DR SUHAS PEDNEKAR, Principal, R N Ruia College, talks to Shraddha Kamdar about the changes needed to motivate students in
higher education.
Sitting in his smart office, inviting me in for our 4 pm interview, he informs me that he just finished his lunch since he didn’t have a chance to eat earlier that day. Meetings after meetings pulled his attention, until he could postpone the everyday activity no more. Not accepting my rejection of the staff’s offer for tea or coffee, he cordially offered me green tea, saying that a cup would be good! Despite the pressures of professional life, there is always something that an educationist of so many years has to offer, and that is one of the facets of the personality of Professor Dr Suhas Pednekar, Principal of S P Mandali’s Ramnarain Ruia College in Matunga.
After the initial pleasantries, Prof Pednekar happily informs me that Ruia College is the first in the state to be accorded the status of ‘Star College’ by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India.
This is yet another feather in Ruia’s cap after recently being accorded the status of ‘College of Excellence’ by the University Grants Commission, New Delhi.
The DBT started the Star College scheme a few years ago with the idea to support and improve undergraduate science education in
the country.With the Star College Status, Ruia will receive an additional grant of Rs 1.14 crore from the DBT in the next three years to strengthen its science departments. Prof Pednekar mentioned that, “Through this scheme, undergraduate science students of Ruia College were encouraged to take special programmes in specific areas of science with special emphasis on hands on experience and learning advanced techniques in scientific experimentation.
DBT support enabled teachers to explore areas outside of their prescribed syllabi and to implement novel experiments in teaching regular curriculum.”
This brought us to the topic of the interview at hand, the students – students in higher education in general, who think that they are often the worst-treated group in higher education.
Prof Pednekar says that at times, the students’ viewpoint is neglected, but it is essential to lend thema listening ear. According to him there are two ways in which this can be done.
One is talking to the existing students about their issues and problems, and what they need. The other important one is to talk to the alumni,the students who are now placed in industry, to find out how they are faring at their respective positions and learn from them what should be changed at the undergraduate level.
“In India, there is complete detachment between the students who have graduated and the institutes they have studied at. Colleges should keep in touch with the students to learn which aspects of the teaching and learning worked for them and which didn’t so that we can have a dynamic and current curriculum,” suggests Prof Pednekar. He further opines that Indian institutes and colleges, as well as boards which prescribe the syllabi should avoid blindly aping the developed countries in these matters since India has its own challenges, like dealing with such a large number of students. “You see, I don’t call them problems, but challenges. Say for instance, which such numbers as a hundred students in a class, it is impossible for the teacher to provide continuous assessment and work on activities and interactions to engage the min class as well, day in and day out. After a while it can become slightly mechanical, and that does not serve the purpose,” he says.
Prof Pednekar further adds that the challenges should be understood along with the provision of solutions, or not at all. “I feel that some of these challenges can be resolved with active and adequate use of ICT, which is not happening right now,” he says. Another change that he think should be brought in is to create awareness among the students about their responsibilities as students, and ask them to put in their bit of effort at home,whether in terms of readings, or assignments,which can then latter be tackled in class in an interactive manner through discussion and Q&A sessions. At the same time, he feels that the teacher’s role should shift to becoming more of a facilitator in class,which will complement the process of discussion.
A term that the long-time educationist does not appreciate is “the syllabus is covered”. Teachers often use it to mean that all that was needed to be taught from the exam point of view has been done.
“The syllabus should ideally never be covered, only then will the learning be seamless,” he says. He also points out a few lacunae in higher education, for instance in science, students are learning more through theory and lectures than through actual experiments and many experiments they perform in the labs are outdated.
According to Prof Pednekar, relevance and sustainability pose real challenges today. “Some degree of innovation is required where the students are allowed to think.We should not only prepare them for answering questions but also for asking the right questions,” is his opinion.
Moving on, Prof Pednekar observes that the systemis quite rigid, and it should be modified to allow some degree of flexibility to the students in terms of choosing the subjects they want to study. “I feel vertical boundaries should be dissolved and the nature of the structure should move to becomemore inter-disciplinary,” he states. He also opines that designing a curriculumis a scientific process and requires training so that the Board of Studies can strike a balance between the teaching and education and the social, environmental and economic needs of the society. He is saddened by the fact that the environmental needs are grossly neglected, and feels that we have to take care not only of the next generation, but of several future generations as well. In that sense, he feels that the educators need to have a foresight to prepare the students for jobs that do not exist today, but will come up in the future.
Talking about what students can do to improve, Dr Pednekar states upfront that he thinks that the students have a lot of additional time at hand.Whether we count the time after everyday classes or vacation time, he feels that most of this time is not being utilised by them as fruitfully as they should. Students need to be self-motivated to do things constructively and creatively. He feels that if students are given hands on work with the latest and modern techniques and equipment to work on, they will be determined to see it through. At that point it will notmatter that the activity was not part of the syllabus or evaluation. Themere challenge is enough.
“I feel that the students are under appreciated, and we educators need to make it a point to value their effort and potential at every step, whether by way of kind words or certificates.
This also requires a great commitment from the teachers, and I have found that if they put in the effort, the students are motivated to go ahead.” There are all kinds of students in system, he says. There are some who are willing to go the extra mile where as others who want everything without putting in the adequate work, and that to instant results. “That is a matter of concern, and for that, students need to be oriented at the outset. This is a precious phase of their career, a glorious time where they have to put in the hard work to reap the benefits later,” he says.
Dr Pednekar also suggests that students need to be more proactive and try to find out what is going to be taught in the next class, so that they can read up on it, since information is so freely and easily available on the internet. Teachers should ask students to work in small groups within class on particular topics and make mini-presentations to their classmates about it, so that they learn from their peers. This brings us to the topic of soft skills, and how they are extremely essential for any individual today. “Students need to analyse their own strengths and weaknesses and work on them to learn how to best express themselves.
He ends on the note that students need to be made aware of the career options open to them well in advance so that they are updated, and can also assess their potential to work on a particular field. And that would provide an ideal course of action, he concludes.
