Is it fair? Let us discuss

This week, once again the ‘acid test’/Board exams (in that way only it has been seen) has begun for the X and XII standard students. Students are considered as the missiles and there is only target is to get as many marks as possible. In the process, they have to undergo stress test, concentration test, sustainability and durability test. These 2 years changes the life of the students (as many of them were saying). But at times at the end of these 2 years many of the students bright career ends.

It starts:

When a child goes to the school, his/her parent will ask, “What are you going to become?” Before that child could answer anything, they will add, “Doctor or Engineer?”  Now the child has only 2 options to choose. All the things that he/she had in mind will go off like a smoke in the air. They will repeatedly say those two things. For a child, parents are his/her world and they  start believing that there is no other profession in this world, as they are their world (When I went to return the form for B.Sc in Loyala College,  I have given a wierd look). Once they reach their 9^th standard, they will become the punching bag of many. The schools will start ditching them to show the results. Parents will do the same in the home, for the bright career of their son/daughter. The stress with which they have to undergo is unimaginable. I am one of the victims of these so-called important years.

When a student enters 9^th standard, parents will start to say, “The coming 4 years are the important one in your life. You must study well and get the first mark. Then it’s all a cake walk.” Is it true? The answer is left wide open to you all. The schools: to get a good name among the parents they were starting the X standard portions just after the IX standard half-yearly exams (the same is applicable to XII). They make the parents to believe that it is a step they are taking to help their child to get good marks. In addition to that, they kill the learning ability of the students by conducting the tests every now and then(to put it straight, daily). Parents will say proudly that in my child’s school they have started the X or XII syllabus now itself. The others will think that their children (studying in government or government-aided schools) were lagging behind and make them to join in some coaching classes. Now the other students seeing them will join the tutorials. This is a domino effect.

Educational goons:

I will solely blame those school administrators for this. They are trained professionals, and they must have known what education is? But they are going out of their values and they already shattered the entire school education with their business minded attitude. They have forgotten that the syllabus of each and every year was designed with the students’ capability in mind. If you are able to complete the 9^th or 11^th syllabus within 6 months, why you need some 13 months for 10^th or 12^th standards? By this you are all setting the wrong example for incompleteness. Our school syllabus is designed in such a way that each and every academic year is a continuation of the previous years. Without learning the previous years properly, how a student will shine in board exams?

Some News:

Last Sunday I have read news in TOI, which said that 11 students were given TC just before the final exams. The school had asked the seven students to take the final exams privately for which the school had already arranged for and the rest were treated as discontinued candidates. When contacted, a representative of school management has said “the seven students had been treated only as private candidates during the last one year and that four were given TC as their parents sought for it.” The chief educational officer G.Rajalakshmi was swiftly acted and said that all the 11 students were eligible to write the exams. And also blamed the school authorities and a probe were ordered into this.

If that school management representative has said like that then I have to laugh at him/her. Were any of the parents were mad to seek the TC of their child just before the final exams? How he/she was  expecting that everyone will believe it? It clearly states that they are not all worried about the child’s future. All they have concerned is the centum results against their school name and the amount they can get as donation for next academic year. If they are not potent enough to make a child to get a minimum 35 marks out of 100, then I call their 13 month X or XII routine as a failed one!!

Some Reports:

Due to the stress, lots of children were ending their precious life at this young age. By NCRB stats more than 5,857 students were killed themselves in 2006-07.

According to TOI,

• a Delhi student was hanged himself from ceiling fan and before that he wrote, “I can’t take the pressure any longer. I love my family and I hope they will understand.” They were broken. They were crushed. And the end result is everyone to see.
• A Jharkhand girl set herself on fire after she failed to clear her Class X pre-board exams. Within each heart-breaking story lay the chance that the despairing youth could have been someone — with or without achieving conventional academic success.

Read more about this here.

Real-life Incidents:

The tests which were happening throughout that year will make them feel like, “Is there any other bad thing in this world than this?” They will be deprived of any information that is happening around them. I have heard the below incidents happened, when they were studied their XII standard:

• A boy who is very much talented in sports ( In long distance running: 800m, 1500m) was put in a boarding school, even after he was pleaded to his father that he will become a champion in running as he was bettering day by day.
• Another one, who was continuously beaten up by his father for his every lost mark in every mock tests was mentally affected just before the exams. His father will beat him even if he scores 199/200 in an ordinary class test., asking for the one mark he hasn’t scored. Now after all the medical attention, he was running a grocery shop.

Now you could see what these important years have done to them. They had a dream. But everything was lost. They have lost their individuality. And the worst thing is, they were even lost what they have achieved.

My personal experience:

The years in which I have studied the XII standard are the worst ones in my life (X and XI std are also have the same story). Everyday I will get an earful from both my dad and mom. I am not able to remember a single day in which I have not got scolded for my academic performance(don’t think that I am exaggerating. It is true). I was not allowed to speak anything other than my studies. At last I just stopped saying all the things happening in my school including studies as I always got average marks. To extract something from me is big thing in my home and I have never recovered from that. Still I am talking very limitedly in my home (not by intention), even though my mom and dad want me to talk about many things. To sum up(let me stop at this, else it will become a big post 😀 ), I will not be myself in my home.

I have always thought that when the people were educated they will know what the education really means. But when I had a conversation with my friend(about his brother studying in IXth Std)  last week, it was completely shattered. Here goes the conversation:

Me: How is your brother? How is he studying?

Friend: He is doing well. (Proudly)Do you know? For him, they have started the X std English and Tamil now itself?

Me: (Shocked) X std portions now itself? Why they are doing so?

Friend: The English grammar was really tough in X std. They will start by now itself and they will keep on give practice. Even during my school days, they have done like that.

Me: Hmmm. Is the grammar is going to differ in X std? We are studying it from our kinder garden. It is a continuation. Without learning the IX standard properly, how will he do well in X?

Friend: Hey, it is not like you are thinking. It is really tougher than IX std. They will complete the prose, poetry by now and then keep on giving the grammar exercises.

Me: If they are doing this means, they will do the same in XI also.

Friend: (With proud) Yes. During my time they have started the XII portions by January itself. As the XII standard is tough, you know.

Me: What are you talking? Without completing the previous years how can they go ahead?

Friend: They will rush up the XI std portions and start XII std in January itself.

Me: (Angrily) how are you supporting this? This is not the way we must have our education. You didn’t understand the real meaning of education.

Friend: Are you a nut? Talk about those things in practical.

Me: What is practical? Jumping off from one grade to grade without completing it?

Friend: You won’t understand it. Class X and Class XII are really tough (again repeated the same old dialogues, supporting this).

Our conversation has ended soon with none of us have changed our stands and I can’t believe myself. She has completed her degree and still she didn’t understood what education really means? When she is like this, how can I blame the people who never completed their school? They are all thinking that education is just in the text books given to gain marks. According to them, the more the marks one has scored is directly proportional to the knowledge one has. It is all a mirage created by those so called teachers in the schools, to make them (including my friend) believe that X or XII is really tough and they are starting those syllabuses soon has reason.

Let us discuss:

• I know many of you may differ with what I have said above. Because I have seen everything from a student point of view who just ditched for those board exams. I haven’t considered the students who enjoys this pressure and I haven’t seen this from a parental point of view.
• I am not supporting the drop out from the schools too, just because Albert Einstein and Thomas Alva Edison has become great scientists. Because their percentage is very low. To lead a good life, I believe that education is important.
• But is the present education system and schools I can also include parents in this, are fair enough in accessing the capabilities of a child? I am also confident that most of the children were hating the education now, due to the mark basis system. What could be the better one?

As a end note, I can say the education for a children must be like blossoming of a flower slowly and naturally and not like, we ourselves taking the bud and opening the petals with our fingers. In the process, we will tear off the petals and will do a irreparable damage.