Many of us aim to be perfectionist in various aspects of life. But some
do not desire so, since they are satisfied by the achievable results, which may
be less than cent percent. The
discussion here is about level of attendance in academic field. The relation
between the teachers/Professors and the students is important, but complementary
to each other. The students want to learn and the teachers/Professors want to
impart the knowledge. But if one side is not present or does not cooperate
during this process, learning cannot be satisfactory. In that case, we must face
this situation and ascertain the causes of this non-attendance,
non-participation and non-cooperation and try to resolve the problem, instead
of both not reaching the Lecture Hall/Class room and saying that the other
party is not coming and/or is non-cooperative. Let us try to analyze the
situation, when students are not reaching the class room. The reasons could be
non-arrival or late arrival of the teacher/Professor, his not having adequate
knowledge of his subject, his inability to explain and impart the knowledge, unwillingness
to repeat the explanation after request,
other
communication barriers or discomforts like poor pronunciation, poor chair or
seat or no back rest, very hot or cold weather, poor lighting, poor
ventilation, inability to hear, noise in nearby areas etc. In such
circumstances, when the students do not gain much by attending the class, we
cannot really blame them. Let us now analyze it from the other side. The number
of students attending is very less, sometimes negligible, irregular attendance (thus
de-motivating the teacher/Professor), their talking or making noise in the
class & thus disturbing it, not responding to queries, not completing the
home work etc. Therefore the teachers/Professors also have a point. For best
results, both must cooperate with each other. But still perfection is probably
unlikely, though possible. The students in this case are the customers. If they
are gaining something after attending the class room, they are likely to attend
the class, barring a few exceptional cases. If the lecture is very good,
communicative & useful, attendance will be good automatically. The students
& teachers/Professors may blame each other for this problem, but the loss
is more for the students. For a teacher/Professor to expect 100 % attendance
always, is probably asking for too much. We cannot enforce full attendance,
since students have their own problems, reasons & points.
It is understood that Dr. S. Radhakrishnan as Vice Chancellor, BHU,
Varanasi used to lecture periodically on Gita.
He would arrive in the hall on schedule. During his period, no one would
create a stir. His delivery was mesmerizing. Many students would take him as
their role-model. The number of students used to be so large that the hall was
found to be inadequate, with the students trying to enter the already crowded
hall. The attendance was automatic due to the reputation and popularity of the
speaker and the quality of the input being provided. We have also seen in the real
life that a programme for music, theatre, gazal, bhajan, drama, songs etc. gets
good attendance, if the performer is well known as a good performer of national
or international level. For example a programme by Lata Mangeshkar will have
good audience. Similarly that by Hari Prasad Chaurasia on flute will get hall
full. There are many examples, which can be cited in support of this
observation.
But then what do we do in reality. We may consider informing some
positive points of the lecture to the students in advance and thus motivate
them, asking them to seek permission for absence giving valid and truthful
reasons in writing, giving some weightage in marks for each lecture attended,
asking 1 or 2 students to summarize their understanding of the lecture of that
day in 5 minutes each, in brief points. We may carry out a survey from both
types of students without asking their names or signature or identity to
ascertain the real reasons for attending the class and for not attending the
class. We may even use an outsider as a consultant to carry out a verbal survey.
What is stated here applies equally well to attending conferences, meetings,
seminars, popular lectures, mutual discussions etc. A mutually agreeable
approach is therefore considered desirable.
Compiled and presented by vijaiksharma, as a result of discussions in
the meetings with Saturday Group Members Dr. L K Kothari, Dr. D K Jain, Mr.
Surendra Bothara, Mr. P C Mehta, Mr. Shri Gopal Garg and Mr. Vijai K Sharma at
Jaipur.
.................vijaiksharma
