Ensuring The Minimum
Level of Learning – Survival/Life Skills
BY
SRI. S. RAMALINGAM, M.Ed (Spl.Edn), LLB,
M.A(PSY), M.A (SOC),M.SC (Phy), PGDS.Edn, B.ED (Phy Sci & Maths)
MEMBER, TAMILNADU COMMISSION FOR
PROTECTION OF CHILD RIGHTS
A Child Miseducated Is a Child Lost – John F Kennedy
Even in the current years of
technology and modernization, there are lots of difficulties and problems faced
by the children in fundamental education (i.e. simple reading, writing,
spelling, maths, science and environment science).
Today children are unlucky and unable
to live with natural resources, education is the manifestation of many theories
like, idealism, naturalism, pragmatism, materialism etc, but today’s education
gives its full focus on materialism only. Even though the educationalists and
psychologists talks about child centered education, in practical it is not
given due importance.
Kids are addicted towards electronic
gadgets, even for their basic needs like eating, drinking etc we are forced to
use electronic gadgets like TV, Tab, Computer etc. they lack the adequate human
touch for their natural sensory development. In this way they don’t use their
natural resources fully.
Age between 0 to 7 years plays a
vital role in the physical, emotional, social and educational development of
the child. According to Naturalist, parents and teachers have a very important
role in the child’s development; they should be a guide and not an instructor.
We should slowly and gradually bring the children back from their addiction
towards electronic gadgets make them develop interest towards natural
things. Nature of learning is joyful and
not painful.
According to Ebbinghus, a pioneer in the study of memory says that associate
words could be remembered better than meaningful words and meaningful words
could be remembered better than meaningless or nonsense syllables. Therefore
Teaching or learning should be meaningful and associated.
Some children have less ability to understand the subjects
and remember it for a long time and produce it when needed. These children show poor performance
in academics especially in language, mathematics and science. Often struggles
with the formulas and the problems. Since these children are concrete learners they have difficulty in
understanding abstract concepts. For e.g if
we teach the parts of the plant in the black board, it will be vague for these
children, whereas if we give them the real plants and show them the parts of
the plant and give them opportunity to touch and explore, they will never
forget because they don’t have the problem in memory. They lack the ability in
transfer of learning.
In maths, the child knows the tables
upto 10, if we ask him/her randomly he could able to answer but in application,
i.e the questions like (in a row there
are 5 flowers, if there are 3 rows, how many flowers totally?) the child finds
difficult to answer, the reason is because of the problem in transfer of
learning.
There are also great individual differences among these children. These children can be categorized into three
levels
1.
Children who
need less support.
2.
Children who
need average support.
3.
Children who
need more support.
Based on the above categories the
children should be identified on right
time and appropriate support services i.e. remedial / clinical teaching should
be given. If they are not properly identified in school days and if we do
not give proper intervention programmes to rectify the problems, their manpower
will be wasted and the country will lose its human resources.
For the past 5 to 10
years there is a rapid increase in the population of children with learning
disabilities, slow learners and intellectual disabilities. This is mainly due to the following
reasons;
1. Children lack
the opportunity to play due to the lack of playgrounds in school because
Playing plays a vital role in providing sound mind in a sound body.
2. Improper
methods adopted by teachers.
3. Over expectation
of parents.
4. Underestimation
5. Nuclear
family
6. Focus on rote
memory
7. Lack of time
to read meaningfully.
8. Unable to
attend social events like marriages, temple festivals etc
9. Lack of
time/opportunities to meet relatives and lack of elder’s guidance.
The children have difficulties to understand numerical
concept, measurements i.e. litre, meter, kilogram units and other life oriented
skills. These are invisible and hidden problems
Torrance, an Eminent American Psychologist says:
“Suppression of the creativity of a child leads learning
disabilities, behavioral problems, school drop outs and mental conflict and
above all to loss of mankind”.
The children doesn’t like the school because
·
The school environment is not child friendly
·
The teachers and parents are not empathetic
·
They are not down to the child’s level in
teaching the subjects
Majority of children’s home
and school ignore and neglect these types of children. Ultimately these
children will be a victim and exploited.
Minimum level of learning:
All schools
should ensure that their students posses minimum level of learning.
If the child
completes his 5th std, He should be able to;
1. Read simple sentences,
small paragraphs, and be able to answer simple questions.
2. If we dictate orally, he
should be in a position to write meaningfully.
3. If asked to write the
simple things or topics, he should be able to write in his own words.
4. He should be in a position to read and explain
the contents of the newspaper
5. He should know basic
survival maths i.e. addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, geometric shapes- square, rectangle,
triangle, circle, measurements –
metre, kilometre, kilogram, litre, ½, ¼, ¾, dozen,
zero concept, cost price, selling price, profit, loss,
amount, salary, fare, cheque, interest, money transaction, pledge, time concept – telling time, months,
days, year, seasons, holidays, working days
6.
He should know about road
safety rules
7. He should acquire basic socialization skills and
both physical and mental hygiene. Etc.
A lamp
cannot light another lamp unless it continues burning – R. Tagore
It is the time that parents, teachers and
society should give due importance to the above things. All the children are ready to learn if there are
proper teaching methods, Teacher Made or Appropriate Teaching Learning
Materials (TLM), Teaching Strategies, Friendly Approach, Time Bound Programme,
Periodical Monitoring and Evaluation.
Right path, Right Direction, Right Method, Right
Monitoring, Right Evaluation are the keys to success.
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