There is a little confusion in school education system regarding weak students. Educators are not at a point to consider the reality of weak student in the classroom. We are little confused whether we should call a student weak learner or academic weak learner or we should call him a weak learner. Who are weak students? Why do we call weak student? How can we identify weak students in the classroom? Does weak student really exist in the classroom? We need to understand the nature of learner. Why do learners become weak in academic?
We are really confused. There is really wide gap among highly intellectual society and educators and the common parents and guardians. When we say s/he is very weak in studies, we pass general statement or specific remark. Last 20 years, when we meet a parent, s/he shares that his/her son/daughter is very active at home, very naughty, very sharp mind but a little bit rigid. 21st century kids are very smart in handling most sophisticated electronic gadgets but always fail to complete their class work and home work on time. The student’s qualities of incompleteness gradually lead him to become a poor academic performer.
Weak student is low academic achiever who is less interested in academic work i.e. reading, and writing. Weak student does not show much interest in study at all. S/he will not complete his/her class work and home work on time. A student can score good marks and low marks in an examination oriented system but when we say that s/he is a weak student, no doubt at all we need to avoid passing a general statement and remark. When we consider a child right from his childhood, a child does not falls under categories of weak student.
An academically weak child is the product of the system and society which consists of parents, teachers, school, education system and parenting. A child becomes weak in study undoubtedly due to parenting and schooling system. We fail to nurture the nature of the child right from his formation age. We fail to create child’s interest in study. We fail to create hunger and passion for study. We fail to observe and monitor our children. We fail to provide the child ample opportunities to flourish in right direction, at right age and at right time.
Signs and symptoms of weak student in classroom
- Poor reading skill – Weak student may not read text of his class properly and fluently. S/he may be unable to frame words and sentences.
- Poor writing skill –Weak student may not write something properly in the class and at home. His/her hand writing is very poor. S/he may be/may not be able write correct spelling and sentence. S/he may not copy properly and correctly from black board.
- Poor self esteem – Weak student shows poor self image in the class. Since, s/he does not complete his/her home work and class work on time, and s/he listens warning/scolding from teachers and parents.
- Notebooks- Weak student does not maintain his/her notebook properly. We can observe it i.e. uncovered notebook, shabby notebooks, index not properly maintained, no chapter name, incomplete answer, pending work, a number of spelling mistakes and many more.
- Books- When we observe weak student’s textbooks; we find all most same problems as we find in notebooks. Weak student skips in bringing books in classroom regularly.
- Student’s Almanac– The way a learner maintains his/her student’s almanac reflects in his regular performance in the class. Weak student may be/may not bring Student Almanac regularly. Even if s/he brings the Student Almanac, she may not write the homework daily and s/he writes only 1, 2/4 home works.
- Poor Body Posture– Weak learner avoids eye contacts with teacher.
- Avoid Interaction with Teacher– Weak learners avoid interaction with teacher during classroom teaching. Generally weak learners don’t raise question in the class and avoid giving proper reply until unless teacher does not provoke them/reprimand them for the same.
Weak student is not product of one day. It takes time to become a good academic performer and poor academic performer. We fail to develop right attitude and proper manner since childhood. Child starts framing wrong habit i.e. does not sit 1 and ½ hour for study regularly. Pending works become mountain for students and gradually s/he develops habit of delaying, telling lie etc. We find a common nature among weak students that is, either they are reluctant to complete all the academic tasks or they start giving excuses for doing things rather thinking for completing a task.
Parent, teacher and other stakeholder don’t consider over the problem of low academic performance of a child rather we just develop habit of complaining and excusing one or more reasons for poor academic performance. An academically weak student can be changed into good academic performer if parent and teacher work as active partner. Minute observation of weak students and proper monitoring of academically weak student can bring magical result. We need to work on weak student. Academically weak child is not the result of his physical and mental deficiency but the poor parental and system failure. Weak student can be brought into main stream if we start working on child’s emotional well being. It is not the problem of child. The day teacher starts developing interest and passion in a child for study, and the day child starts developing inquisitiveness and interest for study, the day becomes great learning day for a weak student. Slowly, gradually and horizontally weak student starts performing good in study.
Educator and parent must have faith in child’s capability and capacity. We need to sit, we need to talk and we need to play with weak students to know their potentiality. We need to nurture the nature of academically weak learners for exploring their inherent capacity. Every child is unique and we need to nurture his/her uniqueness for developing better academic understanding. We can take the child to another level by creating interest for study and self study.