Expectations, Crisis, and Vulnerability: Impact on Student Behaviour

Abstract

The exodus of new generation passes outs completing schooling and seeking to pursue degree programs is at an all-time high in colleges across the State of Kerala. As a matter of fact, many of them are short of the basic standards required to cope with the levels demanded of higher education. Barring premier institutes and professional courses, students in UG programs in Arts and Science colleges reveal a declining trend in overall academic standards. Adding to the difficulty, subjects are taught in the local language at the UG and PG levels. This incapacitates students from utilizing the vast repository of knowledge open before them. Resultantly pass percentages are on the decline. Even those who pass are not worth the expectations of a graduate. Classroom experience conveys an apparently dismal picture of student indifference and lack of interest in studies. The main reason for this is that students join the institution with an entirely different set of expectations contrary to what is required. They expect unlimited freedom, leisure, and enjoyment. These are the basic urges in stark contrast with the ground realities of real requirements. If effective learning has to take place, the prime requirement to be met is that students should be interested to learn, willing to learn, and motivated to learn. Their unrealistic expectations are giving way to an array of problems. This is further compounded by a set of contributing factors rooted in crisis such as emotional and personal distress, and low energy levels. A set of predisposing factors adds to the vulnerability. On top of this is the supplementing factors that backtrack them. This paper is an attempt to explore the factors that are responsible for the behavior of students which drives them to pursuits other than studies in the place of their primary objective. The findings are the result of a Case Study conducted in an educational institution in Malappuram district of Kerala.