bookish knowledge' alone will not help, say students
Schools and colleges evaluate students in terms of the marks they procure in the examinations. This they achieve through “book knowledge” Well, can that be called smart studies or mugging up your lessons? Whether this kind of education adds to the progress of a person is a big question mark.
Yes, to a certain extent one should be tested on the few facts that exist and knowing about them is extremely good and profitable. But, how long will one study the same concept though not required or is it going to be beneficial somewhere down the line? At one point, even the lecturers get tired of teaching the same old mundane topics which are only theoretically directed.
The question that arises is, should one look beyond examinations to evaluate a person when it comes to academics? If new methods should be invented to gauge them, a more practically inclined and creative oriented method should be assimilated with the already existing form.
Mariyam Alavi, Mount Carmel College
Books are a great source of knowledge and wisdom; but it would be a fallacy of the highest order to consider it the only one. True, exams that evaluate your book knowledge are important, but one does not survive in this world based on only the pearls of wisdom we grasp in textbooks; the really successful are the ones who understand that education is the “overall development” of a human being and it cannot be confined to the four walls of a classroom. The “street-smart” ones are those who not only have a good grip on what their teachers and authors of textbooks deem necessary, but also have an understanding of basic “survival skills” that will help them through in the rat race of today.
This is also why I think we need to make our education system more flexible with room for change; our syllabus needs to be revised at regular intervals to make sure that it is in sync with what the generation requires. It also needs to incorporate other softer skills that students will find helpful later on. Today's students are tomorrow's leaders; so you cannot compromise with their future.
Sahil R. Kulkarni, Sindhi College
Evaluation in the present education system is based only on what the student writes in his/ her examination papers. Not every student has the ability to score well. Some excel in the theory part of their field. Students are questioning the system that judges a student only on theory, and has thwarted his/her ‘thinking-broader' capabilities. I, being a student of BCA, face similar problems and have often questioned my lecturers but received no answer. Can we not wish for improvement and at least try looking at another phase of imparting education? We cannot forget the basis of it but at least think a little beyond the usual is what I genuinely think.
Shilpa Johar, Mount Carmel College, Bangalore
I personally believe the term ‘evaluation' is ambiguous. No matter where you are from or which syllabus you have studied, marks will be the crucial factor when it comes to choosing a college of your choice . Creativity and self-exhibited work is the new way of learning and teaching world over.
Now that I think about it, I've grown up noticing that change is good. But then, learning never stops and everything we derive now is from something that we've either heard or read about before. So, yes, we must change the current syllabus; intelligence must not be judged only on the basis of marks secured.
Ramnath Prabhu, CMS Jain College
Technically, this whole idea of “logical” thinking makes a lot of sense in my opinion. For me book knowledge is indeed important. I don't think we would even reach this far without those big fat books we have been studying since we stepped into school. They are very useful. To a certain extent we should also incorporate the logical or practical method of evaluating students and grading them.
It will be beneficial and will help us think differently. Come what may, I will stick by theory because I believe that these books and the information fed in them have led us to be what we are today and it is important to add more to the syllabus and not cut down on portions in the books as you never know where it will be useful for us. However, we should engage in more logical work other than academics because that also counts a lot.
Aakruthi Ramkumar, MSRIT
Like most people, I obviously feel that a student shouldn't be judged on the basis of grades he gets, but on the practical knowledge he has. There are students who do gain a string of good grades and have the applied knowledge as well, but this is very rare. This way the syllabus, according to me, needs changes at least once a year. A good majority of the people mug their way through just to get good grades and a degree which can secure them a job. Since a majority do this, it is often misunderstood that if a student secures good grades he or she is much more brilliant that students who don't. Frankly, I have very little understanding of the applications of what I am learning. We are taught only theory and there is just a mention of the applications, which is insufficient.
But, with the pressure that is put on the students today good grades have to be obtained in order to get into a reputed college. However, if the aim of the subject is to enhance the knowledge of the student and to make him/her have diverse knowledge about any topic in the field of interest and handle any problem, that is not achieved.
Alok Nandan Nikhil, MSRIT
This is one question that is constantly on a student's mind. More likely, an engineering student's, considering it's only a small amount of what we study that we apply. I, being in the fourth semester, still don't know where I apply what I learn. In such a scenario, judging a student for what he/she mugged up the previous night and went all guns blazing in the paper next day is not a true measure of his/her capabilities. I still miss those times at school when we were asked to draw some crooked horse or a grandma. Though seemingly stupid, it was a stage for our creativity and imagination. That is probably the most basic feature of brainstorming.
Honestly, how many of us actually use such tools in our studies? We all see things through the views of the author of a textbook or the fellow who sets the curriculum. Are we ever encouraged to venture out of the boundaries set? No. We end up concentrating on our grade points, the biggest suppressor of creativity.
It's time we got out of this conservative approach to learning and practice what we preach, literally. It's good if the syllabus changes every year. There's absolutely no point in learning what
is dead and buried. When the world changes, so should we
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