A large number of students complete the primary schooling unable to write sufficiently well with the demands of secondary school. The reason being that they are inappropriately taught, or they may suffer physical problem.
Whatever the reason, it is a great waste of potential.
A student who has difficulty with handwriting spends more time thinking about letter formation when they should be thinking of words or contents that they are writing. Handwriting difficulty becomes a serious problem for students as they will not be able to express them.
Research say that primary grade teachers spent less than 10 minutes a day on handwriting. Research also confirmed that teachers “have been given inadequate preparation in the teaching of handwriting. Teachers surveyed during the research did teach handwriting, albeit to a very limited extent, a vast majority admitted that “they had no training in the subject, had no curricular materials for it and, for good measure, didn’t enjoy it. The decline in the instruction of handwriting and its diminished use by students is not because handwriting has lost its purpose; it is due to a lack of teacher preparation.
Poor Training in Handwriting results in Problems
A mixture of capitals and lower case
Illegible script
A mixture of cursive (joined) and print (not joined)
Poorly formed letters
Sloping in multiple directions
Joined incorrectly
Not uniform in size / too large / too small
Lacking fluency
Resulting The Following Difficulties in Academics
Studies well but not completing his/her exam
Able to read well but not able to write neat and legibly
Has good eye sight but unable to copy from the black board fast
slow in writing
Teacher not able to decipher what the student writes
Student’s IQ is normal but he is still unable to get proper letter formation while writing
Student writes with little or no space between words and letters
Student is getting less marks in exams because of his illegible writing
Bad Handwriting And Its Effect On Students
A student's inability to record the learned subject in a legible form will possibly slow down their progress.
Slowed academic progress can lead to disappointment and low self esteem and can trigger a feeling of unfriendliness with educational system.
Handwriting difficulties can therefore disturb and interfere with educational progress and with learning.
Handwriting fluency affects in completing daily academic assignments and the ability to take notes during lectures and frequency of writing.
In a conventional learning environment time in school is spent up in writing notes and copying from board. Lack of legible writing lead to loss of motivation and evading of school work.
Bad handwriting can lead teachers to misunderstand what is written and prompt them to depart with low marks in examinations.