Importance of timetable in classrooms

Today’s children are tomorrow’s youth. What they learn today is what they will do tomorrow.

Something we have to learn when we are young is our failure to achieve things under a proper timeline. The question is: Were we able to finish our tasks in time? Were we also able to start on time?

Now a subject that became a hot debate in Kerala is: Do you need consultants? Are consultants here for money or are they essential for completing projects in a time-bound manner? Are consultants capable of controlling time and quality? Do we have information globally to get over the challenges in completing a project?

The time factor is essential in our life. If the citizens of a country, are failing continuously on time management, then need to drag it back to the teaching in school because the essential part of time management is the timetable of the school.

A timetable is not for merely allotting the required regulated time of work to the teachers. It is also a time where we record the learning progression.

The timetable is like the Kerala Sadya and Kerala’s aviyal. If different dishes are not properly cooked, Sadya will be a failure. Similarly, if the ingredients are disproportionately put, the aviyal will lose its taste. There is a way to eat a Sadhya and many do not know how it is done. Whenever I get the chance to attend weddings, particularly Hindu Weddings, I can see people eating rice with sambar and then with curries that have a sour taste like pachadi, khichdi and curd. I have seen people eating fish and chicken with curd, because they have no idea about the right combination of the different dishes. In the similar way, a timetable needs to be created in a proper way so that everything from start to finish is envisaged properly.

When a timetable is set up, is the school capable of blending teaching? If teaching has to be blended, it needs a lot more thought. It is the timetable that is going to drive the learning. So, the timetable needs to provide time not only for teaching but also to allow children complete their learning in the school itself.

Most of the time the timetable is made in such a way that, the schedule is fully loaded with teaching and the children’s time to learn has been shifted to the home. How can that work?

When the learning time is shifted to home. The parent’s anxiety to provide tuition to the child is shifted to home. The child starts learning from around 5 am and keeps on working continuously till late at night. Most of the time the child goes through tensions and frustrations as learning turns into a competition amonh the students and parents.

Learning is not a competition. Learning needs to be a process to build skills and awareness. Therefore, the timetable should provide adequate time to complete the learning of the child at school along with teaching. That means the entire homework, assignments, projects, clubbing and their doubts on it needs to be done in the school itself. The timetable should be designed so as to allow it.

What children should take home from school is happiness and free hours. For which, a timetable needs to provide children with free time for club activities and to do their project work. Those schools with a properly set timetable will produce the best youth for tomorrow because they will have learned to work in time and together as a group.

If the timetable is for learning, it should also take care of something more- honest feedback. For instance, after eating food cooked by your mother, you will be so satisfied that you will applaud her for her cooking skills and give her your honest feedback about the food. Thus, recognition is given to the work rather than the persons.

However, many times I have observed that rather than giving recognition to a person’s work, the recognition is given to the person.

“Karmanye Vadhika Raste, Ma Phaleshu Kadachana”. Everything has to come back to the attainment and the work that led to the attainment.

Likewise, the timetable should be capable of bringing in honest feedback. Feedbacks on how the learning has happened. So here, the teacher has to throw away all the egos of what a teacher is and focus on the feedback of the children and their parents. He/she needs to realise that the honest feedback is about learning and not the teacher. And, if every teacher pays attention to the feedback about learning, it will be useful for the teacher to change strategies and methods so that it culminates in better learning for the children.

Thus, a timetable is not for monitoring teachers and teaching but to help children learn about proper timing and proper planning. The timetable should be designed in such a way that only 10 percent of the work should be shifted to home. Because at home the child should get time for communicating with parents, time for reading, and leisure time. There should also be a system of honest feedbacks on learning and not on the teacher.

A timetable is like a ree growing from the shade towards the sun. It is the stem through which the learning tree grows towards the light of seeking knowledge.

Om Bhuur- Bhuvah Svah

Tat-Savitur-Varennyam

Bhargo Devasya Dhiimahi

Dhiyo Yo Nah Prachodyaat