Breaking barriers to facilitate degree college students Sunanda U. Chande, Sir Vithaldas Thackersey College of Home Science, Mumbai Importance There are many partners in the process of education. There are stakeholders like the government, funding agencies, parents, community at large; providers like institutions, administrators and teachers; and beneficiaries like students and parents. Each one must cooperate with the other partners in order to gain optimum knowledge and be useful in society. In order for all the partners of education to collaborate, they must break the barriers that block and hinder the process of education. Undeniably, parents and family play a key role in shaping students attitudes toward Degree College. They have the potential to be the greatest resources in helping their children prepare for higher education, but if they fail to be actively involved, parents instead create a barrier for the college. Similarly, teachers also have a great impact on students throughout their life. The educational institutions are instrumental in providing opportunity to teachers and students to come together in pursuit of knowledge. The community benefits at large from this collaboration. The barriers When human beings are working together with systems and machines, it is not always smooth. There are obstacles that block functioning and the progress. Thus, barriers come in the way of working together. They would be physical such as extreme weather conditions and distance from residence; psychological such as low self esteem, lack of self confidence, absence of motivators, technophobia, no interest in education; cultural such as negative parental attitudes towards education of girl child, biased social attitude, gender stereotyping in offering skill development programmes to girls and boys; situational such as costs of higher education, shortage of infrastructural facilities, lack of opportunities of education for less privileged section of the society, technosavvy environment, government policy to include or exclude some people, political instability, higher school fees; institutional barriers such as lack of educational guidance, want of counseling centers, inadequate contact with teacher, inapproachable teachers, not having sufficient computers and other equipments, teachers in insufficient numbers, inefficient management, unhelpful supporting staff, disinterested teachers and so on. Some barriers are simple while others are complex. In most of the cases these barriers can be tackled or handled with training, better understanding of human nature and compassionate attitude. Strategies The strategies to be used to conquer these barriers are teamwork, strengthening vertical and horizontal communication, use of technology to disseminating and sharing of information, meetings among different groups, sharing sessions, selfassessment, peerevaluation and human capacity building. Dynamic interplay between personal growth and community action is at the core of breaking barriers. Teamwork: It is the result of teambuilding process which is vital for effective functioning of an organization. Advantages of teambuilding are: more information and knowledge, increase diversity of use, increase legitimacy and satisfaction in work. Vertical and horizontal communication: Communication process is as vital to smooth human existence as the basic needs of food clothing and shelter. Therefore, quality of organizational communication determines the success or failure. Each educational institution must develop its own channels of horizontal communication among teachers, supporting staff and students for exchange of ideas, sharing work and better understanding. Vertical interaction from supporting staff to teachers to administrators and from
students to teachers to higher authorities is essential for better working climate and to overcome institutional barriers. Use of technology to acquire and disseminate information is the simplest strategy provided the institution has the resources to acquire it and the staff is will to learn the use of it including the updates. Meeting amongst various groups such as parents and teachers helps in ironing out problems faced by both. Alumni are indicators of institutional performance. Inviting alumni to share their experiences of the college will be a suitable way to communicate to present students the ways of tackling institution related issues. Teacherstudent meetings for cocurricular work lead to better rapport that has positive impact on academic activities. Sharing sessions amongst the teachers can truly benefit the teaching community. Sharing experiences after attending conferences, seminars and workshops can be inspiring. One can learn from experiences of others. Guest speakers can be invited to speak about issues relevant to the day to day lives of the students and to give them first hand knowledge about the industry. Self assessment and peerevaluation are not always acceptable to all. If accepted by all they can lead to improve quality of workers. Human capacity building is very essential in information society as the quantum of knowledge keeps on growing at phenomenal speed. Capacity building in terms of acquiring knowledge and skill development, depending on the organizational needs is imperative to growth, development and prosperity. The Study Students as beneficiaries or end users play a significant role in the educational process. Therefore studying their views about barriers and ways to overcome them will help the educators and administrators to work more effectively. A research study was undertaken to study barriers to higher education as perceived by students of SVT College of HomeScience, an undergraduate college of SNDT Women s university, Mumbai, India. Therefore, the research study was undertaken with the following objectives:. To study/examine barriers faced by students in a degree college.. To know strategies suggested to prevail over them. Sample: A questionnaire was administered on 00 students of the degree programme. Tool: A questionnaire: the tool consisted of partly structured and unstructured questions. Findings Background information Ours is an all girls college. The students have opted for a three year degree programme Bachelor in Home Science with one of the ten specializations. All of them have completed twelve years of schooling before entering the degree college. Medium of instruction in the college is English however; some of them have studied in an Indian language as a medium of instruction in the first ten or twelve years. Many of them travel up to 0 kilometers by public transport to reach college. Tables to show the background information of the respondents. They are in the age group of 8 to years, with majority () of them of 9 and 0 years. They are studying in second year (8) and final year (7) of the three year Bachelor of HomeScience degree programme.
Table. Age distribution Age 8 9 0 Barriers to higher education Table. Education distribution Level Second year 8 Third year 7 Table. Instruction in school Gujarat Marathi 0 English 89 A list of thirty barriers is incorporated for the present study. The barriers are randomly listed. Some of them are written in a positive way and some in a negative way to avoid casual marking and to make sure that the statements are read and then responded. Table shows list of all barriers, and the response to them. Table 5 shows the list of nineteen barriers as reported by more than students. Table 6 shows the list of five barriers as reported by more than 60 but less than of students. Table 7 shows the list of six barriers not so perceived by students. Table Barriers to higher education... 7. 8. 9. 0.... 7. 8. 9. 0.... 7. 8. 9. 0. Technosavvy environment Lack of information Health crisis Negative attitudes, beliefs or assumptions about learning Supportive family background of students Disinterested teachers Helpful supporting staff Efficient management Teachers in insufficient numbers Distance from residence Extreme weather conditions Low self esteem of students Less time in relation to activities Motivators Technophobia No interest in education Positive parental attitudes towards education of girl child Biased social attitude Gender stereotyping in offering skill development program Costs of higher education Short of infrastructural facilities Opportunities of education for less privileged section of the society Lack of educational guidance Political instability Government policy to include of exclude selected students Require counselling centres Inadequate contact with teacher Not having sufficient computers and other equipment Inapproachable teachers 8 6 55 76 5 6 57 70 9 5 6 9 78 8 60 88 50 8 7 86 7 6 6 5 79 5 8 6 9 9 5 5 6 8 6 5 7 7 6
Table Barriers to higher education reported by and more... 7. 8. 9. 0.... 7. 8. 9. Lack of information Negative attitudes, beliefs or assumptions about learning Supportive family background of students Disinterested teachers Helpful supporting staff Efficient management Low self esteem of students Less time in relation to activities Motivators No interest in education Positive parental attitude towards education of girl child Biased social attitude Gender stereotyping in offering skill development program Costs of higher education Short of infrastructural facilities Lack of educational guidance Government policy to include or exclude selected students Inadequate contact with teacher Inapproachable teachers 8 76 5 6 9 5 9 78 8 88 8 86 6 79 5 8 9 5 6 8 7 Table Barriers to higher education reported by less than and more than 60... Technosavvy environment Teachers in insufficient numbers Extreme weather conditions Technophobia Not having sufficient computers and other equipment Health crisis 70 6 7 6 7 6 9 5 7 6 6 Table 7. Barriers to higher education not so perceived... Distance from residence Opportunities of education for less privileged section of the society Political instability Require counselling centres 55 57 60 50 5 6 5 Thus, it can be said that the barriers to higher education as expressed by majority of the students are: low self esteem of students, lack of information, inefficient management, unhelpful supporting staff, lack of interest in education, negative parental attitude towards education of girl child, costs of higher education, inadequate infrastructural facilities, lack of educational guidance and inadequate contact with teachers. The following are not perceived as barriers by almost half of the students: language, distance from residence, opportunities of education for less privileged section of the society, political instability, require counseling centers. Strategies suggested by the students to overcome barriers are presented below Physical barriers such as extreme weather conditions, health checkups and distance from residence can be overcome by: providing hostel facilities and public transport facilities condoning for attendance on days of heavy rains repeating the portion taught on days of bad weather
permitting students to leave early in case of bad weather forecast Having health checkups and awareness programmes. Psychological barriers such as low self esteem, lack of self confidence, absence of motivators, technophobia, and no interest in education can be overcome by: Having personality development programmes Counseling facilities for students and parents Providing facilities for participation in cocurricular activities Organizing programmes, talks to build up positive attitude for students Giving knowledge and practice in use of technology Arranging motivational talks on importance of education Making subjects more interesting Cultural barriers such as negative parental attitude towards education of girl child, bias social attitude, gender stereotyping in offering skill development programmes to girls and boys can be conquered by organizing similar programmes as mentioned for psychological barriers. The target audience for these would be the parents and the community at large. Situational barriers such as costs of higher education, shortage of infrastructural facilities, lack of opportunities of education for less privileged section of the society, technosavvy environment, government policy to include or exclude some people, political instability can be overcome by: Offering scholarships, freeships and installment facilities for payment of fees. Increasing facilities for students in terms of computers and equipments Giving training in use of machines and technology Admitting students on merit only and not on any other basis Sensitizing about choosing the leaders on rational basis. Institutional barriers such as lack of educational guidance, want of counseling centers, inadequate contact with teacher, unapproachable and disinterested teachers and unhelpful supporting staff can be tackled by: Providing guidance and counseling facilities Introducing slot for teacherstudent interactions Motivating teachers to be more friendly, approachable and empathetic Appointing adequate staff Concluding comments Conducting the study was an enlightening experience. It gave an insight into students perception of barriers to education and the strategies to overcome them. Every educational institution tries its best to offer the best educational programme for students. It has its own strategies for doing so. Incorporating student s perception will make it more acceptable to them and eventually lead to institutional success. It can be said with respect to my institution that implementation of all strategies suggested by the students may be difficult but the suggestions for guidance and counseling facilities will be strengthened, more awareness and positive hour programmes will be conducted, opportunities for more teacherstudentparent interactions will be created, more computers and equipment will be procured and training to use them will be imparted, attempts will be made to get extra supporting staff whenever required. Thus, will shall realize the dream of achieving excellence for our institution.