Students spoon-fed can’t think for themselves: Foreign experts
Two international education experts have cautioned that the present education system in Sri Lanka is not producing any intelligent and skilled children for the nation.
“The students are isolated. They are not in a position to apply what they learnt to their practical lives. This system should be changed to produce a skillful generation” said the two special Mathematics Educators Prof Andy Liu and Wen-Hsien Sun who visited Sri Lanka early this year
Prof Andy Liu is a Canadian mathematician and a Canadian Mathematical Educator. He is a Professor at the University of Alberta’s Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences. He was the leader of the Canadian team to the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2000 (South Korea) and 2003 (Japan). Prof Liu played a very important role to promote Tournament of Towns
Prof. Andy Liu at the workshop with the students.
internationally.
Wen-Hsien Sun is the Taiwan National Director, Australian Mathematics Competition. He is a philanthropic Mathematics book publisher in Taipei, who runs the largest Mathematics bookshops in Beijing and Taipei.
“We are very happy to be in Sri Lanka. This is our first visit to Sri Lanka at the request of Ratnapura Dharmapala MV Principal P.P.P. Kalubowila. We spent about two weeks in the Sabaragamuwa province, visiting leading as well as village schools there. We have visited many countries, and here, we are very surprised with your school system. You start schools at 7.30 am and close at 1.30 pm. After school, children have a lot of time which can be utilised to improve their skills, may be in sports or maths or science. But after school, there is nobody to help them improve their skills.” said Wen-Hsien Sun.
“One thing we don’t want to happen to the students is to go for extra classes, where parents pay additional money. It’s not good, because parents cannot distinguish between quality and quantity. Getting more of the same thing is not necessarily the better. Children get tired. Here, starting at 7.30 am and continuously working till 1.30pm is very tiresome and annoying. In other countries, they start at 8.30 am, work till 11.30 am, and then a lunch break, then the afternoon session. It’s almost the same total hours, but spread out. Because, by 12.30 pm, your children are tired, where continuing has no results. After 1.30 pm, nothing happens. All the hours are wasted. The teachers spend six hours, so that, we cannot expect them to stay more” pointed out Prof. Andy Liu.
Wen-Hsien also pointed out, “We conducted many workshops to test the students’ mathematical knowledge and improve their knowledge outside the curriculum. Their lack of knowledge in mathematics was shocking. Here teaching.. teaching.. teaching.. students don’t improve learning. It is surprising that a Grade 3 student cannot add without stretching their fingers and toes. They do not have logical thinking- the sense. They are very poor outside curriculum. I tried the topic ‘Area’ on the students of Grade 10. This section is a very basic thing in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. But here, the children memorise the formula of a triangle, a circle or a polygon and don’t know how the formula is derived. When we ask the question in another form, they are confused.
The main reasons I see for this situation is that there are no analyses, no simplification and children are isolated. Teaching formulae is not going to give them knowledge. They have to think, learn, go and find out. In my lecture, I found the students do not want to try the problem; they wait for guidance to start. They do not want to spend time thinking. They have got accustomed to it. Parents and teachers are teaching too much. We should allow the children to learn.”
“What I say is, in a marathon, those who lead at the beginning, usually do not win, or even finish. Do you want your child to run a short race, or a marathon. You will have to look for a long term objective, your children don’t have to be number 1. Give them time. Every child is different; give them different ways and methods of studying. Let them learn on their own. Then, eventually, they will move forward. You don’t have to push. In Asian countries, parents want too much. They push their child in everything. They should know the difference between quality and quantity,” said Prof Liu.
Finally, they suggested that, Sri Lanka has a good chance to change its education system, as there is no interference from outside. Our opinion is not only for mathematics; you need to change your education system, to improve logical thinking. Teacher training is very important. Even some teachers do not try to identify the theory. They go with the formula. We, as educators of mathematics, can also help you change your curriculum, to bring the students to the level of Singapore, China, Japan, even Taiwan and Thailand and beat those counties. – Sujitha Miranda
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