Illustration: Amit bandre
HYDERABAD: It might not be an easy ride for students of Classes 6 to 10 who have started the academic year with dual curriculum: pursuing the state syllabus and undergoing foundation courses for IIT and NEET. A recent research study conducted from city by a Canadian researcher brought to light that students pursuing dual curriculum are scrambled due to the increase in a load of academic burden. The students, who were surveyed, observed that studying two curricula was a strenuous task.
The study, ‘Teaching Students beyond their Grade Level in Private Schools of Telangana State in India’, was conducted in a school here by a researcher from Vancouver Island University and published on the university’s website recently.
It has come to light that it is parents who force their wards to pursue dual courses. With tags like techno and integrated IIT used by various corporate schools to market their dual curricula, only STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) are being promoted through such integrated courses.
While 52 per cent of the 114 students interviewed admitted that they were not able to get enough time to study their regular subjects, 46 per cent said that they were not able to concentrate on the regular subjects as they had to spare some time to go through IIT foundation courses. Interestingly, they all agreed that IIT concepts would be helpful to them in the future but said, at the same time, that the reason for securing low marks in their regular subjects was because of the additional burden placed on them by the study of IIT concept subjects.
While the concept of the dual curriculum has been in vogue in the city for about two decades now, all does not seem to be going down well with students pursuing such courses. John Martin, the researcher who taught physics for a brief time in the city, said that without knowing the competencies of students, dual curriculum courses were thrust upon them.
“I taught students complicated concepts like electricity, mechanics and refraction which are not required for a lower grade student like a sixth class child,” he said. Not all students can cope with the additional learning which, should be taught at a higher grade level.”Psychologists say that students are put to undue stress even from a young age by subjecting them to a tremendous amount of study.
