Mathematics Enhancement Programme
The Beyond the Syllabus Programme
The Department of English, Government College for Women, Trivandrum, Kerala State offers a ‘Beyond The Syllabus Programme’ for the students of the Arts,Science and Commerce stream of the college which has nearly 4000 students. It is the brain child of the Head of the Department, Mr. P. Vijayakumar. It evolved from his real life experiences which included the following :
- Students with a first class Post Graduate degree in English Literature are unable to take a Precis writing test on a topic related to Banking when they applied for a job in the Techno Park at Trivandrum!
- In the last century, Parsis and Brahmins used English to achieve power and hold over ‘Knowledge’. But in a state like Kerala, there is every scope for the English language to become an agent of empowerment especially for the lower classes and women.
- It is depressing to note that most teachers taking the cue from the UGC are being pushed into Seminar Halls when they actually were expected to spare their time to help their students to become truly empowered through a proper teaching of the English language.
The driving force of the course according to Mr. Vijayakumar is the following and it is a real eye opener for teachers of English, particularly those teaching in institutions of Higher Education :
- Place students first.
- As teachers of English we tend to lose our focus. Let us not forget that our primary job is to teach and not to pretend to be another set of Brahminical Priests who chant the mantra of Literary Theory!
From the brochure on The Beyond The Syllabus Programme 2009-10
- Aim: To help students to improve their English Language skills and to improve their general awareness.
- Method : By providing guided exposure to participate in audio and textual sources in English.
- Participation : The programme is designed for Under Graduates but all students are welcome.
- Time: During free periods or from 12.30 to 1.30 pm (Lunch break time) or from 3.30 to 5.00 pm (after college hours)
The Programme has the following components:
- Vocabulary enrichment
- Comprehension skill enhancement
- Unaided listening and Literary appreciation
- Writing
- Literature special
- Remedial work
- The Idea Club : ” Every subject is founded on the bedrock of ideas. The aim of this part of the programme will be to introduce students to such ideas and to provide them an opportunity to further explore them. All attempt will be made to make discussion and seminars, methods of this segment. Where necessary, the help of teachers of other departments will be sought. A high level of proficiency in English is a pre-requisite for taking this part of the course”.
- Most components of the Beyond The Syllabus Programme will be using the Language Laboratory. Hence familiarity with computer is essential.
- Participation in voluntary.
From the Report of the programme 2009-10
106 students joined the programme. They were from the following departments: Economics, English, Commerce, Hindi, History, Industrial Microbiology, Malayalam, Mathematics and Psychology . 23 of them were repeaters. 83 students were new comers. At the end of the year, on the basis of their attendance and performance they were divided in to the following categories :
1. Regular Users 56
2. Occasional Users 13
3. Dropouts 15
4. Visitors 09
5. Students too early to be classified 13
The materials used during the academic year were chosen carefully with the broad aim of the programme in mind. Most of them involved simultaneous reading and listening. The advanced lessons were mostly based on audio files alone. The bulk of the lessons were downloaded from free sources on the Internet, including the BBC’s Learning English Website, Project Gutenberg and Libri Vox. The programme offered over 580 basic lessons, 50 interviews, 25 plays, 60 novels, 15 courses of lectures and 300 other recorded radio programmes. They cover a range of subjects, including science, the social sciences, language and humanities. A small reference library was made available in the Language Lab for the use of students in the programme. One-on-one sessions were a regular feature of ‘Writing’, ‘The Ideas Club’ and the ‘Remedial Work’ components.
On Mr. P. Vijayakumar
I have known Mr. Vijayakumar for the past twenty years and he had been a great chum of my brother-in- law (late) Prof. Salim Balakrishnan, a former Professor of History of University College, Trivandrum. I have had plenty of opportunity to interact with him and am particularly fascinated by the following traits :
- His direct, no nonsense approach to communication, whether spoken or writing and his gift for words.
- An inspirational side of his personality which springs from his wide reading and perceptive thinking about social issues.
I am publishing this write- up on Mr. P.Vijayakumar’s programme after getting his consent and after reading the self-appraisal report submitted by him during 2009-10 from which I am quoting the following:
” Place students first was my policy during the last academic year, I continued to do so this year too. Apart from my regular work as a teacher and Head of the department, I was able to contribute to the academic culture of the college by conducting a few programmes…( which includes the Beyond The Syllabus Programme)… I received some degree of gratification for all this work. In the coming year too I hope to do similar work, driven by the apparently outdated idea, that the primary job of a college teacher is to understand ones own subject and the world around one and then to teach ones students, giving special attention to those from academically deprived backgrounds.”
Mr. P. Vijayakumar can be contacted at profpvk@gmail.com
About the Author
For more articles by the author of this write-up please view
http://cpraveenpublications.blogspot.com/
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