Sunday, July 12, 2009

Education System

I feel that our education system needs a change, just like how many of you do, but just thinking about this and leaving it there won’t do. It is easy to blame the guys sitting in the board management for this, but it isn’t easy for us to make a system better than them.

We should applaud them for doing a gr8 job, but that isn’t the ultimate one. There is room for change. We need to debate a lot about this issue and do our bit towards this. The teachers and students combined can always change this system. If something is really good, just initiate it and nature will take care of it, it will progress.

People are concerned about the marks in CBSE which are a function of last min study and also the guides like Together, Goyal etc and not really regarding concepts. How many students would really understand the steps they do in math? Is it right that even a student who would probably be the future of science later, actually learns the same as the others? Yes, he would master it. But how many years does he need to master basics? Can’t we design new methods to catalyze this process? And is everyone learning the basics?

Just check this example---

I asked the students a very elementary thing which they might have learnt in class1 or 2 perhaps...There are 20people and we need 4teams, how many players will be there per team. All of them screamed 5 per team. Firstly no one questioned if each team had same number of players, agreed that they are too small to think so precisely. Then i asked them how they got, I asked them to explain it to me If I m an illiterate and don’t know about division...Many of them were blank. Our education system stresses a lot on marks which in turn tests last min preparation more...Agreed this makes the student practice hard and learn basic processes...but not many learn the basis for the process.

IITJEE has brought a good thing into our system...at least few institutions like FIITJEE, EVENS Classes are able to pay their teachers well and impart quality education to a few students thanks to the IITJEE-Business...Or else who on earth would pay some one for teaching things apart from the curriculum...

Indians excel in exams and study well...this is known world wide..but they lag behind in few things! why?

Probably everyone scolds the system, but do we even care about how to change it??? How do we change it...Some say they will open their school? But why would a parent join his/her kid in a school where the education is uncertain.. Some say coaching centers do it, but they don’t teach basics well...as they can manage marks without basics, and some teach redundant things...Example...say these coaching classes for 8-10 aim for Ramiah.. The exam which doesn’t demand calculus.. so der is no point for them to teach calculus or other imp basics which can be learnt in class9 or class10.Coaching Centers run their bussiness, but system does it to develop talent pool!

We end up learning 3 languages at the time, when our mind is ready to grasp things.. We could well learn some math...After significant amt of math is learnt, Physics can be taught...Most people mistake Physics as facts(especially CBSE has crap). Chemistry can be learnt once basics regarding charges are taught...

The drawback behind this is also the fact that during 11th they do not find time to practice it and master the concepts due to the pressure of competitive examinations, thanks to the huge Indian population and limited colleges. These basics must be learnt perfectly if at all we need to develop good talent pool, so why not teach them basics in class10 when there is no pressure...???

We often compare IIT s to MIT or some university abroad and say that IIT s lag behind them and we need to follow their system here. But, generally we don’t care much about k12 education.

In USA, they grade students based on their grasping and application skills and teach different courses based on their caliber. Students who are in the elite grade are taught Conic Sections and Calculus in class10th itself where as Indian students learn it in class11 and class12 respectively.

When you ask this question, the board says its difficult to teach these things as it would add to existing pressure.. Teachers are busy with correction of question papers and also mentoring the students who find the subject difficult..So it would really be harsh to blame them!

Many schools would actually not allow this due to the reasons discussed above...But my school is one of the few ones which is open to good suggestions...My friends were ready to use their holidays to contribute for the change.. The teachers here were ready to add up to existing duties, to help us out in bringing this change. We wanted to teach these students these few important things and make them start thinking, limiting the use of textbooks and increasing the application of their brain which would have the best grasping power of their life at that point of time...

And may be a few others would join next year and this would become a trend where students contribute at the time when they are free and they are willing to do anything for this.. Just check our schedule these days, we are waiting for college to start and don’t have many works or any responsibilities as the teachers do.. So we can assemble notes from books selectively, we can create problems easily...We have the time to do these things, things which are needed as there are no resources.. except for say a few good books like HC Verma, Raymond Chang which again have their own drawbacks...

Many would say, what big thing are you doing by doing class11 things in 10 and accelerating the process...Well then I emphasize on my point that I am gonna start from basics of class2 which were forgotten after the exams, till the stage of Calculus...Who said we cannot grasp Differentiation in class10...I did it, my friends did it, Russians and Americans do it! If we learn it once in class10...then our misconceptions get erased once we enter class11 and we visualize the ideas better and develop lot better ideas regarding the subject...

I don’t intend to insult any education board, I only intend to bring a change and help the meritorious students get inputs...just like how good sportsmen get to play national level and state level games...Please do not take the name of Olympiads here... How the hell would a student answer Olympiads when the concepts involved in the problem are not a part of his curiculum.. At least when the time is limited he is not in a position to do it....

The purpose behind writing this big blog was to make people think about this issue, give suggestions and also implement this.. More schools should follow this and more students should be inspired in taking up Mathematics and Sciences...After all engineers and Scientists are our future and not sportsman or fashion guys..

I did manage to spoil a few students...lol...to make them abandom TV,computers,sports and fall in love with these wonderful subjects which are the future of mankind...

I am probably too young to talk of these.. But at least I know about the journey till class12.. I hope people would concentrate on this topic rather than my performance in exams…such discussions will not be entertained.

So Lets us the get the Change!!! It may sound ridiculously, but it is not...It makes sense.. just think about this and pour in your suggestions.. Even if u are opposed to this, ur -ve suggestions would help the process...

At last but not the least I thank my school for helping to initiate the change and I am grateful to them for showing faith in my group! After all we are the products of their teaching, which is very know to impart right values from the very beginning of the wonderful process of education !!!

I hope the blog helps serves as the medium for communication regarding this change!!!

Disclaimer: This is an online debate, not intended to hurt any body(infact it applauds CBSE for selection of right concepts to be taught to everyone who needs basics of math, it only emphasizes the need of special attention to special guys who would be the future of the country)


Saturday, July 11, 2009

My future and College

Decided to join IISER Pune...had the option of joining IIT Roorkee, IISER Mohali, HCU...But thought that IISER Pune was the best place to go.
I am not really interested in confining myself to a particular area of a subject...so thought that Pure Science would be the best option available...Also research quotient in IITs is very low...The research projects in IISER would probably be exciting..
The +2 course was a perfect foundation for research since the faculty of FIITJEE were awesome and helped me in mastering the basic concepts. FIITJEE helped in learning things in life apart from math,phy n chem...Learnt the art of smart study,gained ideas...some times these ideas even took me into philosophy..The struggle of 2years realled paid off..in developing these skills and I hope IITJEE stays so that more students gain from this excellent system..was dissapointed wid my IITJEE result(AIR3754), but failure is the 1st step to success, so took it positively..

Started learning C,C++, JAVA...which would probably help me with my projects...Started writing programs to find primes in a faster way, computing score cards of fantasy leagues,notes makers etc..I would have probably learnt this better had I chosen MSc in Mathematics and Scientific Computing in IIT Kanpur which I wud hav got inspite of the huge rank, but IIT K is known to be a place where even a backlog wud mean 1yr extra studies dere...And IISER has a + as far as math,bio,phy n chem r concerned...not really happy wid d curiculum and teaching of NIIT..so srching for a good book on C,C++..Ppl recommended me Walter Savitch, Balaguruswamy, RobertLefer...preferrin d last one as it was recommended by my sir at NIIT..

After getting this BS and MS dual from IISER, I plan to do MS again abroad since many Universities dont recongise 4+1 course and they demand 4+2courses for Bachelor's and Master's degree respectively..

After this a PhD would obvsly be a good bonus..so planning to do that as well..But considering the remote case of losing interest in research, i can leave research and search for a job as MS abroad is equivalent to MTech in India...so i m not really losing much by refusin a BTech course...

Just hoping for the best, n gettin prepared for the exciting world of math,phy,chem,bio and computers....

DAV Safilguda OLympiad Club

Few of my friends and myself have been teaching students of DAV Safilguda for a while now, just for fun and to make good use of holidays...
We planned to teach Functions, Basics in math. Mechanics in Physics.
Atomic Structure was taught, we r planin PP and Bonding...

Its really fun and itz also helpin me a lot, getin new doubts and referrin to new books...kinda research...
We divided them into groups, conducting quizzes,using models etc..
We are really succesful in inspiring few kids and making them again gain interest in mathematics and science.

Planning to improve their skills and make them think in different angles...Not charging any fees, but would surely retain some sort of proof that this event had happened and I was actively involved in it. Probably it would help me in the near future.

If u wanna help us with this club contact me at tarunayitham@ymail.com
I am also looking to get some part time job somewhere till aug31...wen i go to Pune to my college....