LOADING, UNLOADING AND DOWNLOADING THE SYLLABUS

LOADING,  UNLOADING AND DOWNLOADING THE SYLLABUS

How much a child can learn? And how much a child should learn? The churning of ideas on this issue appears to be like the churning of the ocean of milk by the Devas and Asuras, each trying to see who will get the nectar first! Everyone on the by-lanes appears to be a researcher and an authority to speak on this issue.. Mythology allows it, but education is no mythology!

During one of my interactions with a passionate teacher, she told me “We don’t go to a doctor and tell him ‘please prescribe this medicine’; we don’t go to a lawyer and tell him ‘please argue the case under this section of the IPC’; but any one can come to a teacher and tell this is how you have to teach!” While i understood the pain behind her passion, it also needs to be admitted that absence of adequate professionalism in the teaching community has led to this situation. As education involves the serious business of shaping the future of a society and a nation, everyone has a concern for that; but everyone believes that their view alone are right ! Hence the curriculum (the syllabus, because there is a profound confusion in understanding these two terms) gets uploaded, downsized and frequently window-dressed!  The courses preparing teachers do not give concepts and skills pregnant with professionalism to handle such sensitive issues with the kind of understanding and expertise that is needed. .. . 

The attitude of “subservience” by the teaching community should be replaced with better ‘self-esteem’ and ‘authority blended with competence” to overhaul the system !

But the recent debate in some parts of the country that the syllabus should be reduced in the government schools forthwith and private schools should examine and follow suit – appears equally as a pernicious view with least understanding of how learning takes place and what should schools and teachers should do to facilitate learning.  (Forget, the legality of such decisions!. Such quick fix approaches have done more damage to the children than helped them in any way! The argument that the size of the syllabus doesn’t give adequate time for co-curricular activities is not tenable and appears more as a cover for non-performance!! It is a myopic view! It appears like pruning the leg to suit the size of the shoe!

The researches in neuro-cognitive sciences prove beyond doubt that the brain works on the principle “use it or lose it.” It accepts challenges and they alone help the brain to maximise its efficacy. Further learning is never a linear process; learning happens in spite of the curriculum design, the syllabus, the textbooks and the pedagogy. Hence window dressing of the syllabus by adding a chapter or two, deleting or changing will add only more confusion unless there is adequate justification. One also has to ensure the impact of such decisions in the learning curve of the students!

One of the basic issues, that challenges any learning process is the stress associated with it. While the content load is certainly an issue, but the dominant issue is the psychological stress associated with the process – that which is caused by whipping the learner like a race horse to reach the winning point and bring a jackpot ! As learning depends on attitude, aptitude and several environmental concerns like soci0-economic and geographical conditions, the system should be addressed to facilitate contextual learning through appropriate pedagogy by continuous empowerment of teachers and helping them to reach out to the learners!

Someone suddenly appearing and bursting crackers on the road may attract the attention of the by-passer for sometime, but the smoke and noise out of it will disappear sooner than later. Decision makers need to understand that off the cuff decisions by them are like serving fast foods to a community and will not be healthy in the long run !