Mangaluru (The Hindu): Lecturers in PU colleges should build a bridge that will make it smooth for students to transit from the protective environment in schools to the self-learning environment in colleges, H.S. Nagaraja, founder director of the Bengaluru-based coaching firm Be Ahead with Sustained Excellence.

Speaking at a workshop on ‘Pre-university education: changing scenario’ for principals of PU colleges here on Wednesday, he said there was a big gap between the environment in schools and the one in colleges. Against the light curriculum in schools, students were being exposed to complex and heavy curriculum in colleges. Unlike 35 problems to be solved between Class 8 and Class 10 in science, there are 100 problems that the student would have to solve for each chapter in Physics in the first year PU course. Mr. Nagaraja said that students needed the support of lecturers to cross the rugged path from school to college.

He said that for the first 15 days of the PU course, there should be no lecture and the lecturers should hold activities that help them understand each student. “Students should be made to believe in the capabilities of lecturers and they should be taught ways of self-learning. The right way is to teach less and enable learning,” Mr. Nagaraja said.

H. Madhava Bhat, Professor, P.G. Department of English, SDM College Ujire, spoke on ‘Academic and administrative leadership’.

The seminar was organised by Nitte Education Trust. C.S. Shastry, principal of NGSM Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, inaugurated the workshop. Saraswati B. of the Dakshina Kannada Principal’s Association was present.