Y o u r Sp a c e
Why not
I
am wondering what
made the government
to think about changing
matriculation syllabus
by lowering its quality
on par with state board sylla-
bus. Implementation of uniform
syllabus is welcome. But gov-
ernment needs to improve the
quality of the State Board Syl-
labus instead of bringing down
the quality of Matriculation Syl-
labus and making it uniform.
The present matriculation syl-
labus is preferable for it im-
plies good language flow and
communication among the
youngsters. Moreover, parents
prefer Matriculation School
education due to the quality of
child development.
Our education minister has spo-
ken in a meeting that the State
Board Syllabus will be reduced
in order to bring more result in
science subject as there is a lot
ed matrix MAY 2008
Matriculation
Syllabus? Your Space
Dharmaraj, a reader of
ED MATRIX, prefers
matriculation syllabus to
state board syllabus as
the uniform syllabus! It
is painful to think of the
government’s approach
towards school education.
of failures in science. Here, the
aim is not to give quality educa-
tion but to show results. If edu-
cation is only for result, then
quality is at stake. To reduce the
burden in Science, government
has to set up proper lab facili-
ties in the schools. Science sub-
ject can be divided into two pa-
pers and each division (Physics,
Chemistry, Botany and Zoology)
should be taught by teachers
who are qualified in the respec-
tive subjects.
Students find it easy if the sub-
jects are taught using experi-
mental methods. Children from
std VI onwards use laboratories
in matriculation schools. Their
learning skill is improved. When
the matriculation schools do a
yeomen service with a good syl-
labus, it is not advisable to re-
duce its quality, in the name of
uniform syllabus.
Dharmaraj, Chennai
33
34 ed matrix MAY 2008
ed matrix MAY 2008 35
 Y o u r Sp a c e

“N
ow India’s destiny is
being shaped in her
class rooms”, stated
the Kothari Education
Commission. In this
perspective, what is the parameter that
we expect our schools to have?
A good school responds to the socio,
cultural, economic needs and contributes
more to the National growth. A good
school is a school that shapes the
younger generation and brings about
social changes. The parameters I am
talking about are,
• Spacious, airy, weather proof and
healthy school buildings
• Good purposeful infra structural fa-
cilities (building, classrooms, library,

Shaping India’s destiny

labs and furniture)
• Qualified, value based, national wel-
fare oriented human resources
– (Head master or headmistress,

teachers, office staff and students)
• Healthy school atmosphere (moral,
spiritual, social and intellectual)
• Community oriented system
• Producing best students (academi presents data and information for
cally best, value wise best, culturally analysis and understanding. Educators
best with best healthy socialisation)
• Producing citizens and not mere
students
• Producing children with self-confi- beliefs impregnate their own daily
dence to face the existing challenges
with courage and explore new
avenues with zeal and intellectuality.
Schooling has to move towards rapid,
tightly targeted, efficient learning
process, towards developing the whole
child and towards specific, goal oriented,
instrumental learning. It should become
less parochial, moving away from control
by local, state or national systems and
towards an international exchange of
good learning practices and packaged
programs. In short, the focus should
be to move away from parochialism in
curriculum and assessment and towards
an educational globalism.
Education must concern itself with belief
formation. Among other things, it develops
in classrooms!
the critical faculties, to make judgments,it
are responsible for developing in their
students, wisdom of such kind and for
showing their students how they come
to believe what they believe and these
living. Developing beliefs, family values
and fostering constructive attitudes
permeates the entire fabric of educating
and learning.
Great schools prepare their students to
play a constructive and contributing role
in the society and for the society. Much
of schooling and a significant part of any
curriculum is about intangibles, dealing
with the depths from which we generate
our life purposes and aspirations. An
important part of schooling concerns the
formation of constructive and systematic
beliefs, the acceptance of social
responsibility and recognition of who we
are. With these skills, every student can
face with ease the emerging world, the
world about-to-be.
ed matrix june 2008
We have to engage the ramifications
of the new learning technologies and
it is sufficient to allude to some of the
possibilities and their implications for
schooling. Every child, irrespective of the
place she lives, should acquire the skills
to access digital information. ‘Literacy’
in the sense of reading and writing now
means both digital and print. Schooling
is becoming increasingly paperless
as intra-school communications are
computerised. Schooling is borderless
where technology makes for easy
contacts which subsume geography
school boundaries and national borders.
Schooling therefore deals with personal
formation, belief construction, developing
a world-view, with culture transmission
and imparting useful knowledge and
enabling skills. A plan for schooling of
the future must start with a recognition
of the importance of a child’s world views
and belief systems and of schooling’s
responsibility for their systematic
development.
Annie Philomen
(pondy)
33
34 ed matrix june 2008
ed matrix june 2008 35

Not only to instruct,
but to inspire
‘A student spends 25,000 hours in the campus. The school must have the best of
teachers who have the ability to teach, love teaching and build moral qualities’ -
A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM
W
ho and what exactly
does it mean to be a
role model? A role
model is an individual
who acts as a guide;
a person who uses one’s personal
experience to inform and help, direct
the life of others in a positive light. This
positive attitude is extremely important
for young people. One who does not
have anything positive to look forward to
will not help others to achieve anything
positive in life. Role models possess
qualities that one would like to have
and emulate.
Young people spend most of their time
in the school as students. Therefore, no
one else can provide for the intellectual
upbuilding of students as much as a
teacher. Teachers must realize the
influence they can have on the students.
Young people spend
most of their time in
the school as students.
Therefore, no one else
can provide for the
intellectual upbuilding
of students as much as
a teacher.
Many teachers forget this fact of life.
They come in front of students and teach
something and get away with that. In
fact, students look up to them not only for
knowledge. They are their unproclaimed
role models for demeanour, dress code,
habits, style, personality and even for
certain behaviour.
Similarly, people don’t realize the
enormous responsibility the teachers
have in moulding young people into self-
ed matrix july 2008
Y o u r Sp a c e
sufficient adults. They do much more
than teach math, science, English, etc.
They really get to know what is going on
in the child’s home. “Teachers should
be the best minds in the country”. The
teachers lay the foundation for creating
enlightened citizens for the nation.
Dr. Abdul Kalam says, ‘The three
teachers in my life- in an integrated way it
can be said, that any enlightened human
being can be created by three unique
characteristics. One is moral value
system which I got from my father. Next
is my teacher. Not only does the student
learn, but the teacher shapes his/her life
with great dreams and aims. Finally, the
education and learning process has to
culminate in the creation of professional
capability leading to confidence and
will power to make a design, to make
a product, to make a system and thus
bravely combating many problems. What
a fortune and blessing I had from three of
my teachers’.
A teacher has to generate energy in
oneself and handle it in one’s work of
educating the boys and girls who come
to him or her. A teacher has not only to
instruct but also to inspire the students;
he or she has to influence the life and
character of his or her students, and
equip them with ideas and values
which will fit them to enter the stream
of national life as worthy citizens. You
have to do all these during the years
they are under your influence in the
school. The students must be educated
to become the instruments to develop an
integrated nation out of our diversities.
They must be made acquainted with
the noble humanistic sentiments of our
constitution and impressed with the
passion to translate them into socio-
political realities.
Teachers have a great responsibility of
understanding the true implication of their
service and are involved in bringing up
citizens of the country. Robert Fulghum
says ‘Do not worry that children never
listen to you; worry that they are always
watching you’.
Sundar Raj
Hyderabad
33
34 ed matrix july 2008
ed matrix july 2008 35
 y o u r s pa c e

Defective system
Antibiotic to
prevent terrorism
Education is the only way to attain
prosperity, peace and wealth.
But nowadays people think of
education as a commodity for
buying and selling. Just as charity
begins at home, a nation’s destiny
also begins in the classroom.
Education alone can remove
ignorance and bring peace,
harmony and unity. The mind ican
be the root cause of all evils like
destruction, damage and death if
care is not taken. Education is the
only antibiotic to prevent terrorism
and terrorists.
G.V. Shankar
Chennai.
Defective system
Many Universities are conducting
memory oriented examinations .
Students who do not attend most
of the classes scoring high marks
is a clear evidence of defective
examination system. Such
examinations do not testify to the
creative mind of the candidate.
Education for true liberation
This is the world where man wants to get
educated just to make oneself earn his/
her livelihood. However, do all of them
understand the real meaning of education?
I fear nobody can give me the appropriate
answer. The true meaning of education
is to gain wisdom and knowledge and to
make sound judgement on what is right
or wrong in life and also what is good
and what is bad. I am not for the current
system of education which only makes
students memorize the lessons without
even their willingness. All that the student
knows is a superficial knowledge of the
notes supplied to him. Do you agree that
this should be the function of education
or do you want student to just understand
the meaning of what different author says
in their books. This I feel should be the
basic function of education apart from
what people believe should be provided
to them through education
The pattern of education today make
the student learn a different style of
studying. They study the book supplied
ADVT
to them mechanically. And the tutor doesn’t
take any responsibility to take them out of this
kind of bondage and vicious circle. Teachers
are also happy if their pupils get good marks.
Making them learn life’s choicest lessons is
not their concern. That is what is constantly
worrying me.
Did anyone care to see why the students hate
studying. That the lessons are boring for the
students, heavily loaded and unduly painful
for the students is not our concern. Unless
people fight for the cause of education, like
they did during the years of British rule, we
will never have the liberation needed to
have the education system changed into a
meaningful one.
The day the students begin to apply all that
they learnt from class rooms will be the day
of liberation for our people. Similarly the other
way is also true. The day people demand for
a curriculum that helps directly their life will be
the day of true liberation.
Kannan
Bangalore

JYOATHI
However, efforts should be made
to enhance the credibility of our
exam system. The question
paper should be choice-free.
Reappearance of a paper
Land Investor and Promoters
either to pass the subject, or
for improvement should not be
allowed. At the end of the course, Cement Stockist, Birla Plus & Ultra Tech
a certificate with class/division
can be issued to all candidates (L&T) Cement * Steel * Bricks * Blue Metals
based on the grand total marks
secured. No. 24/10, Ashok Nagar Main Road, Chennai - 600 024.
R. Sarva Jagannadha Reddy Phone: 24725282, 23720942, 9383366977.
Chittoor, (AP).

ed matrix august 2008 33

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