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.

A sequel to "Fifth of September"

In  my previous post “Fifth of September” I could not write what I had intended to.  Even this moment I can’t promise to stick to the theme I have in my mind.  Every time I think of education in Kerala, I am very disillusioned. That the academic scene in Kerala is a shambles is a tragic fact. But the greater tragedy is the pride Malayalees have in their system saying that they don’t confine their youngsters to the four walls of the class rooms and the way they drive students to the streets to fight fellow students. Then the images of broken skulls or bleeding noses are posted on social media that generate thousands of” likes”. People are blissfully unaware or criminally negligent of the “dislike” these street fights develop in students for studies. These students cannot  ever be  expected to be a part of academics. This is not a new phenomena.  Campuses in Kerala have been like this for half a century at least. And the aftermath.  Malayali presence in centres of excellence in India is meagre. I understand the 40% of students for BTech in the IIT’s are from Andhra. I am not very sure about this. But I know that almost 70% of students of pure science in Institutions of global standards like ISI,TIFR, HRI, CMI, IOP or IMSc  are from Bengal. The smart Malayali will now attack me by saying “ OK 70% are from Bengal. Only 30% are from rest of India. Thus this is not a problem so specific to Kerala”. Being it far below ones dignity to answer or counter such nonsense let us leave it. It is high time the sensible Malayali gave serious thought to academic matters.  If I am asked to identify the source of the problem  I will point my fingers at campus politics. Campus politics of students as well as teachers.  The state cannot afford to remain complacent. Most people are not worried and are even happy because of quite a few reasons. Till the end of the 80’s there was that promised land of Malayalees, The Gulf. Then when Gulf started waning, came the IT magic from Bangalore and elsewhere (even that did not happen in Kerala). True IT provided job to tens of thousands of our girls and boys. I am talking something else. We should not be contented with the jobs offered by IT.  We should have been creating IT itself. In this context Kerala should  lament over the systematic annihilation of KELTRON. When the world had not woken up to Electronics industry in a big way KELTRON was already making TV sets, calculators, traffic signals etc in the 70’s. Samsung, LG or the current big names were not yet born!  KELTRON would have been an IBM or Microsoft by now; but alas we are Malayalees.  And as the legendary V. Kurien who created the White Revolution in India said once  “Kerala is full of Malayalees” . This he said when he was asked why he is reluctant to come to Kerala and do the Anand Magic in his home state.

I believe, education alone is the solution. Shouldn’t Kerala take up education more seriously?

FIFTH OF SEPTEMBER

                                       Fifth of September

Every year I am reminded of the importance of this day when Meera calls me up from wherever  she is over the globe. In my mind I don’t feel anything special about the day for quite a few  reasons. Yet when  I did not receive her calls on the fifth of September during the past two years, did I get a little uncomfortable? Yes, to be honest. Today is Onam and as I am very free  I thought I write something, a job that remained suspended for almost three years Today. on the 4^th of September, 2017  I write on teaching and learning my pet topic. Kindly do not expect any sweet Ada Pradhaman. 

“Every Dog has its day”, they say. But I am forced to say that in Kerala the teacher never has his/her day.  If you are shocked I owe you an explanation.  I am talking about a general pattern in Kerala. This is not any region specific or institution specific. Teachers are treated with scant respect. Students pride in belonging to or being loyal to some political dispensation or other. They wax eloquent on their rights and their ability to make anyone kneel before them and are in an eternal fight against some presumed enemy. I would say that they are simply Quixotic. I have never heard any student talking about his/her right to learn or properly taught. Let us not waste time discussing the horrendous campus politics. This bane will continue to haunt the campuses  until some “Avtar “ appears on the academic horizon of Kerala and proclaim “Let Light Be”. I always wonder why the courts do not interfere effectively when such an intervention is so imperative. With no anti-dot for this venom let us leave it and discuss the following which is not beyond our control.

Let me start with stating that even the best college in Kerala may not be working with more than 25% efficiency. This is not simply shocking, it is disastrous to the nation. More explanation is needed here but I postpone it to some later time. Let me come back to the question of efficiency.  Before someone confronts me with statements like “Our college is very disciplined, we have regular classes every day from 10 to 4, our students never bunk classes, we have 100% pass in University examinations  etc, etc bla  bla, let me clarify that I am talking about transforming the student and making them good if not best at least at the national level. To have a better idea of the efficiency I am talking about, let us try to quantify it the following way. The Bible says that a tree is known by the fruits borne by it. And we all know that the "proof of the pudding is in the eating". Let every college prepare a statistics of what happens to their students after graduation or post-graduation. I am sure that this statistics will be heart breaking. Let the NAAC decide on the status of institutions on the basis of this statistics. Let me be very specific. Let me confine myself to teaching and learning Physics.

Even after my retirement I talk to students of various colleges.  The following statistics should not be brushed aside.  In the first year of their BSc at least 80% of the students are  very ambitious and dream of a career in Physics. During their second year they are very confused and they come to the third year with no glitter in their eyes. And at the end of the third year not even 10% of them aspire for  post graduation. This certainly is a moot point.  There might be umpteen reasons. But let us ignore the reasons beyond our control.

Let us find out what happens to those 80% of the students in the first year BSc with gleam and great hope in their eyes. I feel that the syllabus and the mode of examinations play the spoilsport in the beginning itself. No conceptual understanding is needed. In the lab, experiments are too unimaginative to drive home  the theory.   At the higher secondary level the students learn a lot o Physics, after which the BSc curriculum becomes a “thamasha”. I am not advocating stuffing the syllabus with harder things currently taught at the MSc level. The examinations should be such that the conceptual understanding of the student is tested. Along with that the problem solving skills should be tested. In fact  the two are not very much different. For facing such an examination the students will have to read text books of high standards. It is here the teachers fail in their duty.  99% of the teachers use only guide-like books  available in the market. In fact you don’t have to go to the market even. The perennial writers will bring them to your door steps. This way teachers are doing a big disservice. This leads to mass production of ignorance. Instead of igniting the curiosity of the young minds and making them equipped to meet the challenges of knowledge explosion happening in the world, they are converted to damp squibs. This is a criminal waste for the nation. But this has been happening for years and decades now. As long as the concerned bodies like the academic council remain insensitive to this grave problem , nothing drastic can happen. It is here the teacher becomes relevant. The teacher can introduce the students to high standard text books and make them work with them. This is easier said than done. Once the students get a taste of good books, once they start “chewing and digesting them”  thereby igniting their thought process there will be no looking back. Of course, then the teachers will be on tenter-hooks. I am sure that there are a good number of teachers who are willing to enter this new learning process and submit themselves to the stresses and strains of that. The teachers can make learning a pleasure for the students. But attaining the threshold for this is no mean task. Teachers should tell the students, at least the good ones , about the prospects for higher education in India. They should be told about examinations like JAM, JEST and examinations conducted by BARC, DRDO, IISc, TIFR, HRI, IMSc and other reputed Universities. Teachers should provide them with previous year’s question papers and discuss it with them. These are not easy things. Teachers and students should commit themselves to learning Physics the hard way enduring all odds.

Now the flip side of it. Over the years I have talked to large number of students for long hours on this issue. None has paid heeds but I keep talking as I am so sure about what I talk. I am surprised by the reluctance on the part of the students for grabbing  the opportunities that come their way. Having known about students in various parts of India I can, without a moment’s hesitation, state that  students of Kerala are the most hesitant, lazy ones. They are not greedy and are unwilling for real hard work.

If you were my student once and if you are a Physics teacher now kindly do one thing. Instead of sending me customary meaningless teacher’s day messages, commit yourselves  to becoming a teacher with a difference. You can change the destiny of your students. You can rewrite the history of their families.

Our nation needs extra ordinary efforts by teachers for realising the high  goals it has set for itself.
Would you agree on the 25% efficiency I mentioned in the beginning? Please post your comments.