The Nesamony Research Forum was inaugurated in Nesamony Memorial Christian College,
Marthandom on Friday, 07 October 2011. Dr. James
R. Daniel, [former Principal of Scott
Christian College, Nagercoil], who is blessed with a gift of the gab, enlightened the audience through anecdotes and
hard hitting facts which evoked in everyone present that the need of the hour in
campuses across India is nothing but
research with a social relevance.
In
the course of his speech, Dr. Daniel presented a few facts about research in general and teaching in particular
which should interest teachers in institutions
of Higher Learning. The following are excerpts from his speech:
It is the duty of the
teacher to constantly ask critical questions to his students. Teachers should
compliment research with teaching and develop a research mindset and attitude. The
research you undertake should be local,
indigenous and be related to issues
which the people face. You should learn to integrate yourself with humanity, think globally and act locally. That is, you should learn to implement your programmes in your place, your city or your district. You should strive to fuse, integrate ideas and
focus on drawing material from the
primary sources and not just by
downloading as many researchers do.
Remember
the popular APPLE motto “Think Different”.
What is important is ‘Quality’... in
presentation, citation and in the impact factor. Unfortunately the trend seen is that :
You copy from one book and it becomes plagiarism
You copy from ten books and write a thesis
You copy from hundred books and publish
two books!
True,
the ‘publish or perish’ trend in the West is catching on. During the
Pan IIT Summit held recently, the goal for IIT students have become ‘Deliver or
Die’.
Mr.
N. R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys
Technologies Limited who addressed the IIT alumni is supposed to have made two
startling statements:
1. The quality of students coming out of IIT’s is a grave concern for
all of us... there is a tremendous deterioration in quality. Only 20% of those
who pass out are good and 80% are devoid
of any quality despite the huge
investments the government makes for IIT’s.
2. The most obvious reason for the fall in standard is the tenure system of the faculty. The time
has come to introduce the five year
contract appointment system. The tenure system stagnates and corrupts .
Dr. Daniel concluded
his enthralling address by substituting
the word ‘research’ for the word ‘money, in a
popular doggerel :
Research is honey
My dear sonny
Without research
Life is funny
.... So, what is life for
teachers without research ? Any comments ??
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