Students under tremendous pressure to pass exams
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: February 24, 2023 -

Regardless of the statements issued by chief minister N Biren and education minister Th Basanta Kumar exhorting the students, who are appearing in the Class XII examination or would be sitting for the Class X examination, to maintain composure and not to panic, the best wishes conveyed by various student bodies and organisations imply that both the examinations are most crucial tests in a student's career.

With contemporary school education system heavily inclined towards teaching the students how to score marks and not to learn holistically, it is but natural that the youngsters would be under tremendous pressure to excel in the examination to delight their parents as well as smoothly take the next step forward.

It may be mentioned here that in 2005, the CBSE introduced the Higher Order Thinking Skills system or HOTS, meant to be a way out of rote and textbook-centric learning.

The new system stressed more on synthesising, analysing, reasoning, comprehending, application and evaluation of subject matter rather than on drill and repetition.

With exception of few CBSE-affiliated schools that follow the recommendations aimed at inculcating spirit of inquiry, creativity, objectivity and the courage to ask questions, schools in Manipur are primarily at breakneck competitions to see maximum number of students wrest the top positions.

Months ahead of the examinations, thousands of students had been making preparation with some hoping to simply cross the hurdle to appease their parents whereas those bearing characters of acquiescence and resilience would be aiming to come out with flying colours for pursuing their future life-goal.

Nevertheless, both types of students shall have to dedicate their time and energy even if the targets vary for given a choice none would want to start from the scratch in case of failure in the first attempt.

That these examinations are widely considered as the turning point in the life of students could also be gauged from musical groups and artistes in the entertainment sector either suspending their activities till completion of the examinations or scheduling their events at non-residential venues with the sole objective to not distract the young examinees.

Moreover, state and locality level organisations imposing restrictions on use of loud speakers for any events during the examination period underscore importance accorded to both the examinations.

Proposals from different sections of the society to wind up the examinations before the Yaoshang festival also sum up the general sentiment regarding these examinations.

All these pre-emptive measures are aimed at helping the student candidates score better marks and ensure smooth transition to the next level of academic pursuit.

For the cerebrally blessed and laborious students crossing any obstacles in the path wouldn't be an issue but for the ordinary ones it is obvious that resorting to use of unfair means would be construed as fair enough to scale the test.

Though the students are chiefly responsible for adopting unethical means it may be wrong to put the entire responsibility on their shoulders for questions also arise over whether they were not taught enough in the by-gone academic year or are the parents and elders covertly encouraging them to use any means to get through.