Full marks for paranoia

As for the object of their attentions, it’s tough enough to tamp down the attractions of World Cup cricket — with India doing so well and all that — without feeling hounded by one’s minders.

By some strange perversion of logic, board examinations have come to be the ultimate test — not of the academic progress of students — but of the stamina and mental resilience of their progenitors.

And nobody, it seems, is willing to take the blame for a system that sometimes appears to have been designed as a substitute for the guillotine. Those who preside over the various school boards shrug off all criticism.

They claim that they are sensitive to students’ needs and are constantly refining their methods of assessment. It is the parents, they believe, who are at fault for putting unnecessary pressure on their children.

Parents, in turn, believe that their paranoia is fully justified in a world that is pitiless toward the underachiever. It is the system, they believe, that is at fault in unnecessarily raising the bar.

Part of the problem is the sheer number of students competing for the few seats in reputable institutions of higher learning. Then there is the unimaginative and mechanical fashion in which knowledge is acquired and assessed.

There is another aspect, too, that tends to be very often overlooked and that is the credentialisation of learning. If the idea is to turn out students who can think for themselves as well as understand and interpret their universe, Indian education requires a drastic overhaul which would also encompass, of course, the way in which examinations are conducted.