Tags:
Journalism of Courage
My son is not showing any visible signs of Board exam stress. He does not panic or complain. Is something wrong with him? No, this is not an SMS joke. It is a genuine question posed to the CBSE counselling helpline, weeks before the Board exam this year and just one of the worrying indicators of the stress that marks education in the country today.
Today, there is no higher status symbol than getting good read absolutely brilliant scores in every examination a child sits for 8212; class tests, unit tests, final exams, board exams. And the most ostensible asset one can have in metros is to get one8217;s child into a 8216;good8217; school.
Clearly the lady had drawn lines, in her own mind and in that of her child, about the importance of a 8216;good8217; school. Nothing less than the top school will do. And when the child does not make it which is what will eventually happen, a four-year-old has her very own personal encounter with utter rejection.
Many would argue that good schooling is crucial for personality formation. Some even argue that the practice that many 8216;good8217; schools follow 8212; of rigidly demarcating middle school children, classes and uniforms on the basis of academic performance 8212; does help in creating healthy competition. But let us also examine some of the negatives of crippling competition. This year the CBSE results as the largest Board in the country, it is a good indicator of standards have been phenomenal. A record 5,412 students have got above 90 per cent in the XII Board examinations this year up from 3,380 last year.
On the day of the results, between the flood of self-congratulatory marksheets and quotes from students who thought they were toppers 8212; what worried me was one single mail that I received. It was from a 15-year-old girl from a top convent school in Delhi, saying, 8220;I got 91 per cent in my exams, this is despite my mother being ill. If she was not ill, I would have secured even better marks.8221; What drove this teenager to make that depreciatory statement, I wondered, and dispatch it to the press? The answer comes back, full circle 8212; to the unholy obsession that has developed over marks as a status symbol in India, and a total lack of emphasis on the other aspects of education.
To get a seat in a commerce course in a 8216;good8217; Delhi University college, 90 per cent is not enough. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit sums it up when she says, 8220;Thank God I wasn8217;t born in this age. I wouldn8217;t have managed admission anywhere!8221;
