The Hindu : Teacher makes slow learners winners

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 14, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

Teacher makes slow learners winners

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore July 13. Teachers and often other students, term them "backward" or "weak". Not by birth, but because of their inability to keep up with the rest of their class in learning. While such students can be found in any school or college and often enough, make efforts to catch up with others, the problem becomes more serious in professional courses. In an engineering college, for example, a steady flow of tests and examinations does not give much room for a slow or backward student to catch up fast.

"This is where we at R.N.S. Institute of Technology have tried more effective methods and succeeded to a large extent," says its Director, M.R.Holla. His 38 years experience as Principal of R.V.College of Engineering helped. What the faculty of R.N.S.I.T. has done is tackle the problem from its roots.

The team found that some students are slow to comprehend lessons and learn how knowledge of a specific topic becomes a part of the whole learning experience, like a principle of technology, and its application.

Prof. Holla decided to go by the grades obtained by a student in two consecutive class tests.

A student faring badly in both was considered as weak in the relevant subject. The college has introduced "crash courses" for such students. If they pass the subsequent tests, this fee taken for these crash courses is promptly refunded.

The faculty in-charge of such crash courses have been selected for their deep understanding of student psychology, Prof. Holla says. With constant pep talk, and encouragement, combined with a lot of patience, the faculty help these students overcome their feelings of inadequacy. A few classes later, students begin to think they are equal to others and the mental barriers to learning also disappear.

Unlike in other professional colleges, the number of internal tests has been limited. "If there are frequent tests, students do not come to classes and the pace of learning slows down. Now we have very little absenteeism and regular classes are well attended even if there is a test to come," says Prof. Holla.

This innovative approach of encouraging slower students learn better seems to have paid off for this two-year-old college.

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