Will board exam in Plus One help students tide over the lack of subject knowledge when they enter college?
Critics of the move say the government is focused only on competitive exams and college teachers say a large number of students struggle to cope with the first semester despite scoring high marks in Plus Two.
Teachers say they can assess students as good or average by watching their performance from middle school. “A student who is good in Class 6 would improve gradually in Class 8, but when an average student gets 190 or 200 in Class 12, there is a problem,” says Chemistry professor S. Manjunathan of Government Arts and Science College, Ponneri.
Such students fail to do well in college. “The overall performance of students in college is dull. In professional courses such as engineering, the students’ inability to cope is visible. We notice that even students with high marks do not have basic subject knowledge. The trend is obvious in students from city schools. We have started noticing it in students from smaller cities and towns too.”
J. Gandhirajan, professor in Vivekananda College, Chennai, and president of Association of University Teachers, rues that students are ‘mark scoring machines’. “The schools follow a blueprint method where students are taught to answer questions in a certain way. By following the format, they are sure to score well as teachers go by the answer keys given to them. In college, students are assessed comparatively and their lack of subject knowledge becomes obvious,” he says.
A. Arokiadass, president of Tamil Nadu PG Teachers Association, agrees that 90% of students do not have subject knowledge though they manage to score high marks. “There was pressure to produce 100% results which pushed teachers, who in turn push students.”
“For science students, we need practical work whereas for arts students we should have projects that involve library work. We also must have internal assessment for students. There should be value education too,” he says.
School Education Department officials say they are working out modalities on how the Plus One marks could be incorporated. Suggestions include internal assessment and taking 50% of the marks scored in Plus One while finalising Plus Two results.
