Skip to main content

Many Shades Of Board Exams

After an exhilarating Holi, comes the boring and haunting board exam, the exam for which no amount of preparation gives an impression of sufficiency. Students across the nation get excited as well as depressed. They are ‘excitingly depressed’. Excited to give the final exam of their school life, to enter into a new world, and depressed thinking what society would say if their marks won't be that good. Sharma Ji’s meritorious child is making things worse.

board-exams-the-sunshine

While the level of questions asked in the exams has become easy these days, the quality of students being produced is decreasing, WhatsApp, Social Media and expansion of internet are to blame. The internet and smartphones may help students in their higher studies, but it misfires in case of younger kids. It only serves as a distraction, the biggest of modern times. Earlier, when kids go out to play some sports, it was treated as a distraction from studies. But now, it has been understood clearly that it wasn't seeing the present scenario when children play sports in mobile phones & computers and prefer to remain in the virtual world, the world in which they want to be lost in.

When a child gets in the reach of smartphones, it has wide social implications. Other kids, too, want the same. Smart devices are a full package of entertainment — from music, videos, games, messaging, and what not. Who on Earth would not like to have such package? Parents cannot deny their wish for long. Sooner or later, willingly or unwillingly, they have to fulfil their child's whim of owning a smart device. Some parents provide it with terms and conditions, only to be broken later.

Information is at fingertips, away from just a Google or DuckDuckGo search. That’s why its value has decreased drastically as obtaining it has become a lot easier. The Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is on the rise globally, mainly because of the increasing usage of internet by pre-teenage and teenage groups. With the rapid digitalization and continual advancement in technology in which one-month-old latest gadgets become obsolete.

Deciding Fate With Marks 

The symbol of being an excellent student is to score more than 95%, more than 90% are studious, more than 80% is average, less than 80% is below average, and you fail or somehow survive with less than 40%. The below 40% guys are treated as pests. They're regrets, a shame. Schools wish they should never have admitted those pests. Parents, howsoever scold their kids, at the end of the day, they have to tolerate them. Yes, we give too much importance to marks. This reduces education to rote-learning and mugging up lessons to fetch marks. Independent thinking, creativity is discouraged in the Indian education system.

Meanwhile, coaching centres and private institutes are preparing for their next batch of ‘bakras’ (to be sacrificed goats). The target is to get the more students than the previous year — forced engineering, medical or CA aspirant are still the top products. They do it with help of careful and intelligent marketing. The ones which couldn’t give good results are negotiating with topper students to make a sweet deal covertly. The students for the meagre amount of money sell their years of labour and help coaching centres to get some more bakras. It's not a joke.

Every child is special. The goal of education should be identifying that speciality. It should be done early. The new paths must be explored without fear of failure. We tend to choose the known paths where we found crowds. The more we go with the crowd, more we tend to be depressed later. A wide range of career prospects is the way to avoid depression.

During ‘big’ exams, students need psychological help more than academic help. There are multiple pressures involved, social pressure, peer pressure, the pressure put by Sharma uncle, etc. The psychological help need not be through professionals. Moral support by parents and teachers would suffice. My closing comment would be that, like Holi, the colours of board exams, too, is loaded with fun and excitement. Enjoy it. Live it. Nurture it. It is the moment you’ll cherish later in your life. By the end, you’ll only be left with memories. And try not to be influenced by Sharma family.


*First appeared on amiteshgupta.com titled: 'The Marvels Of Board Exams'

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why Religion Should Not Be Downplayed

When you were a child and your parents told you stories about god, you listened to that with great curiosity and excitement, but as you grow older and started seeing everything with the rational eye of science, you realise that it was a lie, and so every religious event and ritual appears to you as an act of stupidity. Still, you keep worshipping the men or women whom you were told to worship as Gods. Why? Have you considered what is the significance of religion? Religion teaches us that God has created this universe and he is running it in his own way. The Sun, The Moon, Stars, Planets, Living creatures  — bacteria, viruses, plants, animals, humans are all the creation of God. We are just doing things ordained by him. It may appear that we are influencing things, but the reality is we, ourselves, are influenced by some heavenly forces. Indians, especially Hindus, are obsessed with rituals and other religious activities like holding fast and going to temple. Some of ...

Bihar Liquor Ban - The Political Perspective

Whether you call it Nitish Kumar's masterstroke for gaining publicity and support of people or a responsible chief minister batting for people's interests, on the face of it, it is great that Bihar is free from alcohol abuse. The Bihar excise (amendment) act, 2016 – a very old 1915 act has been converted into a very stringent law – is haunting the alcohol gang of Bihar. This law banned manufacturing, selling or consumption of liquors (strong or mild) and even prescribes the death penalty for the manufacturer, suppliers and sellers of hooch in case of death as a result of consumption of spurious liquors. Although Biharis can drink outside state boundary, they'll be punished if they create nuisance after returning home. The government had actually proposed to ban only 'desi' liquors. The sale of non-country or ‘Indian Made Foreign Liquor’ (IMFL) was allowed, although, with some caveats. However, within five days, the government extended the ban to IMFL as w...

IS SECULARISM FADING AWAY?

First, a disclosure: I am a Hindu and have full faith in Hinduism but to show my faith I don't stoop to blaspheme other religions and troll using foul and filthy language on social media like some sick people who consider themselves as the biggest follower of Hinduism but actually insults it. I boast of Indian secularism and our constitution has a very important place for it as we know there is a huge cultural, linguistic and religious diversity exists in India. Since Independence, we never had a muscular secularism in which minorities have to live in fear. Anyone can practice any religion of his/her choice. But the present scenario in India is somewhat disturbing. Some nominal Hindu groups are making full efforts to make India as a Hindu Nation . Our prime minister does not speak to these issues and stick to his development agenda while opposition parties which call themselves as secular (probably because of vote-banks) demand an answer directly from PM and disrupt the parli...

The Odd Even Result

In the first 15 days of January, Delhites have gone through, a much-hyped, odd even formula . They were overwhelmed by the desire to secure the future of next generation as they were told about. That may be the reason why they have obeyed the rule without moving toward Jantar Mantar in protest. The idea was not innovative but taken from Beijing which also depleted its air quality to the extremes. But it seems that the scheme was imported only for his political campaign of a man called Kejriwal. Perhaps it is the only major work done by Kejriwal's government apart from blaming the centre and his neighbour for obstructing in the Delhi government's endeavour. And that is why they are so touchy about this scheme. With the completion of the odd even trial , Delhi government, without wasting time, claimed that it has successfully reduced the air pollution level in Delhi. But, there is no credible data to back this claim. The Hindu The idea to exempt women drivers and two-...

Anatomy Of Suicidal Propensity And Life's Purpose

I don't know whether committing suicide is a courageous or cowardly act. And I think, taking a specific side here would be unfair. During evolution, our thinking power enabled us to survive. But, it has also provided us an option to end a messed up life. Suicide is a very serious psychological and philosophical problem that modern humans are facing today. Legally, it is a crime. Religion, too, never permitted this act. And, as a society, we don't want people to do it. To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep— But, when life becomes miserable, why would one let one's mind to suffer, when there is an option of suicide to attain peace? Why is everyone against suicide? Probably because, suicide is the violation of human survival interest. We are an adapting species and always believe tha...

Gangubai - The Oldest but Youngest Sarpanch of Pune

Gangubai Nivrutte Bhambure gets up at 5 am to do household chores. She is a 94-year-young sarpanch of Bhamburwadi village and holds the distinction of becoming oldest sarpanch in Pune district. Gangubai believes in hard work. She says it's time to work for the people, her people, otherwise it's of no use of her becoming a  sarpanch . She says she will not disappoint them who trusted and endowed her with the chair of the  sarpanch . The first task would be to help farmers from seven villages who own 1000 hectares of land, but due to lack of water, they can't grow anything on it. According to Gangubai's grandsons, there is a canal less than 2km from these farms but they don't get a drop of water. The government had failed the people. Gangubai is keen to take PM's help in this matter and she is very optimistic that PM will respond to her request. She says that PM Narendra Modi is like her son and he will definitely help her and the farmers. Her other priorit...

Teachers Or Cheaters

We are quite aware with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's slogan of "minimum government-maximum governance". It is one of the agenda of Modi during his campaign in 2014 general election. The place where this needs to be implemented the most is government elementary schools with slight modification as "minimum teachers-maximum teachings". Without any doubt, the government school teachers are the biggest cheaters and a burden on the economy. The salary of the government teachers is much higher than the private sector teachers (In UP, the difference is 20 times). But rather than working harder and better, the government teachers are often seen "missing in action". Karthik Muralidharan's 2014 study estimates an absence rate of 23.6 percent. When they are present, they spend much of their time in non-teaching activities or teaching with little professional competence, and exercise little effort. Some teachers don't even see for six months but d...