COMPULSION AS A TEACHING TOOL

Over the years, rather centuries, scholars and philosophers have propounded different ideas about teaching the students and disciples in academia. The education systems that are famous all over the world have evolved from the underlying principles given by these people. Unfortunately, the education system in our country has been instigated by compulsion as a teaching tool or method, which is commonly found in the schools of India.

Teacher compulsions have been a major issue affecting the healthy development of the children and their learning capacity. The subject matter and content is shoved to the children and the idea that they have to remember and recall the essential points have encouraged rote memorization. This push model of education is predominantly found in the Indian education system, especially the schools.

To make things even worse, there are no proper assessments or evaluation done to check whether the students have really learned or not. The test and examination patterns do a superficial probe and not a complete dissection of how much the student has grasped.

While interacting with the students, it is often heard that school examinations offer just the means to test the memory retention of the students. The syllabus is detailed and so much is to be completed in a given time that the students have no option but to remember the things, even if they do not understand the fundamental principles and concepts. This can be clearly described by the experience of one high school student who graduated to college.

In her own words, she described the problem as: “As I chose the specialized subject, Physics, I had to learn things once again from the beginning. During the schools we just memorized the laws and concepts and never actually tried to understand them. Even the numerical problems made a pattern and we knew as which formula to apply and in which question. Now that I have to read more about them, I have to rework and understand the concepts right from the beginning.”

The compulsion to learn further makes the student more indignant towards learning. As educationists believe, the students demand a certain degree of freedom, which must be granted to them. When the teacher adopts the strict measures and compulsion, the interest towards learning abates and the student tries to resist by all means. It also makes the school life of the children annoying and hinders them to perform better.

The good news is that alternative teaching methods are being endorsed nowadays. The stress on the students face has been felt and some wise heads are working for appropriate school models.