Nanya, an 11
year old, sitting in his classroom, yawning as he looks indifferently towards the
blackboard. Although disinterestedly, still tries to focus on the words
babbling out of the teacher’s mouth. Class 7th kid trying to resolve
the atmospheric pressure mystery; yet too far from the finish line. Finally,
the teacher puts an end to the students misery by putting up a public opinion
if they have understood or not and a nod from the class assures him about his accomplishment
in this topic. Nanya feels relieved as he finally got over with this class and
his yawns.
The word ‘understanding’ is deeply
misunderstood in the context of Indian Education. Some co-relate it with ‘mugging up facts’, some merely with ‘solving some problems’, some assuming
the facts ‘as if they are meant for it’
and the rest go with a nod. So where do these signs lead us to? Let’s peek
inside.
Adding up
spice to the whole, we have our schooling system. In Indian cities we have our
very own “English Medium Schools”
which strictly focus on the fact that the mode of communication in school
premises is English. This brings me to a surprising thought if the schools in
Russia or France or US have schooling in a language other than their mother tongue?
It’s not that I am advocating the Hindi/Regional schooling methods and against
the English Medium schools. Just take the kid Nanya’s mind-set for example. He
is not extracting knowledge from the subject at all. What he is doing is continuously translating
the words out from the teacher. So the focus is completely on translating
rather than understanding. Whatever he understood in this meantime remains
temporary. This creates a vast gap from knowledge.
Shifting from
translation, we should cater towards understanding. It is a matter of fact that
bilingual system has become a part of life. So, rather than sticking to strict
English to teach, find a better way to encourage thinking and understanding
from the basic level. If they just keep on translating, how can we expect them
to come up with doubts, queries and most importantly, ideas. All we need to do
is be more interactive and for a change try to focus on the fact that understanding
should not be bound to “English”. Imagine
a Russian kid being taught in Hindi. Weird enough, isn’t it? They are taught in
Russian and not imposed a language which isn’t part of their day-to-day life. So
for a change try explaining the facts regardless of language barriers; the one
in which they don’t have to add up ‘translation’ as an added load. Then the
term ‘understanding’ will have its aim fulfilled.
As far as an International
language is concerned, have as much interactive sessions as possible which
would groom their vocational skills but not on the expense of ‘concepts’ and ‘understanding’.
