Tag: Education

+1, +2 மாணவர்கள் கவனத்திற்கு..

+1, +2 மாணவர்கள் கவனத்திற்கு:

தற்போதைய விடுமுறைக் காலத்தை நல்ல முறையில் பயன்படுத்திக்கொள்ள இணையத்தில் பல வழிகள் உள்ளன. நீட், கிளாட் (NEET, CLAT) முதலான தேர்வுகளுக்கு என்று யூடியூபில் (Youtube) பல வடநாட்டு ஆசிரியர்கள் பாடம் நடத்துகிறார்கள். எல்லாம் 30 நிமிடக் காணொளிகள். சில வகுப்புகள் ஆங்கிலத்தில் உள்ளன. பெரும்பாலும் ஹிந்தியில். கொஞ்சம் ஊன்றிக் கவனித்தால் புரியும். ஒரு நாளைக்கு 2 மணி நேரம் என்று சிறு சிறு குழுக்களாகச் சேர்ந்து இக்காணொளிகளைக் கண்டு, பின்னர் கணக்குகளைப் போட்டுப் பார்த்து வந்தால் 4-5 மாதங்களில் எந்தத் தேர்வையும் சமாளிக்க முடியும். உடன் ஒரு பட்டதாரி ஆசிரியரையோ, தன்னார்வ உறுப்பினரோ இருந்தால் இன்னமும் எளிது.

அத்துடன். கேம்பிரிட்ஜ், கார்னெல், ஐயோவா, ஹார்வார்டு முதலிய பல்கலைகளின் ஆசிரியர்களின் காணொளிகளும் உள்ளன. டேட்டா சயின்ஸ் (Data Science) துறை தொடர்பான காணொளிகள் பல கிடைக்கின்றன. கோர்ஸெரா(Coursera), எட்எக்ஸ்,(Edx) உடெமி (Udemy) என்று பல நிறுவனங்கள் இலவச வகுப்புக்களையும் நடத்துகின்றன. வாரத்திற்கு 3 மணி நேரம் என்கிற அளவில் நடக்கும் வகுப்புக்கள் எளிதில் புரியும்படியும் உள்ளன. பயன்படுத்திக்கொள்ளலாம்.

இதையெல்லாம் விட, ஐஐடி, ஐஐஎஸ்சி கல்வி நிறுவனங்கள் NPTEL என்னும் இணையக் கல்விக் கழகத்தை நடத்துகின்றன. ஐஐடியின் பேராசிரியர்கள் பாடம் நடத்துகிறார்கள். பெரும்பாலும் இலவசமே. ஆனால் எப்போதுமே வகுப்புகள் நிரம்பி வழிகின்றன. சிங்கப்பூரில் இருந்து இந்தக் கல்விக் கழகங்களில் பலர் பயின்று வருகின்றனர் (அடியேனும்).

சினிமா, அரசியல், விளையாட்டு என்று நேரத்தை வீணாக்காமல், வீணாய்ப்போன மதமாற்றுக் குழுக்களின் பணம் பெறும் புதிய அரசியல் வியாபாரிகளின் பேச்சுக்களில் உங்களை விரயமாக்காமால், மேற்சொன்ன குழுக்களில் இணைந்து பயன்பெறுங்கள். உங்களுக்கு நீங்களே உதவி.

இவை தவிர, வேறு கேள்விகள் இருப்பின் நான் பதிலளிக்கிறேன், அல்லது தெரிந்தவர்களிடம் கேட்டுச் சொல்கிறேன். எனது முகவரி : amaruvi@gmail.com

நினைவிருக்கட்டும்: நாளைய பாரதம் உங்கள் கையில்.

சில சுட்டிகள் :

Statistics and Probability

Learn to Program: The Fundamentals (LPT1)

Crafting Quality Code (LPT2)

Data Visualization with Tableau Specialization

Machine Learning by Stanford University

Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects by Dr. Barbara Oakley and the University of California, San Diego via Coursera

Introduction to Databases by Stanford University

 

Why R.K.Laxman can’t get a govt job ?

‘What is Bharat going to do?’, Ram asked anxiously.

‘He wants to become a comic artist’, I said. ‘What ! Comics ? Why not an engineer?’, he exploded in surprise.

Bharat chipped in, ‘Because I want to write comics. If you want to become engineer, you become one’, he said and jumped off to play with his Lego pieces.

‘Oh no, you need to guide your child,Saar’, said Ram,’he wants to write comics ! How will he earn?’, he asked anxiously.

That is the basic problem. The instinct to safeguard livelihood so that once can eat one’s meal without having to starve. That is the primordial fear in any Tambrahm’s psyche. Tambrahm is an acronym for brahmins who are from the southern state of Tamil Nadu in India. The fear of survival, the fear as to from where the next meal would come, has been deeply entrenched in their psyche that this class of people have perfected the art of fearing livelihood.

And that makes them perfectly selfish. Let me continue with the conversation.

‘What is the problem in earning ?’, I asked as if not knowing what he meant.

‘What Saar, you don’t know the issues that we have to face in getting good colleges?’, he said. By ‘good colleges’ he meant good engineering schools run by the Government of India. These schools are rated high in the world and a graduate from one of these schools is bound to get an US visa either to study or work in the US. Most of the technical and software sector workers of Indian origin in the US would have been from many of these schools of excellence.

I tried to feign ignorance. So I said,’ What is the problem in getting into colleges? There are many now-a-days. And I need to see  what the child wants to do in life. Why thrust my opinion on him?’, I asked, for sure knowing that he would explode in explanation.

As expected he exploded.

‘Saar, have you acquired huge wealth ? Have you brought large swathes of land in Bangalore and Chennai that you can sell them to get into a college? How do you encourage your child to become a comic artist ?’. He couldn’t believe what he had heard.

He was mentioning the practice of the NRIs ( Indians that are not resident in India ) who buy land in the metro cities of India in the hope that once they decide to retire, they could sell land holdings to earn a post retirement livelihood. But he mentioned this in the context of planning a career for my kid.

‘Ram, I am not rich. But I don’t think I need to force any career option on the child. Let him choose his path. Any way, it is too early even to discuss about this with him’, I said.

‘So, Saar, please don’t allow him to choose such ridiculous jobs as being a comic artist. Make him an engineer and send him to the US. That is where we, tambrahms need to be in’, he pontificated.

That is the other problem with the tambrahms. If you are not in America, you are neither a Tam nor a Brahm – that is what they think. Therefore even during the first birth day of the child, tambrahm parents start dreaming about an American livelihood and IIT education for the child. Not knowing any of these, the child would be fast asleep in his bassinet.

I continued my talk with Ram. ‘So don’t you like R.K.Laxman’s cartoons ? Have you not enjoyed Madhan’s cartoons in Ananda Vikatan? Are they not brahmins ?’ I thought I had conquered Ram.

‘Saar, Laxman and Madhan are good, no doubt. They are brahmins, no doubt. But Ananda Vikatan and Times of India don’t have job reservation. That is why they got a job there. Suppose the Tamil Nadu government calls for a cartoonists’ position, do you think Madhan and Laxman would have got the job ?’

I had no answer.

But I continued in a different direction.

( to be continued )

IMG_0028.JPG

Why R.K.Laxman can't get a govt job ?

‘What is Bharat going to do?’, Ram asked anxiously.

‘He wants to become a comic artist’, I said. ‘What ! Comics ? Why not an engineer?’, he exploded in surprise.

Bharat chipped in, ‘Because I want to write comics. If you want to become engineer, you become one’, he said and jumped off to play with his Lego pieces.

‘Oh no, you need to guide your child,Saar’, said Ram,’he wants to write comics ! How will he earn?’, he asked anxiously.

That is the basic problem. The instinct to safeguard livelihood so that once can eat one’s meal without having to starve. That is the primordial fear in any Tambrahm’s psyche. Tambrahm is an acronym for brahmins who are from the southern state of Tamil Nadu in India. The fear of survival, the fear as to from where the next meal would come, has been deeply entrenched in their psyche that this class of people have perfected the art of fearing livelihood.

And that makes them perfectly selfish. Let me continue with the conversation.

‘What is the problem in earning ?’, I asked as if not knowing what he meant.

‘What Saar, you don’t know the issues that we have to face in getting good colleges?’, he said. By ‘good colleges’ he meant good engineering schools run by the Government of India. These schools are rated high in the world and a graduate from one of these schools is bound to get an US visa either to study or work in the US. Most of the technical and software sector workers of Indian origin in the US would have been from many of these schools of excellence.

I tried to feign ignorance. So I said,’ What is the problem in getting into colleges? There are many now-a-days. And I need to see  what the child wants to do in life. Why thrust my opinion on him?’, I asked, for sure knowing that he would explode in explanation.

As expected he exploded.

‘Saar, have you acquired huge wealth ? Have you brought large swathes of land in Bangalore and Chennai that you can sell them to get into a college? How do you encourage your child to become a comic artist ?’. He couldn’t believe what he had heard.

He was mentioning the practice of the NRIs ( Indians that are not resident in India ) who buy land in the metro cities of India in the hope that once they decide to retire, they could sell land holdings to earn a post retirement livelihood. But he mentioned this in the context of planning a career for my kid.

‘Ram, I am not rich. But I don’t think I need to force any career option on the child. Let him choose his path. Any way, it is too early even to discuss about this with him’, I said.

‘So, Saar, please don’t allow him to choose such ridiculous jobs as being a comic artist. Make him an engineer and send him to the US. That is where we, tambrahms need to be in’, he pontificated.

That is the other problem with the tambrahms. If you are not in America, you are neither a Tam nor a Brahm – that is what they think. Therefore even during the first birth day of the child, tambrahm parents start dreaming about an American livelihood and IIT education for the child. Not knowing any of these, the child would be fast asleep in his bassinet.

I continued my talk with Ram. ‘So don’t you like R.K.Laxman’s cartoons ? Have you not enjoyed Madhan’s cartoons in Ananda Vikatan? Are they not brahmins ?’ I thought I had conquered Ram.

‘Saar, Laxman and Madhan are good, no doubt. They are brahmins, no doubt. But Ananda Vikatan and Times of India don’t have job reservation. That is why they got a job there. Suppose the Tamil Nadu government calls for a cartoonists’ position, do you think Madhan and Laxman would have got the job ?’

I had no answer.

But I continued in a different direction.

( to be continued )

IMG_0028.JPG

The Good, bad and the PSLE – book review

There are some books that are pleasant, eminently readable, simple, creative as well as realistic while at the same time give you the inspiration to read again. Such books are indeed rare now-a-days and this book ‘The Good, bad and the PSLE’ by Singaporean author Monica Lim is one such.

The books’ content is about the trials and tribulations in the life of a working mom who has two primary school going kids. One is smart and a perfectionist like any Singaporean girl while the other is given to the ways of the world albeit in children’s parlance. And the daily transactions in the lives of these three characters, in Singapore, where there is an over-insistence on the scores a child gets in the Primary School Leaving Exam, forms the crux of the story line.

There are many such occasions where you have to hold on to your chair while reading the passages where the younger child Noah interacts with the mom, for you are sure to fall down laughing. I don’t mean to say that the laughter is just a mirth and nothing else but after the laughter part you get to ponder on the ill-effects of this over insistence on the primary school’s final exams by the Ministry of Education, Singapore.

Please note that I am not competent to pass judgement on the MoE’s policies but the children that I meet day to day and the extreme stress that those children undergo at ages 10 to 12 as well as the stress that the parents undergo have made me change my initial opinion about the schooling in Singapore. Probably it suits the country, I am not sure about that. Just for the sake of evaluation, let us say, the bench mark of a schooling system is the number of nobel prizes that the country has won. Did the education system help win even one Nobel, be it in Science or in Literature or in Medicine ?

Probably Nobel prize should not be used as a bench mark as the population is too few for sampling. I might be wrong in my hypotheses. But a similar hypotheses, if applied to the USA, works in favour of its schooling system. And its primary schooling system is not as stress inducing as Singapore’s is.

Well, as I said, I am not an academic and certainly not an expert on education and hence not competent to advise Singapore on what it needs to do. However the policy of grading students even as early as Primary 3, if that is true, certainly calls for an introspection. Edison was not an academic achiever, neither was Srinivasa Ramanujan who consistently failed in English but who was far ahead of the world in Mathematics.

Coming back to the book – it discusses these things in not so detailed a fashion but through the transactions of Noah, the Mathematically gifted yet linguistically disadvantaged child and April, the linguistically gifted yet mathematically not-so-gifted elder sibling.

I am not going to write in detail on the transactions of the two children for that might hinder your reading experience and spoil the joy of reading.

The time when Noah is asked by his mom to learn while he actually looks at a butterfly and replies that was what he was doing made me think hard on the choices that we give children towards their education preferences. Noah was actually learning by observing a butterfly outside his window while we are asking him to learn by reading the book. What kind of choice is that we give the children ?

And the moment April is stunned by her PSLE result and cries uncontrollably – that part is bound to touch your heart. The child is good in English but would not be going to the ‘elite’ schools just because the overall PSLE score is low – this does not speak of an enlightened schooling system.

The book ends with the mom writing to both her children letting them know how much she loves them and that their academic scores don’t matter in her love for them while at the same time the scores are needed for the outside world.

The book is Singapore centric no doubt. But the problem of educational stress that children undergo is universal. Cases of children committing suicide as they did not get a high mark are a common occurrence now-a-days in India as well known for its civilisational maturity.

Read this book. You will enjoy it no doubt. But would be left with many questions. I request you to sincerely ponder over the questions and think of alternatives.

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