Mayanglambam Amuthoi Singh
The author is presently employed with SSB, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India

It has been my long desire to have a discussion on how to improve the reading performance/skill of a student/child. I have been looking for every means to help the children in improving their learning skills and the role of responsible parents. The answers to most of my questions come from the very mistakes I have committed during my school days and early college days. The question that always haunted me was – why could not I be among the toppers in my matriculation & graduation examinations? What strategy could have been adopted to become a topper? How is a topper? What qualities do a topper may have? Was there any chance of my being a topper? If so, then what might be the qualities lacking of which made me so behind others?

These questions may be funny but, in the real sense, answers to these questions might have played a great role.

rear view of boy sitting at home
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Let me start with some simple questions. If there were any role of mistakes, then

  • what might be the mistakes?
  • Played whole day without reading?
  • Not attentive in the class?
  • Is always a back bencher?
  • Avoided the class when there was any chance?
  • Not studied systematically?
  • Didn’t parents take interest?
  • Was there any role to be played by the class teachers?
  • Did the teachers motivate the student?
  • Did the teachers compare their students with the students of other schools?
  • Did the teachers convince the students how to study to be a topper?
  • Did anybody; may be teacher or the parents, show what is the mirror (looking glass) of a student?
  • Did their day to day conversation with the students could make the students feel the very essence of hard work?

The answers to the above questions will be different. Some parents or teachers may find these questions irritating because some of the questions may be against their modest efforts. I agree that and I also beg apology for that if it is happened to somebody.

In the playground, it is the duty of the coach to teach his players the various techniques being adopted by other rival players. No godlike teacher or coach can elicit/explore all the hidden potentials of his players. There are always some hidden talents in every individual unexplored and exploration of this talent occurs when the situation arrives.

Let us suppose there are 60 students in a class and they have been studying in the same school for the last some years. They know who may be the topper in the class in the terminal examinations. I am not sure that only one or two students will top the many terminal examinations. But it is certain that some students are most likely to get the top 5 ranks. Some alterations may be there every year. In such situation, what I feel about the students below the top 5 students is that they will think of getting a higher rank than what they got in the last examination instead of thinking for topping in the examination. The reason for making them to think in this manner may be due to that some students (I mean the top 5 students) have been dominating in all the previous examinations. In such a situation, it is not the students who get less mark that are losing but also the ones who always get high marks because they have been fighting the same battle for many years and the toppers may think that they are much better than others and thus work not so hard. This very case really happens. Here the winner also loses in a wider context. The topper should have worked harder if the environment had been changed, had there been talented new comers or he be shifted to other schools where the players would be new competitors for him. Then what could be done in this situation? Is there any plan to improve the standard of a student below the top 5? Change the environment?  Change the school? Or to make the other students think beyond their previous performances?

I want to mention here some methods which could enhance the performances of the students of this category. Let’s have a look at the reading habits of students. Suppose three students – A, B and C read 5 hours, 4 hours and 3 hours a day respectively. Please ask a student how many hours a day does he read. He will definitely say he reads 5 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours or so a day. Is it reliable? I also asked the same question to many students during my interactions with them in my school visits. They proudly replied – I read 4 hours, 5 hours, 6 hours…. a day. I don’t bother on hearing that. Neither had I believed it. It is heard many times that most of the toppers of UPSC Exams., NEET, AIEEE, Banking exams, etc. say that they read 5 hours/4hours  a day regularly. The question that came to my mind on comparing these two 5 hours reading is what makes these two readings so different.  It may be due to the pattern of reading habit and speed.

In the general view, it is true that Student A reads five hours a day and he works harder than the other two students – B & C who read 4 hours and 3 hours a day respectively.  The highest probability of topping the examination lies with the student A. But it always does not happen. Either student B or student C can also top the examination. Then what may be the possible factors that might have contributed to making the later outcome true? On further study, it is revealed that the student A who reads 5 hours a day reads the sentence “Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2nd October 1869” like  “ Mahatma Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi, was, was, born on, born on, ….like this which shows his low imbition power and lack of confidence in his reading. Thus by reading a longer period he takes a long time to get the sentence to his memory. And some students read like, “Mahatma Gandhi was born…. 1869” i.e. in a uniform rhythm. This type of reading in a rhythm really helps a learner to memorise what he read earlier. Then was there any role in the reading habit? I will say YES. The clear example is “TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR ….LIKE A DIAMOND IN THE SKY“. Everybody can recite it. Was the “TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR…. ” a phrase used by everybody ? No. Then what makes it so lively all the time. It is the rhythm of the paragraph that makes it so lively. We can sing a song by listening the song of a great singer and when we sing the same song in our own way we think that we are singing the song just like the great singer. If we read a paragraph in a rhythm of our own which will be best suitable in our thought, it will be of great help in memorizing the paragraph just like what we did in imitating a singer. Another aspect I would like to invite the attention of the students is the speed of reading. We almost neglect this aspect while reading.  I remember an IAS topper who has said that she revised her selected study materials (for preparing UPSC civil services examination) 22 times in the morning and I was greatly astonished on learning that, UNBELIEVABLE !!! When delving depth into the pattern of her study I came to know that it is possible. My reading speed is only between 90-100 words per minute and hers was above 150 words per minute. Then reading speed also matters here ( one can check his/her reading speed from the various reading speed test sites available on the internet even though it is not 100% accurate). This aspect might have also contributed to the situation where a student who read 3 hours a day regularly could fetch higher mark than the other students who read longer periods.

There are 365 days in a year (for a non-leap year). Assuming 52 Sundays, 8 other holidays and 30 days summer holidays in a year, he gets 275 school days (approx). He is getting 90 full days without any assignment at his disposal.

  • No. of days in a year (non-leap year) = 365
  • No. of days for summer vacation = 30
  • No. of Sundays & holidays = 60
  • Total no. of available school days = (365-30-60) =275

Calculation of free hours for study:

Assuming that daily time allocation for personal assignments as under:

For schooltime – 7 hours, normal sleeping time – 7 hours and household chores, exercise time and personal requirements – 3 hours.

  • No. of hours available for study during school days = 275 x (24-17) = 1925
  • No. of hours available for study during school off days = 90 x (24 -10) = 1260
  • No. of available hours for study = 1925 + 1260 = 3185

The student A has still 1360 hours for a year i.e., more than 3 hours a day at his disposal for his reading. Besides this, if required, still he can manage more time for his study from the other allocations.

Being a student, his foremost duty is reading and this study of reading time retrospectively is his looking glass I have referred above.

One more interesting topic I would like to bring in here is “FAMILY BUDGETING”. There is a class of HIV/AIDS, family planning in every school syllabi. But one of the most important topics – “family budgeting” find no place likewise except in some specific disciplines. The void of such an important topic in the lower classes made the children become negligent about proper use of money. This has a close nexus with students/youths indulging in drug abuse and other types of illegal activities. The children who are brought up in the families where no proper family budgeting won’t fear in spending money lavishly because he has not been taught to do that during their childhood by their parents. In some societies, family budgeting becomes inherent and in some societies, it is in the dark. Parents of such societies, even though they are well educated, they hand over money to their children to buy anything on their own. They are not in a habit of controlling/proper using money. The children will surely demand excess money on the pretext of buying their study material. At some point of time, they will buy and take what they want when they have excess money in their hands. It is very much true. Suppose a street beggar is given Rs. 1 core. What will he do with that huge amount of money? Rather he will get puzzled. He will not think of buying a flat, an AC car, eating in a five-star hotel, buying nice dresses for himself and his family members. It is because Rs. 1 core is too much for his planning of getting two meals a day that too after exhaustive daylong exhaustive efforts. It is wrong to hand over any money to the small children for buying any material whether it may be relating to their study or something else. Every study material ranging from school books to copy books, pen, pencil, etc. should be procured by the parents. It is the duty of the parents to give every comfort environment of the school going children. I met many parents who are dreaming of their children becoming Civil Services Officers, doctors, engineers, Army Officers, etc. when they grow up but taking less care about the reading environment of their children.  What is a reading room?  In my opinion, a reading room is a place where the student feels most comfortable, free from all pressures, free from visitors, well-maintained temperature, well decorated with study related materials, well lighted, and many other things which will motivate and help concentrate in his study. One may argue that it is not possible to have such a situation. But my answer is there is nothing ideal in this Universe and everything which we think ideal is the nearest one to that and so the same thing may be applied to here also.

A child does not know what type of book is good for him. It is the duty of the parents to make good books available with their children. Choosing the right book is like plucking the ripe mangoes among the unripe ones in the same mango tree. There are so many teachers of Mathematics and their teaching methods may also be different. One may think that while teaching 2 + 2 = 4, he may give an example like – there are two ceiling fans in this classroom and two others are there in the next class. Two in this room and two in the next room, total 4. In another case, one may teach by drawing two balls in two places and he may say that two balls are here and another two are here, and now the total is 4. In the first instance, the same 2 + 2 = 4 went beyond the class i.e., the minds of the children may have been diverted while trying to detect the ceiling fans whereas in the second case the same has been done within their view focusing in a particular area. It will attract more attention of the students. Hence, in my opinion, topics of a particular subject may be same in the books of the same discipline. However, it is not that the presentations are the same. Different writers express their views in their own different ways to convince the learners. One may find it easy in a book and another student may not necessarily find it easy. There are so many like-minded persons in this world and this happens in the books also because books are the thoughts of the writers. If the parents of a child is not educated enough to choose the right books for their children, then they may seek help of other educated persons in this regard.

A student should not hanker after rewards. Rewards are conferred by others. It should not be begged for. It will automatically come to your way if you are really a hard worker. Improvement in performance is not only getting the next higher rank but to get higher percentage than before. Suppose you may get 80% securing 2nd rank in your last examination and if you get 75% and secured 1st rank this year, this is not improvement of performance. Your securing 1st rank may be due to a chance. The topper of the last year might have missed a paper due to his unavoidable personal assignment or due to illness. This is not a sign of improvement.

MY MESSAGE TO THE STUDENTS IS THAT WE, THE ELDERS OF THE VILLAGE, ARE ALWAYS LOOKING TOWARDS YOUR IMPROVEMENT AND WHAT WE DO WHEN RESULT OF ANY EXAMINATION IS OUT IS TO LOOK INTO THE RESULT SHEET WHETHER ANY STUDENT OF OUR LOCALITY IS THERE AMONG THE TOPPERS TO MAKE US PROUD AND PAVES A WAY FOR A BRIGHT FUTURE.