Want to excel in your school exams? Get specially trained in handwriting

Kumaran P | NT

How much ever tech savvy the world may get, nothing compares with the good old habits of reading a physical book and handwriting. Warmth the latter conveys, especially in personal communication is second to none. Legibility then becomes an important factor, for it is necessary to transmit the message. Like everything else, skills are best learnt early in life. Nothing like starting at school. Knowing this fully well, the managements of Bengaluru schools are training their wards to write better. Another activity the pandemic has laid low, finds Kumaran P.

After the closing and reopening of schools multiple times, students have lost the touch of writing. Several schools have now started teaching writing skills for students to cope with their exams and board exams, which will be conducted compulsorily on their campuses.

Jyothi Menon, head of Ekya School ITPL, said, “Children have lost the practice and focus. They are taking a lot of time to write. Only practice will be able to help them. Their note-taking speed in the classroom has slowed down, and they are making spelling mistakes. As a priority, when they return to offline classes, we will focus on lab work and remedial classes. Increased emphasis will be on brushing up their cursive writing and being able to write in a straight line with speed. Teachers often get blank stares from children in online classes when they ask questions. There is a lack of response from the other end. When we see too much of that happening, we push students to go for remedial classes.”

Experts concede that note-taking has become difficult. Dr Sridhar G, founder of Deeksha, said, “Yes, writing and comprehension skills of students have deteriorated to an extent. There are many instances wherein the students are unable to take down notes or answer their question papers with optimal speed. Since most of the classes went online and lessons were available in video format, the practice of writing notes was adversely affected. As opposed to physical classes where the teacher ensures that the student’s hands are at work, during online classes, teachers could not monitor students’ note-taking closely. To cope with this situation, we are holding a special bridge course, which students will attend at the start of the new academic year.”

“It will refresh the fundamentals and concepts of previous classes as well as basic skills such as writing, reading, comprehension etc. This will be done prior to the teaching of the new syllabus. This should help students in catching up. The refresher course on fundamentals is particularly important for students who are entering the 12th grade as they will write their board exams and prepare for university,” added Sridhar.

Aloysius D’Mello, principal of Greenwood High International School, said, “Handwriting habits have been on the decline due to non-physical classroom learning because of the pandemic, especially in the lower age groups. Those from the higher grades have also been impacted equally owing to lesser assessments and rigour. There is slack in students picking up the handwriting habit once again due to the recent adaptation to online learning and typing over these couple of years. We did give handwritten assignments to our students regularly and encouraged them to scan and send them from time to time, so that their writing habit does not vane away.”

“Assignments with cursive writing books were given to students to overcome the lag in legitimate handwriting. There are many activity books available in bookstores and parents must invest in such books and mandate their kids to write essays and present them to the elders. There are a number of cursivewriting books too that can help mend a child’s handwriting skills,” said D’Mello.

Dr. Ted Mockrish, Head of Scool, Canadian International School, Bengaluru, said, “Due to the pandemic and the subsequent need for schools to opt for online teaching, students have become more versed in digital platforms while mainly using computers, laptops, tablets and mobiles. Students became highly skilled in digital techniques and word processing during this time. While students may still have taken down notes with a pen and paper, they relied on this older form of writing less and less. Research shows that handwriting contributes to better memory retention while note-taking, and striking a balance between keyboarding and handwriting and drawing should be part of a modern classroom.

“Many students have shifted to digital resources that are more readily shared, annotated and assessed, as seen through the use of Google Classroom and Google Docs. These new technologies should be embraced. Striving to return to paper and pencil learning should not be the goal, as digital technologies are important, more effici