Insights

26/06/2015

May 22, 2015

Have you ever noticed what happens to the rank students in later years? And why? How many of the rank students get rank repeatedly? May be just 5% of them. Why those 95% of the rank student fail to get repeated rank in the later stages of their studies if they are above the rest? Do you know that most of our students may not be in a position to identify an object kept in front of them of which they scored 100% in theory! Have you ever tried to find out what happens at tuition centres? Have you surveyed the demand / supply ratio at the job market before selecting the options for further studies? If not we will discuss in this article.

We are experts in doing things blindly. Mass blind followers. Particularly so in the field of education. Every parent wants their children to become a doctor an engineer as if only these two professions can give us money and recognition. Look at your surroundings. The answer you may find is a big NO. It was the situation two decades back, not anymore. Then why this blind craze in us?

The competition from kindergarten level itself is huge. Every other parent sends their children for tuition. So we need to follow them too. Have you ever noticed who teaches them? How differently they teach than at the school? Many promise individual attention beside so many other things. Have you ever thought how can they do it? They too put as many as students to earn more money. Visit those tuition classes once and you may find that the same repetition of process is going on as it was in the class room. And they just teach only one hour per day. It is very clear that individual attention is highly not possible in that short span. Many of the parents do not want their children at home, so they drive them out in the name of coaching. Many of the famous tuition institutions now don’t admit low scoring students. Because they don’t have time to focus on low scoring students and spoil their market value. So best thing is to admit good students and canvass about how many students from their institute got admitted to engineering and medical colleges.

I know from my native place an IIT (Mumbai) student; a MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA) and an IIT (Kanpur) student; they never received any rank in their student life, were relatively unknown till they finish 12th and entered IIT. From where they came all of a suddenly, overtook everyone and entered the top colleges?

Where is the problem then? The reason is we press on only numbers. No one is interested in developing reasoning ability in children. Memorise, vomit on the paper in 3 hours time and celebrate. Post big photos of those students at the road side hoardings to market and attract more students. Have we ever thought about these students whose photos now displayed on big screens at the roadside? Can they handle it positively? Is it not a false claim of having super brain? If not why these students fail to progress as they advance further and remain as an ordinary engineer or a doctor? How many of them actually becomes doctors? How many get merit seat! Have we ever analysed why do they fade away? Most shockingly almost every high school level institutions also started displaying this type of advertising.

Aren’t we putting these students under pressure? When a few institutions were doing it, it was a unique selling point. Now every corner of the village also we can find these displays. Is this necessary?

I do quiz competitions and have participated in many in the past. I observe generally the quiz master as well as guests praise the winners beyond limits about their intelligence during prize distribution ceremony. Many times I cautioned them not to do so. It is because there is no IQ involved in these types of competitions; the winners are generally avid readers. Thats all. We should learn to reward in a suitable manner considering many things particularly age since they may not be in a position to handle such praise positively.

One of my known person (home tutor) told me recently that on one of such advertising board he could find one of his students photo and he was shocked. The reason is, this particular student was not a member of that tuition centre at all. Since the students got good marks, one of the teachers from that coaching institute known to the student gave him 10grams gold and using the students name to market his coaching centre!!

Have we ever thought what these students do once they finish graduation? The job opportunities and the pay scale they are getting? Even today after all these inputs about career choices, majority of these parents/students opt for medical and engineering categories, just for title sake! And they are not hiding it also! An engineer is easily available in the market but not a Bsc (PCM) graduate!! You can get a software engineer easily but not a civil engineer! Now there is a demand for civil engineers in the market because during the burst of software industry two decades back, everyone went after computer engineering. As a result in many engineering colleges there was a lack of students for civil engineering studies and many colleges shut down civil department altogether . In one of my friend’s office in Dubai (MNC,senior accountant) a software engineer from India is also working with same pay scale (as accountants!). A science graduate today is earning more than the MBBS/BDS title holder! We are blindly following a two decade old market demand even now. We have not understood the changed scenario nationally and internationally.

One of my Malayalee colleagues wanted his son to be a doctor. His son did not have a merit seat either in MBBS or BDS. So just for title sake they purchased a BDS (Dental) seat and now struck badly. Because supply is more than demand, every corner there is a dental surgeon and further study (MDS) is very expensive, without merit and they can’t afford! The boy is cursing parents because it is their force he opted for it. Recently when I was in India while doing an evening walk I saw a dental surgeons clinic I am very sure it is also one more case like this considering the locality of the clinic!!

I am not against rank students, but the false glorification of it. I believe that a student who is capable of scoring 80% is capable of scoring 100% also and comes under the bracket of rank holders. Similarly a student who scores just 35% can be prepared to get 80%. Many of these students fail to make it big later on if their marks were built on memorization and vomiting. At the same time a student who builds his academic process on reasoning and problem solving ability reaches the top. They may not be shining initially but they win the race.

This is what we need to provide our children. Unfortunately we think it is the responsibility of the others (school). So we run after those schools and tuition classes. Hardly we believe that it is the home that makes or breaks a student. Consider a school setting and observe properly. For a rank, distinction, average and poorly performing student; all the parameters are same like school, teachers, books, syllabus and the total school environment. The only difference is home and parents. It is different for different student. Very few parents provide the right environment and hence very few actual performers.

If you want your children to excel in studies create a conducive environment at home that propels the child. Do not blame external circumstances. Remember the fact; the difference between students in a class is directly proportional to the quality of the parents of individual student and the environment at home. The formative years for any student as far as academics is concerned, is from age 10 to 16. During this period the the “academic DNA” is formed.

Parents play an important role not (only) the schools during this formative age. Instead of watching repeated telecasts of dirty family drams on the TV spend such useful time with children’s education. Don’t drive them out in the name of tuitions and you glue to TV sets. As long as you watch Color, Star Plus etc channels, no one, no school or institution can lift your child. Instead watch NGC or Discovery etc you may develop positive taste of watching and may get some insights to groom your child in the right direction.

During one of my conversation with a known person recently (because of which I wrote this article) the person questioned me why we need to study certain chapters in mathematics which is not at all helping in our daily lives. Unfortunately we have failed to understand the basic purpose of what actually we study. That varies from subject to subject. Maths is not to count how many pieces of vegetable or meat we made in the kitchen room. Like language subjects are there to increase our linguistic skills Mathematics is for increasing our reasoning ability, problem solving ability or to increase our rational capability. Harder is the subject more will be the effort needed to solve it, there by increasing our reasoning ability in multiple folds. This in tern helps us solve complex challenges we face in life, in science and space. Whatever we have achieved scientifically is due to our ability to reason, that helped build on failures when we encountered a problem that blocked our progress. Maths is not (only) for kitchen room!!

The biggest draw back we face in Indian school system is we haven’t backed our theory classes by practical sessions. The ratio is marginal. If we can improve this ratio by implementing practical that backs the theory classes the problem is solved to a large extent. Because of this lacking in our education system, we have created intelligence clerks rather efficient inventors. And this drawback may be eradicated quite easily if we think a little beyond the boundary of ordinary thoughts. We don’t do that instead continue blaming because it’s an easy way out.

The theory based system is so strongly implemented; most of our students may not be in a situation to recognise an object kept in front of them in which they have scored 100% marks in theory!! You may laugh but this is the hard reality. One of my known person was blaming school for this. Agreed to a certain extent. The person who was blaming school for this is a science graduate and definitely in a position to wipe out this drawback at home itself if the effort is made. Our problem is we think once we send kids to school and tuitions classes our job is done. After that it is schools responsibility and our only job is watching TV and criticising schools or teachers. If we do not think that children are our primary responsibility why does a school think so? That too when education is highly commercialised? If we do not feed the kid mentally, what they need why someone else should? If the competition is healthy, institutions wouldn’t have commercialised to this extent, but it is too fierce that everyone started advertising like this at the cost of students well being.

Stop blaming others for our fault. Knowledge and solutions to any problem is at our finger tip. We need to click the right button or to tap the right resources. Our problem is mind has eaten rust and stopped thinking either due to laziness or we do not want to sacrifice our little time. Easy way out is blaming other circumstances.

Look at any academic success stories or facts we find or read around; even those who perform under extreme poverty and lack of education among the parents, talk about their parental support under extremely trying circumstances. On the other side those parents having everything; look at others to support their child!

Dear students/parents, the time has come for year 2015 to make the right choice that can dictate your life and happiness forever. Don't go after false prestige pushing the wrong button and land up in depression later on. Make the right choices and be happy forever.

19/05/2015

14 Jul 2014: A year back in Dubai I met a person who is a well known name in the field of education in India. As discussion went on I asked her about the one thing that hinders growth in children in academics. I was bit surprised with the answer she gave me. She said “it is the shyness in children to raise questions”. I was under the impression that present generation is more extrovert and don’t hesitate like we did. As discussion continued further I asked her whether the system also is contributing to this problem which is not stimulative at all, she replied positively. So it is both way, children keep quiet in the classroom and system also doesn’t help them to be active.

How can we fix this problem? It may be done at home by parents itself by conditioning the child to raise questions. Try to make the children to feel curious about the environment around them and help them raise questions. Present day parents are at least graduates and are capable of understanding their children’s need. Use your leisure time to think little beyond limits. Look around for cues to raise questions. You will get plenty while doing your daily work itself provided you look it with curiosity, about what we are doing instead of robotic approach. Curiosity is the key for IQ; IQ is not constant and can be modified. IQ is directly proportional to ones ability to raise question and satisfy the hunger for knowledge. It is not an integral property of some intellectual people but it belongs to every one who raises questions.
So where and how to get these cues? Let us explain a few. You may be driving with your children. Ask and explain them what mechanism happens when we shift the gear from 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th? You may be over speeding in front of traffic camera, ask them what the principle behind the traffic camera is .How it strikes exactly at set speed limit? Give the task to find the answer. You may be walking with your kids on the beach. Ask them how tides are formed? Why there are high and low tides? Why some things float on the water and some sink? You may be looking at the sky. Question your children how clouds are formed? How rain falls? Why some clouds are white, some grey and some are black? Why there are so many colors in the evening? You may be spraying perfume to go to some function. Question your kids how the liquid is sprayed!! What happens when you press the k**b of the perfume bottle?! You may be enjoying a cool full moon night at a family / friends gathering during week end. Above you is the full bright spherical moon. Look at those bright round stars shining. Mornings and evenings you may see beautiful spherical shaped Sun. Immediately a question should strike you why all the planets, moon, sun, stars etc round in shape? Why they are not diagonal or square? When sitting inside air conditioned rooms ask how an air conditioner pumps cool air into the room. When you open the fridge ask how fridge makes things cool? A long list of questions from the things we do on daily basis. Our eyes may be wide open but the curiosity is dead. Kindly ignite the spark of curiosity in you. Develop a habit of seeing things with curiosity so that your children can model you.
This above exercise may sound silly initially. But it can revolutionize your Childs future .Each and every scientific achievement began with silly questioning .Let me tell you a few examples (1).A simple kite flying in the sky brought us electricity because person flying it took a electric shock and he became curious about it (2).An ordinary person throwing stones to the pool revolutionalised physics and our understanding of the universe and became extraordinary. He noticed that the wavelength of the waves at the point of impact was shorter than at the far. He questioned it, why it is so? Why the wavelength was not uniform across the pool? (Traffic camera is built on this principle for which our people in Gulf are paying heavily!!).The end result of that simple curiosity and questioning was enormous. The simple unknown person became a part of history then on

There is no such thing as stupid question. Every question is valid. We are expert in shutting the mouth. Encourage children to raise as many as questions. Knowledge is flowing freely. Just tap it for your kids. Have a resource for every topic to find the answer if you don’t know. Remember you can be a mechanical engineer to your children while driving and a doctor in the kitchen room when kitchen knife is in hand. Model the children below 2 years, how innocently they raise their finger pointed at some thing that ignites curiosity in them and ask questions their own way even when they cant talk.

What is this curiosity? The simple definition is, it is the missing link between two pieces of information. We come to know that there is some information is missing to complete the chain, but we let it go without questioning for some reason and remain in dark. Let us light the candle of curiosity and brighten our mind. Don’t ask why we need all this!? What I will do with this?! We have this tendency with us. One of the main aims of education is to increase the power of reasoning and rationalism. How the great inventions were made? Because those inventors could notice unusual things in usual, and raised questions and went after it to find the answer. An additional knowledge in anything at any stage of our life is going to boost the self confidence to higher altitude. If anyone finds a subject difficult to study, one of the primary reason is that they don’t question when they are struck and falsely satisfy their conscious of knowing it (pretend to be solving because they feel uneasy to raise questions, in fact to ask repeatedly when they are struck). Don’t proceed until and unless you resolve the step that is not understood properly. You have every right to ask repeatedly until you are satisfied.

Friends, success has a structured process. It is not by chance If success has come to you by chance, it is not going to last for long, unless you go through the process. Once you teach and condition your child to raise questions, your worries should be over with regarding academic success. A 35% scoring student enters into 80% club in a short time span. As we all know that everyone has the same brain anatomy and potential, the only thing that differentiates is the environment, which is our responsibility to provide it to the child.

Have we ever thought how much sacrifice those inventors / scientists would have been made to invent those new things which we are enjoying today? If not, think about it; think about our life without those things just for a day. The only way we can say thanks or pay tribute to those great inventors/scientists is by trying to understand a little about what they did and to learn raise questions to understand their work and improve it further to help mankind by expanding our mental boundaries. May be your child is just one question away from becoming a great scientist. As a parent it is your responsibility to make it happen.

The best way to condition your kid is to give them the task to raise at least one question per day or week and you may help them find the answer. Reward the process, reward your kid when they do this and you can see the tremendous changes in them academically. Influence your child now, instead insisting for better result at the end .You might know the “flight simulator”, an instrument / equipment designed to give the pilot actual flying experience through artificial means. This is what you need to do at home, create an artificial environment that propels your children to do well in academics. If anyone needs help in this direction you may write me at [email protected]

This article / situation is also applicable in every walk of life including professional life as well as personal life too. We fail to communicate at the right time and land in all sorts of unpleasant situations.

Remember, we are the product of our environment.

15/05/2015

15/05/2015