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

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-...

Forgiveness - Your Way Towards Peace

Forgiveness is a divine power, something that ordinary humans are not entitled to have. And, those who have this quality are more than 'a human'. One, who is free from materialistic desire and, most importantly, the ego, is blessed with such divine power. Whether it is of physical or mental strength, weak cannot forgive others. Forgiveness is always an attribute of strong people. It is a trait of a mature person having deep inner control over his mind. This strength cannot be bought, it has to be earned. But, how would you earn that? I think spirituality may be the answer. There are multiple benefits of forgiveness. It directly influences our thinking process. It sets you free from the negativity building around and boosts positive personality. It saves energy which can be redirected to do productive things. It is also the key to longevity and good health. But, how will you forgive someone who is not even sorry for their action? How will you respond to evil with kindn...

JNU - A Vision of Modern Democratic India

Through the ongoing controversy what we need to understand is that ours is a young nation still in the making which has all the ingredients to become truly a great nation, but it needs time. Give this nation that time, that gestation period and it will show the world the true meaning of greatness, one which is home to a complete spectrum of diverse culture but still thrives together with immeasurable amount of tolerance which has never been experienced anywhere else (this holds for the common citizens of India but unfortunately not for the practitioners of divisive vote-bank politics which they don’t find anti-national). Every powerful nation that exists today has gone through some sort of civil war which led to enormous violence and bloodshed. We too have our share of challenges; be it the Kashmir issue, Nagaland or Naxalism; but we have the opportunity to show the world that we can do it in a better way without any bloodshed. It is that unity in diversity that is the soul 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...

The Indian Society And The Struggle Of Our Sports Fraternity

India, the world’s second-most populous nation, fails to show its dominance in sports. In fact, India's performance remains terrible except in few games. So, what's holding India back when it comes to competing in world sporting events like the Olympics? First, it's the conservative Indian mindset of the Indian society. You might be aware of the saying in India “ Padhoge likhoge banoge Nawab, kheloge kudoge banoge kharab ” which translates to “You can be a king if you study, can be spoilt if you play games.” Social life of a person who took the plunge of making a career in sports in India can be challenging and demotivating. An Indian parents or teachers, being part of the society, don't consider sports as a career. They have the biggest influence in a child's future ambitions. They may scold the child that “playing a sport will get you nowhere in life, but to make a life you need to be good in academics”. In other words, young Indians are discouraged from playing s...

Protecting Daughters from Gender Discrimination and Dowry System

What is dowry? Casually, some of us find this as a traditional custom of bribing the groom and their family by bride's parents to get rid of their daughter. Or some of us may consider this as buying of groom by bride's parents through a bidding process. We as a part of Indian society are infamous for dowry and its related offences. When a daughter is born, most of the Indian families don't find that joy a son could have given them. Some of them get depressed after finding out the gender of newborn baby. Having a daughter is a burden to them, mostly, because of the social phenomena like dowry. We make noise and protest against corruption. But we never go through its roots and make substantive changes to uproot it. What is the reason for the corrupt officials to take such risks? The dowry is not the "only" but a good and considerable reason to hoard money through corrupt practices. No media has more reach to our society than Bollywood movies. In the plethora of...