In this series, we have been using a conceptual framework for education where parents, children and teachers are allocated key positions and roles.
So far, we have analysed the changing role and contribution of parents in their children’s education.
More recently, we delved further into the issue of orientation towards education among contemporary students compared with those of the not-too-distant past.
We said that the effort that students exert towards education had weakened alarmingly in recent times.
We also said that the manner in which students view education and educational achievements had undergone drastic change. In our last article (9/12/23), we identified a number of behavioural changes seen in contemporary university students.
Let us take this a bit further here.
Changes in the orientation of students
As promised, let us look at some more changes seen in the orientation of contemporary students towards education and educational institutions (including teachers).
Assessments, the most important component of courses that help identify different levels of capabilities and performance among students, are no longer viewed seriously.
It is not uncommon for students to focus on assessments (for the very first time) when they fall due.
There is very little prior awareness and preparation for it.
There are so many cases of students asking in the very week the assessment is due whether it is an individual or group assignment.
They get ecstatic when told it’s a group assessment.
Then they turn around and ask you to find a group for them.
This is how these assessments are meant to work.
They are posted online in the first week of the semester together with all other readings, course outlines, instructions, etc.
To make it easier, the assessments are copied from the course outlines and posted separately for students.
Then the assessment summary and connected due dates are posted as labels so that as soon as students enter the online platform, they are able to see these without having to open any documents.
It is not uncommon for teachers to post these dates in bold to ensure that they are not missed by even the least caring students.
Each assessment has its instructions that have (over time) been reduced in bulk and sanitised of complexity so that students are able to follow them with absolute ease.
Words that could confuse are removed and confined to dustbins so that they never return.
Despite this, it is not uncommon to be asked if the assessment is really due on the date posted.
They ask how they can find group members despite being told (both written and oral) that they should form groups that they are comfortable with.
Then they will ask if they can do it with two members or alone even though the instruction clearly says, “up to four members”.
Students have to be sent individual as well as numerous group messages saying that “up to four members” means one or two or three or four members.
Then you have to add that “this means, you can have one or two or three or four members.
Please do not have five!”
Why this last bit needs to be added is because it helps pre-empt the thought gravitating towards, “why not five?”
Anything to muddy the waters so that the assessment appears hazy perhaps?
I leave that for readers to mull over.
It becomes even more interesting when it comes to actually submitting assignments.
Missing deadlines is no longer a major problem as teachers invariably make concessions on this front.
Anyone who enforces rules is viewed as an enemy.
Then there is the issue of plagiarism.
Copying and pasting from online posts has made life so much easier that students spend considerable time and effort learning how to beat the
plagiarism detection systems being used.
My previous office was most strategically located in that I could hear students talking among themselves without realising that they were being
eavesdropped on.
I remember one bright mind trying to impress another of a different sex that beating the system was “easy”.
“There’s a thing called thesaurus which gives different words with the same meaning”.
So, the thesaurus had finally been discovered and the discovery was being shared as a priced possession to beat the system rather than to enhance the quality of learning.
I remember how I was presented a copy of the Roget’s Thesaurus in 1977 when I topped my class at Wairiki Secondary School.
That remains a priced possession for the family because my two sisters followed me down the same path.
That aside, as the two hopeful heads plotted gleefully, I could not help thinking about the sentences that come through that path where we slot in words without thinking about the context.
“He conflicted with his friendly mate in the work domain.”
How’s that for a simple sentence trying to tell us that there was a fight between two workers in a workplace?
It is clear from the discussions so far that students of today bring a totally different orientation towards education compared to students
of yesteryear.
They simply do not value education in the same manner.
Neither do they see it as the single most important passport to success in life because there are so many choices available.
And, perhaps most importantly, the economic umbrella offered by their family is so much bigger.
It is this option that was not available to earlier generations.
They were expected to succeed and offer that umbrella to the rest of the family.
Many did this remarkably well with intermittent failures linked to demands emanating from marriages.
A reorientation towards educational achievement
Another point that we raised earlier is that educational achievement is not viewed in the same manner as in the past.
I mentioned earlier that when I returned from Japan with an MA in 1991, it was viewed as a major achievement not only by my family, but by anyone who heard about it.
When lecturers entered the classroom during my Bachelor’s days at USP, we revered them and eagerly anticipated learning from them.
The regional professors and doctorate holders were our heroes and role models.
The graduation gowns that they wore during graduation ceremonies were marvelled at.
A good number of us aspired towards wearing the same at some stage in the future.
We were under no illusion that the path to that elevated pedestal was going to take some doing.
Many of us took up the cudgels and prevailed.
The problem is that educational achievement is no longer aspired towards and revered as it used to be.
There are many reasons for this, and we will look into those in a later article.
What needs to be articulated here is that if one has a doctorate and wants to be respected, the easiest thing to do is to wear an expensive brand-name watch, expensive brandname shoes, gold jewellery and carry a top-of-the-range phone.
Of course, your car must also be a cut above most.
That will bring you respect and admiration regardless of the blood, toil and tears that got you the PhD.
It’s simply a very different view and orientation towards education and educational achievement.
The whole ballgame has changed.
Let me conclude here by apologising for missing out last week.
What happened is that my right middle ear and right tonsil got infected.
These two organs are supposed to operate separately in order to ensure the health, security and wellbeing of the individual.
In this case, the middle ear somehow managed to wiggle around, get elongated and work itself beyond the myriad checks placed by the many tentacles of the inner ear to collude with the adjacent tonsil.
In the process toxins were produced and my life became an excruciating hell until my local GP worked his magic and brought things back to normal.
The valuable lesson learnt is that organs that are supposed to operate independently of each other should never be allowed to collude if we value good health, wealth and wellbeing.
Here’s wishing you all a most merry and enriching Christmas.
• Dr SUBHASH APPANNA is a senior USP academic who has been writing regularly on issues of historical and national significance. The views expressed here are his alone and not necessarily shared by this newspaper or his employers subhash.appana@usp. ac.fj
