The medium of communication employed in universities involves the usage of books and other written and digital instructional materials. The university ecosystem is often filled with a plethora of academic and extracurricular activities requiring students to have a balanced approach to adequately combine both endeavors. A report by Digistatics states that over 70% of students fail to comprehend what they are being taught in class and we often trade the blame game and attribute academic failure to students’ lack of seriousness which is partly true. Identifying the root cause of problems has always been pivotal in unravelling the underlying causative factors of various issues and this can be applied in this context.
Statistica reports that easily understood texts increase students’ comprehension and academic success by 70%. Students often find intellectual stimulating texts engaging as this encourages the release of endorphins and enhances the ease of comprehension. While I am not trying to underplay the essence of academic rigour, we should not turn a blind eye to this moth gradually eating the stem of our education system. It takes an extra-diligent student who is willing to go the extra mile to read above what is being taught in class, go as far as researching numerous texts, online databases just to grasp knowledge which could have been obtained with well written academic texts.
Deciphering and logically decoding academic texts often becomes a herculean task and students sometimes go as far as trying to break it down into their local language and relate to recent happenings in their local environment. Also, the lack of relatable examples hinders the rate of comprehension among students which if not checkmated might lead to developing a negative view about such courses or the academic personnel administering the course.
While I am aware that information is not given on a platter of gold, this wouldn’t suffice for the poorly written handouts and textbooks which are mostly gathered haphazardly from the internet and hastily compiled for student to read, I remember searching for the original manuscript of one of my lecturers’ handouts, I found the exact same piece without any modification or simplification whatsoever and I was astonished.
The need for original thoughts and contributions cannot be undermined as it prevents intellectual theft, aids the infusion of localized examples and conquers the nefarious activities of certain academic personnel who write textbook for monetary gain at the expense of students’ readability and comprehension. I recall reading books written by M.L. Jhingan at my university library and I was amazed at how simplified the textbooks were written that even a supposed dummy can comprehend it with little or no guidance.
Textbooks have to be written in a clear, educative and concise way to stimulate students’ interest, make learning fun, improve retention and boost academic performance. Most textbooks are stuffed with archaic beliefs and theories, though it is good to have a premise and learn from history but of what use is history with no modern applicability. There is a huge need for academic personnel to acquaint themselves with modern trends in their field of study and come up with revised editions of academic texts rather than repeating archaic notes taught in the 1990’s and am I not trading the blame game, all I want to point out is that we all (Government, Teachers, Lecturers, students and all other relevant stakeholders) have dutiful responsibilities to play in reviving our Educational Sector.
The art of teaching involves life-long commitment to learning, unlearning and relearning and in order to prepare students for the future, more emphasis has to be placed on the continuous cognitive development of academic personnels which reflects in the creation of intellectually-stimulating academic texts because “Education is the passport to the future and tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today” (Malcom X).
