AN IDEA FOR A CHANGE. A call to final year B Sc (Physics) students

I have been harbouring a certain idea in my mind for the past three or four years. Over these years I shared this  with a select band of people whom I considered very sensible.  I did not  receive the kind of unreserved encouragement from anyone, which would have given me the strength for a take off. Some even told me that the idea will not “sell” in Kerala. I respect and hugely value all the comments and suggestions by the people I talked to.  In many ways they are right. But I believe that there are very many more ways beyond those “many ways”. Primarily I am not a salesman trying to impose a useless product on an unwilling buyer. As far as my idea is concerned it is not a transaction where sellers and buyers are involved. It is in fact very  sacrosanct for me. That is one of the reasons why I feel very dejected when people do not understand its importance or neglect it or even reject it.  If you are one who was a part of that marvelous programme at the George Sudarshan Centre (GSC), CMS college, you have guessed it right. The matter is academics. At the GSC you all were PG students or students who completed PG.  Now my PET PROJECT targets Degree students  aspiring for doing PG in Physics and ultimately having a career in Physics. I think I should explain the matter in detail.

MOTIVATION FOR THE VENTURE

Every year when I meet M.Sc first year students for the first time I quiz them to ascertain where they stand in their preparations  for a PG programme in Physics. It is a poignant fact that more than 90% of them are too ill-equipped . The foundations are very weak and most of them never even tried to build anything on that.  This I have been observing over so many years. The students I surveyed are from all parts of the state and hence I can conclude that this is a general pattern rather than an aberration here or there. The reasons for this tragedy are shocking . Even though I will put only 20% of the blame on the students let me start with them. During their BSc days, back home from the college, 90% of the students do not spend even half an hour daily on their studies. And if ever they spend twenty  to thirty minutes it is for writing records ( a useless exercise, mandatory though !!!). Now I have a reason for restricting my blame on students to 20%. Don’t the parents see their children wasting precious time? Are they not worried about the negative progress of their children? Thus the unconcerned parent rightly deserves a neat 40% blame. And the rest goes to the teacher. In my previous post "The Fifth Of September" I have described  how or where the teacher falters.  They fail in their solemn duty to motivate the student with quality teaching. Even when I sound a little cruel, my sympathies are with the good teacher. I know their predicament well. 90% of the students of the BSc class do not want to learn anything. They hate being taught. This is a shocking irony. Just imagine a patient consulting a doctor with no intention or desire of getting cured and considering the doctor as an unwelcome foe. My heart throbs for the good, discerning teacher because I know how helpless, disgusted, dejected and eternally disturbed  he or she is. Though the fundamental process or phenomenon of teaching and learning cannot ever change, the “modern” student is anything but that vintage “alpaahaaram, jeerna vastram, swaana nidra, kaaka drishty or beka dhyanam”. If you want to argue with me over this issue, please do. I welcome you to.  I agree that in this modern era the teacher need not be that organic entity of the past. The teacher is what one learns from, be it a book or some electronic device or whatever. (Recently someone told me that the modern dictum is "MATHA,PITHA GOOGLE !!!) Thus the form of the teacher has changed, indeed it has to, with time. But the fundamental  process of learning cannot change.  I have digressed a little. Let me come back to the plight of the ill-equipped student of the first class of the first semester of the PG programme in Physics. That the student is ill-equipped is a fact which we shall not debate. 

ABOUT THE VENTURE - CATCH THEM YOUNG

Let me now elaborate on the venture. I have explained how the BSc course in Physics is a shambles. But the tragedy does not stop there. The BSc examinations are over by the end of March every year. I will not say that with the examinations over, the students close their books, as they have seldom opened it. Now the MSc admissions are over by September last !  These six months will wipe out (delete is the new jargon) the Physics, if any, left with the students. And they come to the first class of their MSc as total strangers to Physics. Thus the battle is lost even before it starts. The students are too naive to realise this. Ultimately they realise this when the first semester results are announced and this often happens  towards the end of the third semester. Yes, first semester results by the end of the third semester !!! And there after it’s a total mess.

My programme is for the  student who has just completed the BSc course. Of course the student should have a strong desire to pursue PG in Physics. My only demand is that the student should be prepared for hard work. The idea in my mind is the following. The intervening six months between BSc final examination and MSc admission shall be used in a constructive  way with intense teaching and learning.  Let me be very emphatic about the fact that this is not a bridge course for those who did not do well during their BSc days. Instead this shall be MSc itself and beyond. The classes will be such that with strong emphasis on understanding the theory, problem solving skills too will be developed. By the time the MSc course starts formally, the student should have gone a long way with the syllabus and have reached an enviable level in problem solving. For the next two years they can, with or without my help, equip themselves to meet the challenges posed by examinations like UGC-CSIR NET, JEST, GATE and the selection processes (written examination and interview) by BARC, DRDO, IGCAR or ISRO. The same preparation will suffice for all these examinations.  These are problem oriented examinations which need systematic training in the first place, followed by real hard work. The students should be prepared for such a work culture rather than wasting their time and talents. 

A LITTLE REMINISCENCE

I am very sure of the programme.  If the programme fructifies I can relive those “GSC days”.  I think it will be nice to make a small mention of the “GSC days”. Those days I and my students used to spend long hours at the GEORGE SUDARSHAN CENTRE, CMS COLLEGE, learning Physics, by working out problems. After all these years I wonder how we sat almost all through the night struggling with problems. Those were the most satisfying years of my teaching career. It all started with a Hari  in 2002 and ended with another Hair in 2015. The first Hari joined IISc Bangalore in 2002 for his PhD which he eventually completed and currently he is a post-doctoral fellow in the US. The last Hari is pursuing PhD at the IIT Chennai. I have lost count of the number of students between the two Haries. It should not be less than fifty. Almost all of them have completed their PhD from various IIT’s or reputed universities in India. Some had gone to Universities in Germany, France, Netherlands, Ireland or the US.

If you are a BSc (Physics) student interested in knowing more of the programme, please post you comments or queries. I shall answer.

GSCians are welcome to post their comments. They should, in fact.