Something is seriously wrong..

I have interviewed many people from many states and have developed this impression that something is seriously wrong with our education system. Most of the candidates I interviewed could not answer simple fundamental questions.

The other day, a candidate who is a mechanical engineer could not even define the term “WORK” or “Mechanical Equivalent of heat” .

The next day’s experience was even shocking. 

A candidate came to face the interview. His academic records are excellent: 90% in High school (State Board), 86% in Higher Secondary (CBSE) and 80% in BTech.. I felt happy to get such a brilliant young man as a teacher for my students.

I started with the question: 

“How or why does a body float in water or in any liquid?” 

He replied, “Because of buoyancy force.” 

“On what factor does the buoyancy depend?” I asked…He could not answer. 

I asked back, “Why does a needle sink in water but the ship float?”  

And to that his answer was, “The needle has lesser density as compared to the ship.”

I asked, “What is the density of steel/iron, approximately?”

About 1.4 kg/cubic meter, he replied

“And density of mercury?”, I got curious to know his answer.

“1.2 kg/cubic meter” was his reply

“And the density of water?” I asked not losing my cool.

“1000 kg/cubic meter”, he replied correctly for the first time.

So, according to this brilliant mechanical engineer, water is 1000 times heavier than steel.

I could not decide whether to cry or laugh... 

Theory and Practice..

I have never been an athlete. I cannot even think of running a marathon. I have nothing to show as achievement in sports related activities, although I keep lots of interest in them.

I have always encouraged my sons to take part in all sports activities. They have not achieved anything great till now. But, in the process I have learnt a lesson or two from them.

One fine morning, my elder son approached me for permission to join the open marathon to be held in their school that day. It was to be a seven kilometer run open to all students. My son was about eleven or twelve years old at that time, not an ideal age to take part in such type of events as told by an expert to me later. My son was eager, so I gave him the permission to join the race.

I was not qualified to give my son any advice since I had never taken part in marathon race myself. But, as a father I had to encourage my son and give some tips based on whatever little knowledge I had about the event.

Behaving like an experienced athlete, I told him, “Just enjoy the run. Take it easy. After running for about 100 meters you’ll have a strong urge to stop since you’ll start getting tired. But do not stop. Once you stop, you may not be able to run again. Just keep going and going.” 

My son nodded and left for school.

He returned from school in the afternoon very much excited. Before I could ask anything, he declared, “Daddy, I secured fifth position in the marathon and I’ll get some award for that.” 

I was surprised. 

He continued to narrate his experience, 

“Almost the whole school participated in the run. Initially most of them were leading, but after sometime, many of them stopped and started getting into the bus that had been following us. I kept on running, remembering your advice not to stop. I started overtaking others and after sometime I found myself almost alone on the road. After taking a turn suddenly I saw our school building looking at me. When I entered the school compound students and teachers started cheering and clapping for me. Some one of them was shouting, Fifth, Fifth.. Arpit is Fifth…”

My son put into practice my theoretical knowledge however limited it may be. The mental strength he  had shown by not stopping halfway made him successful.  

In the process, he taught me a valuable lesson too.

An Anticlimax..

The day had been a busy one.  The General Manager of a reputed company was invited to our college to deliver lectures to the faculty and the students of the final year class. The prelaunch session was for the faculty which went very smoothly. The speaker gave some management tips using some real life stories to keep the audience interested. 

After the lunch break, the final year students started gathering inside the Seminar Hall which had been built and furnished beautifully only a couple of months ago. The seats are nicely cushioned.  Air-conditioning is yet to be completed. 

The speaker started his speech sharing his own experience as an engineering student.  He was candid enough to let the students know that after failing to get admission into any of the engineering colleges in Rajasthan, he had to go to Maharashtra to study engineering where he faced serious problems due to his weakness in English. He failed in all the subjects except in Mathematics in the first examination he took as an engineering student. That was the biggest shock of his life. But he did not lose hope, started studying hard and came first in the examination that followed. 

After changing few jobs, he joined his present company as a fresh entrant and rose to the present highest position just in sixteen years by dint of his sheer hard work, sincerity, dedication and positive attitude. The story was really inspiring and the students were very much touched.  The students started interacting with the speaker asking him career related questions which were answered well by the speaker. The session ended in a positive note and we, the college authorities were very much satisfied.

We left the seminar hall and sat down in the office for a little refreshment. We started reviewing the day’s activities and everyone present was very happy to realize that a very good program had been conducted for the students. Sipping in the hot cups of tea served to us we started planning for some more motivational programs of such kind for the students. 

To our surprise, came in the person in-charge of the seminar hall with a worried look on his face. We looked at him.  

 “Sir, some cushions of the seminar hall have been torn apart and damaged by some students sitting towards the rear side of the hall”, he reported hesitantly. 

We were shocked. 

“How could the students do this while such a good session was in progress?” someone commented. 

“It depends on from what background they have come", another one of us opined. 

As the head of the institution my first reaction was to decide not to hold any such program for the students in future. 

“But, why should we deprive the majority of the students from such developmental programs only because of few trouble makers?” I reasoned to myself. “ In fact it is a greater challenge to motivate ourselves to move ahead in spite of all such minor hiccups” , I thought

And the work goes on..

A Little Spark !!!

It was in the year 1999. I had just returned from Delhi after completing my PhD work and had rejoined my duties as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Assam Engineering College after a gap of three years. Most of the students were not known to me. 

In our department, we used to conduct viva on each subject for internal assessment. It happened to be a thorough examination of the students’ knowledge on the subject.  The students, as expected, usually did not like the exercise.

The viva was going on well and I was present there more as an onlooker since I was fresh to the scene, though I used to be notorious for asking tough questions to floor even the smartest of them. 

After one student had left the room, one of my colleagues said to me, “Sir, the next student who is coming is very naughty, a trouble maker. Ask him very tough questions to teach him a lesson.”

I just smiled and waited eagerly for the student to come in. 

In came a smart, handsome and confident young man with a smile on his face. He took his seat and I started asking him few questions on his family back ground.  As it turned out, both of his parents were highly educated and were holding some respectable positions in the society. He also had his schooling in some reputed public school outside Assam. 

After asking some questions on the subject, most of which he could not answer, I said to him , “You are from a good family, you have a good background, you seem to be very good. You have the potential to top the class. Probably, you are just enjoying your life rather than concentrating in your studies now. Take care.” 

He just nodded in agreement and left. 

After a few days, I met the student personally just to give him another pep talk.

The classes for the next semester of that particular batch started and I was also to teach a subject in that class. The boy never missed a single lecture of mine on that subject. He did extremely well in the end semester examinations to score the highest marks in that subject.  

He was a transformed boy by now, his conducts changed for the better, the teachers' opinion about him started changing too. His academic performance continued to improve and finally he secured a place among the top three students of the class. He received a very lucrative job offer through campus interviews and has been doing well professionally now.

After his final results were out, he along with his father and aunt came to visit me at my residence.  Even though he did not speak out, his sparkling eyes were expressive enough to say thanks to me. 

And for me, it became one of my fond memories.

Some things the students do not know...

It was in 1985. I was a fresh lecturer in Assam Engineering College, Guwahati. My HOD, Prof (Dr) A C Sharma was the examination-in-charge and I was his assistant. It was mathematics exam. Huge number of students used to fail in that subject. In addition to about 250 regular students, there were nearly 250 students appearing for their back paper in Maths. that day.

After the exam was over and the invigilators had left submitting the answer scripts, we started sorting out the scripts for packing. Suddenly I came across one loose sheet , one or two answers were written on that, but the sheet did not have any roll number written on it and it was not attached to any answer script either.. My initial thought was to neglect that sheet. “No roll number is written, how do we know whose sheet is this? After all it is the responsibility of the student to write his/her roll number and attach the additional sheet to the main answer script properly”, I was telling myself. And there were about 500 answer scripts to be sorted.

I showed that sheet to A C Sharma sir and he said, “Let us check the hand writings in the answer scripts one by one; we shall attach this sheet to the script that matches the hand writings. This student might pass the exam because of the answers he has written on this additional sheet.”

Checking hand writing one by one of 500 scripts? It would be two to three hours extra job. I was hesitating, but Sharma sir was adamant and we started checking the scripts. After half an hour or so, we could locate the script, attached the additional sheet properly to that and completed our job by around 3.00 pm.

I do not know who that student was and whether he passed the exam on that occasion or not. That student never knew what Sharma sir had done for him. After few months, as a reaction to some incident, the students attacked and ransacked Sharma sir’s house. That particular student may have been a party to that. No one knows. But Sharma sir never complained and continued to be the same sincere and hardworking teacher he used to be.

God bless such teachers.