Article: The Quest for Academic Excellence

The Quest for Academic Excellence

I tell my PG and UG students that if given the chance – enough money and other related things – many of you would have gone abroad to study (the favourite countries being the US, UK and Australia). A couple of months ago I read the news in the Indian media that Indian students are going abroad even for undergraduate studies. Sure, some of our students should go abroad for study in the hope that they would return and add variety to the intellectual deposit and technological know-how of the country. One of the union ministers, the other day, advised such students to “learn, earn, and return”. Even from advanced countries such as Germany or France students go to the US, UK and Australia (or other way round) for higher studies. One may wonder what is the most important reason for Indian students going abroad. The general presumption being that educational institutions in the advanced countries have better standards. But how do they maintain the standard? One answer could be - by maintaining the standards of all that is related to academics: infrastructure, faculty, library, labs, research, recreational facilities, sporting facilities and so forth. Sure, all these costs more money. That’s why the annual college fees is exorbitant, for instance in the US it is $ 35, 000 (Rs 21 lakhs in today’s exchange rate), compared to Indian standards.

However, it is not a question merely of the higher quality of infrastructure and facilities alone. It is the whole mental framework, environment and ambience. Maintaining an atmosphere of academic formality (surely, combined with friendliness) is one of the key factors. What do I mean by that? I invited a friend of mine, who has just returned from the UK after completing his Masters, to speak to my students to make them aware of the academic atmosphere prevailing in the institution where he studied. This was partly to remove the false impressions harboured by students in India about academic terms and conditions that are prevailing abroad – especially images of excessive freedom (I don’t mean academic) to do whatever they wanted. My friend shared the following: At the beginning of the academic year during the orientation the students were given the necessary instructions meant for the whole programme and that was that: no cajoling with regard to attendance in classes, no going after the students with regard to the completion of assignments, and above all no spoon feeding as happens in Indian universities. Students were given minimum necessary inputs by each course director and then the students are left on their own to build on it. For this of course, the academic facilities mentioned above – especially library (physical and online) are at their disposal. Guess what? Students either perform or perish.

Why wouldn’t the Indian students perform? – Surely the will. For, as I indicated above, education is mercilessly expensive. Most Indian students join colleges abroad after obtaining educational loans back in India. Today most American parents cannot send their children to college, due to the high cost of education, without taking loans. So why wouldn’t the students take studies seriously? In most higher education institutions in India many students (especially those coming from well-to-do families) do not take their studies seriously because they have invested very little monetarily. (After all, many of the rich parents became so by milking the State-cow: bureaucrats through outright bribe-taking; business people through lobbying on the corridors of power to twist economic policies in their favour; farmers by not paying taxes and by taking undue benefit of the state subsidies; politicians through corrupt practices; and traders by not issuing proper bills and tweaking the accounts.)  They not only do not take their studies seriously they are also a bad influence on others who have monetarily struggled to get into college and on those who would like to do well in their studies. Even if they are held up for a couple of years due to lack of attendance or lack of internal marks (applies to autonomous colleges), they lose only a paltry sum. This is all the more true in government run higher education institutions, where the annual fees are abysmally low. The bottom line is that higher education in India should cost more; it should pinch every parent and every student. Then there is a probability that studies will be taken seriously. Or else the money spent by the government (even though it is only a paltry sum) is going down the drains; a pure national waste. I am unable to fathom why the Indian education system should subsidise the rich. Rather the fees should be increased to a proximate level that’s being charged in advanced countries and provide the necessary facilities to an approximate level that is being provided abroad, leaving enough fund to subsidize (even offering full scholarship with stringent conditions attached) the meritorious poor students from the lower strata of Indian society. This will offset the poor from the effects of raising the cost of higher education in India.

You either perform or perish is the formal academic principle that has to be embraced in higher education institutions in India. There should be no room for mercy and compassion in academics. Mercy and compassion can be shown in cases of emotional, psychological, or financial problems and difficulties faced by the students. Or else the country will be churning out unemployable degree holders as is already happening today. Many students realize the mediocrity of their academic performance only when they get the semester-wise marks card in their hands. Till then they are bindass walking around perfectly relaxed, glued to the screens in their own gadgetry world, unmindful of what’s happening around. When the naked academic truth strikes, they devise ways and arguments to twist and manipulate the concerned authorities (lecturers, controller of examinations, office staff ...) stooping so low as to request an outright increase of marks for the subjects in which they have fared badly. There are teachers who would succumb to the pressure. Needless to say, that there is an absolute lack of educational ethics and morality on the corridors of many higher education institutions in India.

If some of the NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) graded (A) academic institutions can follow up on the proposals for drastic improvements the country will have at least some institutions with academic standards on par with those found in advanced countries. Sadly, some institutions are averse to bold initiatives; they seem to be happy and content with the status quo. For, it calls for innovative academic programmes and efficient and transparent administration. Innovative academic programmes combined with efficient and transparent administration can build up excellent educational institutions drastically reducing the need for Indian students to go abroad, in the process saving much money and preventing brain drain, which has been a curse for the country at least since the time of independence.

Dr. Francis Arackal

 http://www.indiancurrents.org/detailedarticle.php?d=124

Article: Teachers Under the Shadow of Students?

Teachers under the shadow of students?

As part of a series of guest lectures held in the second half of Saturday mornings I invited a young film maker to talk to our media students. At the very outset of his talk he asked the nearly 100 students gathered whether anyone of them was compelled to be in the hall. No one said he or she was. But the young speaker felt that the vibes coming from the students weren’t that positive or energetic. Soon he spotted a girl whose head was on her desk. The speaker said, “Mam, you seem to be sleepy; please go out and wash your face and come. Or if you feel you needn’t come back.” Of course, she came back. Another girl was almost in half-bedded/reclining posture to one side in her chair. The speaker said, “Mam, you might fall off, try to sit straight.” Half way through the talk the speaker noticed another girl who was very busy writing. The speaker said, “Mam, is my talk so important that you are taking down every word; what are you busy writing?” This girl was honest to admit that she was writing the notes that she missed from the previous classes.

For the two hours or so the speaker shared about his inspiration, interest, education related to films and film making. He also spoke about the process of film making and his own experience in it. During the question-answer session that followed his input he stressed the importance of media students asking pertinent questions and communicating them properly. “Communication students should communicate effectively,” he added. He was lively, interactive, dripping with energy almost – just brilliant. Even in the midst of it he noted a few other cases of misdemeanour by the students in the hall. Imagine this young man as a regular teacher. I would like to think that he would nip it in the bud the indiscipline and erratic behaviour of the students. For, he seemed to be a man of courage, conviction and commitment.

It took the faculty by surprise that the guest speaker had the guts to pull up these students. What these students were up to was perhaps a reflection of what they usually do in the regular class rooms. How many teachers would have similar guts to pull up the students, I wonder. I feel not many. Reasons: The craze among some teachers for popularity within the student community. This is particularly evident among young teachers. This might also be due to their own insecurity about keeping the job, in view of being unpopular among students, which the management may have to/might take note of. Surely, there are managements which are least bothered about discipline – academic or otherwise – once they admit the students and fees is taken. Also there are managements who would like to treat the students with kid-gloves for the sake of popularity, the consideration being quantity of students and not their quality. Or it could be that the teachers themselves came from a similar unruly background when they were students – in Indian education system this is certainly explicable. It is known that in the Indian education system degrees can be obtained through favours given (even sexual) or through sheer direct bribery.

Gone are the days when if a student misbehaves in the class and the concerned teacher pulls up that student then the rest of the class might shun or disassociate with that student, which in the long run might serve as an automatic corrective to the concerned student. Today, if a student is pulled up by the teacher, for the rest of the class he/she becomes a kind of a hero. The teacher becomes the bad guy under the arbitrary presumption that his/her teaching was boring or he/she didn’t have the looks to cater to a generation brought up with ephemeral, skin-deep beauty standards and values. Gone are the days when if a student told his/her parents that the teacher pulled me up or punished me for indiscipline then the student is bound to get punished also by the parents concerned. Today, parents would immediately run to the educational institution in question to seek explanation for the punishment given or to take revenge, or to threaten the concerned authorities. This is partly because many parents today are living in the fear of their children. If you do not defend your children – no matter what your children have done, terrible – you had it!

The writer walked into a V semester undergraduate programme in June to teach a course for the rest of the semester. To my surprise I found many students in a very disorderly manner – chatting away, leaning on the desk, disinterested, totally distracted, day-dreaming … This indicated that these students had been let loose for the past four semesters due to the inability of their teachers to control the class room or for the reasons mentioned above. In class presentations by students mediocrity is applauded loudly whereas good ones are played down to discourage the students who would like to do well. Similarly those students who would like to contribute to the class by way of interaction, questions, related comments, and observations during a lecture are shouted down (outside the class room, surely) by their class-mates. So much so in the course of the academic year such students are quietened down, as they fall in line with the majority, who are there just for a degree which they think can be obtained by hook or by crook.

Isn’t the same thing happening in Indian society where the corrupt, rapist, criminal politicians and goons are treated as heroes and the victims are made to suffer more? This is partly due to the unsavoury media attention they get. Victims are sometimes socially boycotted and even subjected to honour killings. Would one be off the mark to conclude that what’s happening in the class rooms is symptomatic of what is going on the society?

Dr. Francis Arackal

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/teachers-under-the-shadow-of-students/article6275615.ece#.U94IeIuskqc.gmail