Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Language problem blocks their ability to sustain excellence

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A new learning: Bridge courses are coming in handy for Tamil medium students to cope with college programmes in English. —

CHENNAI: Santhosh Kumar has not known failure before. So it was a shock for the first-year Anna University student when he saw his first semester results last month: he had failed in two subjects.

The school-topper, who hails from Tuticorin district, says his failure is largely owing to language problems. “It is hard when we cannot understand the teacher properly,” he says. Moving from a Tamil medium school to an English medium university has taken its toll.

He is not alone. At least 150 of the first-year students from Tamil medium schools in the first year at Anna University’s constituent colleges this year have failed in at least one paper. They are all excellent students, many of them with school medals or centums to their credit in the Class 12 board examinations. After all, last year’s cut-off for entry to these elite colleges was 94.5 per cent. Every one of these students is among the cream of the State’s best.

Fellow first year student D.Saravanan comes from a Tamil medium school in Tirunelveli district and was also known as a good student till he came to Anna University. “We are used to understanding the concept and then working out sums practically," he says, explaining why he and several of his friends failed in the Engineering Mathematics paper. “But if we have to do it in English without understanding, then we have to mug it up, and we are not used to that,” he says.

Santhosh Kumar’s parents have still not heard about his failure in the first semester exams. “My father is a farmer. My parents were so proud of me when I got into Anna University. Now I want to start doing well again before I tell them,” he says.

“It is hard when I see English medium classmates doing well. We are as good as them, but they do better,” says Saravanan.

Hope comes from older students who have gone through the same ordeal.

Santhosh Kumar is lucky to have some seniors who come from his own village. “They have told us that they also did very badly in the first semester, they also could not understand everything,” he says. “But they picked up by the second year and now they are good students.”

Santhosh Kumar, Saravanan and their classmates have more help than their seniors did. From the last academic year, the university has started special bridge classes to help first-year students who are finding it hard to cope with the transition from school to college. “It was felt that if we call it a class for Tamil medium students, they may not want to come. We do not want to give anyone an inferiority complex by forcing them to identify themselves,” says Anna University Vice-Chancellor D. Viswanathan.

While the classes are open to all students, College of Engineering dean M. Sekar says that many of those who attend are from Tamil medium schools. Santhosh Kumar and his friends say they started attending in the second semester. “It is held after college at 4.30 pm. Our own teachers teach us, but in Tamil. When we hear the same lesson in Tamil, it is much easier to understand,” he says.

“This problem of Tamil medium students has been there for a long time, but it was not possible to have special classes for all of them. We cannot ask our faculty to do so much extra work,” says Dr. Sekar. However, this year, a World Bank scheme has come to the rescue. The Rs.13.8-crore technical education quality improvement programme has a specific component for student improvement and the College of Engineering has used that scheme to offer extra remuneration to teachers willing to stay after hours and teach the special classes. “This component has funding of approximately Rs.10 lakh for four years, so we hope to continue the programme,” he says.

Anna University’s former admissions director P.V. Navaneethakrishnan suggests that such bridge courses be considered an essential part of technical education. He feels that colleges should also offer bridge courses to students coming through lateral entry from B.Sc courses or with a vocational education.

The abolition of the common entrance test was aimed at making quality professional education accessible to good students from rural areas, and not just their urban counterparts. However, many rural students do come from Tamil medium schools and colleges must be prepared to help them cope.

After all, as Santhosh Kumar says, “I am sure my English [medium] classmates would not be able to do exams in Tamil. It is the same for us.” For now, he and his classmates are preparing for their second semester examinations which begin this week. With the help of the special classes, they hope for success.

(Names of students have been changed on request)

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