Education must be focusing on learning with fun and not putting students under adverse pressure situations.
A school nearby has too many programs integrated with curriculum in the name of improving students’ performance. The issue cropped up when I met a student of class 4 who was forced to excel in all domains. Trichy being a smaller town, exposure of students to develop language skills are poor. The school tries to make the students to learn English in 3 different curriculums by integrating such programs with the regular curriculum. This integration made students perplexed to learn simple basics with 3 different text books and with different strategies. Homework for these 3 programs are laborious and parents feel they can’t produce Shakespeare’s overnight.
Review
The issue throws contradictory opinions between students, parents and teachers. Each one of them has their own objectives and struggles to run the show. But the views of students who are at the very young and at primary levels are not heard by these people around. Language taught with traditional methods and less innovative practices will certainly help students catch up quickly. Schools introduce innovation to meet out the expectations of 21st century demands, but they must moderate the pace considering the students at the primary levels too.
Students must be made to learn with fun in school rather than as stress. The creativity of writing stories or poems by any student springs up under stress-free situation and not under any force. The rules of English can be used to apply in their synthesis work rather than asking them to memorising the rules of grammar.
The consistency of practices followed might help to follow the students’ growth and environment instead of adding a new curriculum and integrating in to the existing one without having a clear objective to teach. The integration made the 3 different curriculums to lose their uniqueness. This integration may show students in poor light and ask them to repeat the work in subsequent classes which will frustrate them.
This stress is likely to affect their performance of other main subjects which will affect their long term career. The innovation in linguistic skills have to be carefully programmed and not by directly integrating with curriculum.
The teachers and the management have to make a candid note of the issue and work out ways and means to reach out these skills in interesting way rather than rendering it as a monster to the students.
