Shallow Syllabi

Oct 10, 2012
Shallow Syllabi

I don’t remember the exact date since when I have been solving these two equations. Maybe since grade six or must be seven. It has been more than seven years and I am still into this. Solving x + y + z = 8 and x + y – z = 6. Oh! How long should I go for this? The simple method to Gassian Elimination method, and now there is simple method. No matter what so ever the method be, the answer is x = 5; y = 2; z = 1. The question appears what is the use of diving into every sea just to check if you are able to swim perfectly or not? You don’t have to get into every seas to check if you can swim perfectly or not, small river will be more than enough for your justifications.

It is not my criticism against the education system of our country, but an open dissatisfaction for the syllabus designer. I remember my teacher calling them 'intellectual criminal' who does crime by making wrong selection of course of studies. It is much more likely for any board to choose highly educated people to prepare the course of studies, and hence the old professors get to design the syllabus who tries to escape from the burden by choosing the topics without any proper understanding, survey and inhale the wage without any effort. Sitting in a group, in some star hotels, and maybe with some alcohols, they design the syllabus that the students have to go through entire year. This results as a trouble for students and the teachers are likely to get frustrated. These huge professors never need to teach so they are really less worried about teaching pedagogy, teaching materials and as a result we need to study Law of variable proportion both in plus two and bachelor! It is definitely not a huge issue to collect educated
professionals to publish books for any publication and then publish it. So, as per the syllabus designed, publication house prints the book that will easily get into practice. Publication house stays in profit, those peoples who are included as writer gains fame and some royalty too. But it is the students who need to suffer. There are no answers to questions like why Nepalese lack good English pronunciation? Matured English tone? Why do we pop out car-ee-er instead of carr-ia? It is all because of these intellectual criminal who possess no any such responsibility towards students and therefore despite the fact there exists good students, they can't compete in international level. The education trend has been more theoretical than practical which makes the trend continue and above that we lack proper syllabus. The student of Bachelor can’t answer why the price of gold goes high when the value of dollar fluctuates even if they had studied economics. Instead all the unnecessary laws are known to them, and who is to be blamed here? Definitely intellectual criminals! We have been studying stories and poems since our early days in English, and the trend is yet on and still we don’t have the ability of speaking and writing in proper English!

At the time when the political influence has been creating various hindrances, the act made by these intellectual criminals for few amount has been contributing a lot in spoiling the education system in Nepal. It is really disappointing that we still need to follow the traditional ways of learning through the heavy bags and note books. It is again disappointing that we lack proper syllabus. Yes, there has to be some professional and experts to design the syllabus, but let those professionals and experts be trustworthy enough. Let they actually think of the student’s benefit, think of globalized world and then pick up their pen to design the syllabus. Now, appointing the number of Learning Horus simply seems the calculation done to give out the total final number of learning hours in the end, because where the syllabus gets completed in two learning hours they have kept it ten and that which requires ten, they have kept it three. Yes, it is you who need to design syllabus,, but please refer to the international courses, and select those lessons that are really useful to the students. Learning what is Psychology is not all we learn in Psychology, there has to be some benefits that the students could feel after learning the text book! After completing the educational time and understanding entire syllabus. If not, there is no use of making it. The price of gold goes up when the value of dollar falls down. How many economics studying students can explain the reason? Maybe old theories are important, but they need to teach with the basis of understanding today’s necessity as well. What is the use of learning entire flow charts, algorithm and program for computer engineer if he doesn't know how to format computer or repair it when damaged? A student who studied Sociology throughout the year, will get confused if is asked what Sociology deals all about. He struggles to say few line, and concludes up. Unless he turns able to explain, sociology is the subject that teaches the ongoing trend in society, and motivates us to move as per the changing trend. He must be able to show that he has social ideas after all.

Honestly, we have to struggle to hear news from CNN or BBC. Many of us fail to catch their words first time! We still need subtitle to watch English movie, and still we feel proud upon our English because we know how to write a letter, and how to write an essay. We knew the summary of some poems and stories, and because of that we even got good scores in examinations! It is high time we need to be alert about the syllabus designed for our studies. 


Published in The Rising Nepal's Friday Supplement dated October 5, 2012

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Sahi ho. This is the ultimate problem of almost every Nepalese student studying in Nepal. It is high time that courses are to be revised acoording to the need of this globalized earth. As stated, the things that we learn must be more pragmatic than theorotical only. Thanks for the great article.

Nishan

Unknown said...

Difficult to read the post though it looks interesting.

Dwaipayan said...

Thank you Nishan Dhungel for your comment, and I should instead thank you for the comment. I do agree with your opinion!

I am sorry Deepak Dhungel, I wish you could read it later.