Possibly one of the most difficult subjects both conceptually and mathematically in modern science is Quantum Mechanics, which plays a major role these days in Physics, Chemistry and Biology and in many cutting edge technologies. The Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education, in its wisdom, has decided to include it in its syllabus for the Physical Chemistry course in Class Eleven at the higher secondary level. The treatment of the subject is at a fairly high level and there are also mathematical problems to be solved based on the various formulae. Generally the Physics and Chemistry courses have a considerable amount of mathematics in them and so the Physics course in class eleven starts off with a chapter on dimensional analysis followed by another on differential and integral calculus before going on to other subjects. And all this is in very sanskritised Hindi.
The Government High School in Pandutalab village where our centre is, offers the Physics, Chemistry and Biology combination to those students who want to opt for science at the higher secondary level leaving out mathematics, the syllabus for which is very difficult. However, given the preponderance of mathematics in both physics and chemistry and also to some extent in biology which has genetics in the prescribed course at the higher secondary level, the students and teachers have to contend with it. And there lies the rub.
At the coaching class that we run for students at our centre in Pandutalab, we have students from nursery to class eleven. Right from the fifth class students to those in class eleven, not a single one had any understanding of factors and multiples, fractions, decimals and basic algebra. So initially we sat all the students from class five to class eleven together and made them understand and solve problems on factors, multiples, fractions, decimals and basic algebra. After doing this for about two weeks, we then went on to other subjects thinking that their basics had been cleared. However, since nothing was being taught at school, as the teachers themselves did not know any of these and just taught mechanically from guide books without solving any problems, we found that every time there was a need to use any of this basic mathematics in solving the higher level science problems, the students would stare blankly. So once again we would have to go back to revising the basic mathematics. Thus, now it has become a routine that the first hour or two of each coaching class is spent on revising basic mathematics before we go on to some other subject!!
This brought back the original problem that we have been facing ever since we have tried to do coaching in Pandutalab. Given that very little of mathematics is being taught in the schools nearby, not just the government schools but the private ones also, the students find the rigour and hard work required in our coaching classes a bit too much and tend to bunk them or stop coming altogether!! Then we have to go and speak to their parents and try to explain to them that their children should come to our weekend coaching classes regularly and also revise what we teach them there during the rest of the week. Even this does not work and from about twentyfive children who initially came to the coaching classes, eventually we are now left with around ten students from nursery to class eleven as shown below.
Its a huge challenge to teach mathematics and science to these children who are all first generation Adivasi learners given the fact that even I find the sanskritised Hindi texts difficult to understand. I have to refer continually to the corresponding English texts to decipher what exactly the Hindi means to be able to explain it to the students!! The children first have to understand the problems after reading them and then set them up in mathematical terms before solving them. Its a big ask and requires a lot of hard work from them which they have never been used to in their school previously and even now very little is being done. At present the only solution is to repeatedly do the same problems over and over again because the kids say that when they go home and go over the way the problems have been solved they often can't follow what has been done.
The Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER) has been continually showing this sorry state of affairs, which is in fact deteriorating further with every passing year, with regard to school education in the country but it does not seem to have any effect on the policy makers. Millions of children are learning very little in schools, both government and private, across the country. The syllabi are made tough because a miniscule few elite children have to study at a higher level and compete to get into the top colleges in the country and abroad but this is taking a heavy toll on the rest of the children. The teachers themselves have come out of this kind of schooling and do not understand the tough texts so what will they teach. In fact the ASER should test the teachers' skills also and then it will become clear why the kids aren't learning. Its a school education waste land and I can only forlornly paraphrase T S Eliot -
I sat upon the shore Teaching,
with the arid plain in front of me
Without much hope of setting my lands in order.
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