Many shops in the City are thriving on learning aids like charts and models that school students are asked to prepare as part of their syllabus. Readymade projects are available in these shops which relieve students of imagination, hard work and effort, though parents will have to pay a quite heavy price.

This is indeed not the right trend as it defeats the very purpose of nurturing creativity in students and improving the analytical and practical abilities, say educationists.

In Ukkadam, there are shops which sell these projects, be they charts or models that come for a price ranging from Rs 60 to Rs 200. Parents and students right from nursery classes make it to these shops which even go to the extent of selling ready-for-presentation projects that can be used for competitions. But naturally, they have a higher price tag.

“The readymade models have a price. But if you want a specific one, it may cost double the amount and can vary depending on the size,” a shopkeeper told Covai Post.

Educationists and officials blame teachers for giving complicated projects to students force them to flock such shops. Coimbatore Chief Education Officer T Ganesh Moorthy, the Chief Educational Officer (CEO) of Coimbatore says, “Sometimes teachers ask students to ready projects which they simply cannot do. And so the only solution before them is to buy such models.”

Candid are some parents and teacher who admit that laziness on the part of students coupled with the availability of models outside makes them go such shops. “Many parents say they cannot spend time to monitor their children work on projects. Therefore, they also encourage their children to buy them. Students too find this convenient,” said a teacher of a leading school.

A mother who came to such a shop with daughter studying in Grade VIII was frank enough to tell Covai Post: “I hardly find time after my work to assist my daughter. If she makes them on her own, I’m worried that it may not match the expectations of her teachers.”

Moorthy said that they have been providing training programmes to teachers on this. “We have been giving training to teachers. We tell them to give projects which students can do on their own within a short period. Moreover, teachers should know that students might make mistakes while readying these projects. This is part of the learning process,” he says.

This very purpose of improving creativity and skills in students is lost if teachers continue with this attitude, he points out.

But there appears to be a silver lining as the Central Board for Secondary Education has done away with the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation system from this year. Introduced a few years ago, the system focussed more on activity-based education with just very little of written examination. Doing away with the system should change things though it would also mean going back or, as some put it, backwards.