Redefining The Role of Academic Institutions

Suleiman Altaf Editor-in-chief

In last month's column, we mentioned about how education at the kindergarten level has evolved in recent years The focus of this edition's write-up will be middle and secondary schools

In most schools, computer studies only start as early as Year 7 In a world rapidly moving towards digitalization, it comes as a surprise how many, if not all, schools have taken so long to understand the urgent need of incorporating computer studies in middle school Economics is another vital subject for each and every student to have basic knowledge about When I was in school, only students in the ' commerce ' stream would take up economics and it would only start in Year 9 I hear today that economics has become a compulsory subject for all students - in line with the latest regulations of the Ministry of Education - but they still start only in Year 9 when they should much early on.

Which subjects should be removed or restructured to allow for the incorporation of the aforementioned subjects? History and geography are two which can be taught in a radically different manner Assessing students on history is unnecessary pressure on them and that can be easily made into a fun learning process As for geography, much of what is taught under this subject is usually borrowed from science

That is about the subjects but a key factor is the teaching approach adopted Often, much of the teaching continues to remain in theory with little or no connection made with their practical applications and implications This is, in my opinion, the elephant in the room Students resort to 'rote memorization' as a result when they fail to understand the concepts Some students may score well in an exam but it is very likely they have not quite understood the topics - the two are not mutually exclusive This might also explain why students forget much of what they learnt/studied postexams

Another recent development is the adoption (or I should say incorrect adoption) of presentation slides. Luckily, slides were a rare assistant of teachers prepandemic. However, as part of the e-learning transition, presentation slides somewhat became the default mode of transferring information to the students as whiteboards and/or oral dictation practically ceased to remain feasible While presentation slides can be very useful tools for teachers, in reality they only distract away the attention of students if loaded with information Many of you may have come across videos of classes being taught at places like Harvard or MIT and they appear to be much more effective One commonality among them is the complete reliance by teachers on whiteboards (blackboards, actually!) to elaborate on concepts This not only makes students go along with the teacher but also encourages writing of notes

The next article in this series will put the spotlight on university, and being a final year student what changes are the need of the hour to make higher education more relevant and effective