average student to excel in academics. A good teacher is not one who takes students scoring 90% and make him score 91% at the end of 2-3 years. It is very common nowadays to see teachers changing their jobs every 2 years. The main reason behind this is salary. What the teachers fail to understand is how this will affect the students. As a students, i just used to hate it when my teachers would change. It takes some time for the teacher and students to get adjusted with each other. Citing an example, when i was in my eleventh, the math professor who was coaching me for JEE abruptly quit in the middle of the year. No doubt, he was an excellent teacher and we loved him a lot. But his decision affected all of us. After him, we got 4 different teachers in a period of 6 months. And effectively, we didn't learn anything in maths for those 6 months, and that is one of the reasons why a few of my batch-mates weren't able to clear the JEE. So such decisions affect the student more than the teacher himself.
Well, this is what I feel and I'm pretty much sure all of you will have different views on this. So please leave behind your comments!!
With all due respect and regards,
