If You Can’t Praise, At Least Don’t
Criticize.
Last week I was part of an examination panel to decide the
winner of a fellowship/medal for undergraduates. From the 250 or so students
who turned up to write the written exam we judges (5 of us) narrowed the field
down to 25 candidates for the practical exams out of whom only 5 students survived
for the third and final round of vivas. We recommended the winner and runner up
to the director of the department who announced the results in front of
everyone. He started his speech with these words – “Although I was watching
only the final part of the selection process, I feel that none of you deserve this
award but as we have to give it to someone, I am selecting so and so candidate
as a formality though there is not much difference between all of you” and
after such a gracious announcement he went on to lambast modern day students
and their perceived lack of knowledge and hard work.
I who was part of the audience had to mightily suppress a
very strong urge to get up and ask the director a couple of questions from his specialty
– maybe a classification and a definition to see how he answered as a proponent
of olden days education. In my view (maybe biased) kids these days are no
better or no worse at studying then what our elders were. This fact is
conveniently forgotten by professors and HOD’s who are at the fag end of their
careers. They always judge the present with a rosy remembrance of the past. I am not defending any idiots here, the guys
who got through the three rounds of examination genuinely deserved the prize in
my opinion. And even if they weren’t as knowledgeable as the professors- as
undergraduates they are not expected to be- to apply the standards required of
a specialist or a postgraduate student to an undergraduate kid is not fair. As
a student in the not so recent days I can sympathize with the kids who have to
read for multiple papers and write all those exams in one go. Being hard on
them is counterproductive and apt to discourage even enthusiastic kids from
liking the subject in future.
On the contrary whenever I go as an external examiner for
undergraduate kids I try to encourage them by not failing anyone deliberately. I
try to give a 100% pass result and despite that if anyone fails they do so by
their own efforts. As long as the student knows the basics or at least to recognize
when he is over his head and knows to refer to a specialist- I try to pass
them. I have seen too many specialists who can write pages of notes discussing every
possible reason for a fever but in the end cannot (or dare not) commit to a
single diagnosis- but instead insist on a diagnosis of PUO- pyrexia of unknown
origin which is fancy jargon for- fever I cannot guess the reason of. Even some
undergraduate kids make the diagnosis immediately- sir it is malaria fever…how
did you decide? Look at all the mosquito bites on the patients face sir…that’s the
kind of ingenuity (and capacity to improvise) I appreciate when I try to pass
the student despite his obvious lack of knowledge of the signs/symptoms of malaria.
At least he knows it is malaria, will send the patient for a blood test and get
it confirmed that way and by then would start treatment for malaria – instead of
thinking over a hundred different diseases and treating for none of them in the
end.
And finally if a student is on the verge of failing I always
have a bonus question for grace marks- “Do you have a girlfriend? Does she
distract you from studying?” If the answer is yes- he gets the two marks to push
him over the pass line. For I know firsthand what it is to sit there in your
room with a boring big book in your hand and keep thinking – what the hell am I
doing sitting here when by all rights I should be in Udayam theater watching a
movie with my girl. For making that supreme sacrifice in favor of studies the
students deserve those two grace marks don’t they?
I would appreciate your views dear readers on the sticky
issue of –whether the seniors are right when they always claim they studied
better than the current generations. Are they? What do you think?
Ganesh,
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I am NOT a medical or even science and technology professional. I have been a education researcher in a country other than India, though, and am with a university here. I'll just say this - if a student doesn't do well despite working hard, then the fault is as much that of the instructor who fails the student, as it is of the student him / herself. Agree completely that the academic deadwood aka unburied carcasses that often litter institutions of higher education have an undeserved arrogance. This is as true of India as it is where I am. When I realized a need to get myself local qualifications, I first went to a public university and found such utter arrogance from some of the buffoons who taught there, that I might as well have been back in India. I then moved to a small university with a solid reputation in research, and found that some of the biggest experts there were, in fact humble, and always happy to work with students to help them ig they needed assistance. My current university scores high for its academics, and some of the easiest people to talk to, if you;re a student or researcher, are some of its most reputable people.
That said, I have one criticism of the Indian system of examinations. The trend in countries other than India is to offer an examination grade as well as a course grade. This shows how well a student might have done in class, even if that student did not do well in an exam. We do have examination focused universities as well, but they are also required, by law, to give a participation grade of approximately 20 to 25% of a student's final grade. If that were offered in India, it would certainly help some students who might be good at their subject, but who are not good at taking exams. There's a reason why the topmost universities in the world (take the TES, QS or other top 20 or 25 list) announce on their websites that though they are required by the law to accept GRE / MCAT / GMAT / LSAT scores, that is NOT the final criterion in determining admissions. Some of the very best among these universities also invite students to a meeting with the Dean or Associate Dean after that student applies. A lot of admission decisions are made during these meetings. And that is what produces exemplary results in the long term. Wish you get to push all of this in India.
the curse of a career/life being decided by a single examination is the single-most issue affecting indian education mehul. although exam scores are important to test a basic level of knowledge they cant really predict aptitude for the profession can they? but its hard to change the status quo when there are well entrenched academic deadwood who prefer to keep it so...and so we of the newer generation have to keep pushing and pushing the envelope bit by bit till something gives
DeleteI used to wonder something on the same lines when I was in Med school. My seniors would quote stuff that they learnt when they were in their second years while i wasn't able to. I used to think maybe that's because my seniors had better teachers than we had in our times. During my first clinical year, there were only a very few teachers who were interested in teaching us the basics and guide us through. Most of the times, Dept faculties will just take classes for namesake. I agree that not every good clinician can be a good teacher to students. I had very few Professors who were really passionate about Medical Education and were a class apart and the numbers in that class has been dwindling over the years now. I don't know if the DME has any Training Modules for Teachers followed by evaluation, if they have it they should really revamp it to suit to the betterment of Med Education benefitting the future Doctors. If not, they should really consider having one with a focus on training the trainers.
ReplyDeleteabsolutely.....there are people with the aptitude to teach, people with an interest to do research and people who just want to do surgeries...unfortunately the dme presumes that a single person should do all three just because they are paying him or her ....and that's where the problem arises
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