A Tamil handbook titled ‘Kattralil Pirachanai/ Kuraipaadu’ (Learning Disability/Problem) to help parents and teachers to assess learning abilities among children was released by the Holy Cross Service Society (HCSS) on Saturday.
Such a book had become essential in the State because of faulty methodology being employed by educators in the English-medium system that has led to an increase in the number of children with learning problems, said the author and HCSS executive director Dr. S. Prabhakar Immanuel.
Teaching children English lessons by translating them into Tamil first has created a generation of students who are able to copy out words, but lack skills in comprehension, reading and comprehensive writing in English or Tamil, Dr. Immanuel said. The different linguistic and syntactical rules of the two languages led to pronunciation problems.
“Last week, we examined 12 children in the age group of 11 to 15 years, who had been referred to us for testing because they had below-par academic results and all of them had behaviour problems. After assessing them, we found that they had a high intelligence quotient (IQ) but had missed academic achievement because of this faulty method of teaching.
It is a big tragedy when intelligent and normal children are developing psychological problems due to a careless educational system,” Dr.Immanuel said.
This gap in learning had led to the “failure syndrome” where children start lagging behind in school studies, and tension at home because of pressure and corporal punishment that they faced from parents over their non-performance, said Dr. Immanuel.
“We cannot shift to a Tamil-medium system of learning immediately. Nor can we deny the benefits of learning English. But parents and teachers will be better prepared to introduce remedial training earlier if they use this book effectively,” he said.
The handbook was released by Norway-based psychologist Dr. Jacques Verfaille, whose assessment tools have been extensively used in HCSS for the past 25 years, and the first copy was received by city paediatrician Dr. Hemalatha David.
The textbook includes a checklist of cognitive behavioural markers to aid parents and educators, and has chapters that explain learning problems in detail.
The Rs.80 handbook, partly funded by Christian Blind Mission International and its South Asia Regional Office (SARO) is available from HCSS, Puthur, at a discount for parents of slow learners.
