With the State Board Examination Result have just been out,
many candidates seem to be down with low self-esteem. Especially the ones
who do not fare well in the exams and score below their expectation.
They do not live up to the standard their parents and society expects of
them. In that, parents and guardians seem to have given up hope and
dropped moral support for their wards who got flunked in their exams.
Pressurized by such common tendency rooted on the mindsets of our society,
mediocre students are thrown into a middle of no where. They have been
barely cheered up and given never- say -die pat on their back in times
of failure. Instead they would make their child live life backward, not
realizing that the exams is just another stage of trial for a student’s
life. And it is not the end of the road.
Do not get me wrong . I'm not sounding too negative about the
bad results and our society’s response. But the facts were (are) obvious.
Our students may not be as coward as those 48 candidates in Kerala and
13 students in Delhi in 2002-2003(as per Times of India report) who had
taken the suicide route after failing to get their expected results of
the SSLC exams. But the steps our students who have failed in various
exams in the past several years, usually took are more hazardous.
Failure in exams has sucked many students into a low life. Hopelessly they
get into a dreadful habit of drinking, doping drugs, living an
undesirable life for solution to their problems and eventually become a spoilt
brat. The data are untraceable, but its impacts can be very much seen and
felt in the family and the society in general. Most of the students are
tempted to opt for these sort of temporary cures to common deseases due
to lack of proper guidance and counseling from the person concerned.
Henceforth, positive remedies should be provided for unsuccessful
candidates at the right time.
Exam is not everything. There is much more to life. It is wise
of us if we could believe in God, ourselves and not get ourselves
demoralized. After all bad results only shed light on our weaknesses.
History is replete with instances of people who were not cowed down by
failure:
1.Bill Gates, the world’s richest man is just a school dropout.
2.Thomas Edison, the inventor of electric bulb had just four-year
schooling in his life.
3.And our own Khushwant Singh used to score only zero mark in
mathematics in his school days. Seeing his hidden talent, a class master
suggested him to be a writer. And he is now one of the best-selling writers.
They were all back-benchers who could hardly do well while schooling,
but their talents could catapult them to the zenith in their own field.
Let us keep in mind Henry Ford’s words: “If you think you can
or if you think you can’t, you are right”. So why can’t you and I, when
Thomas Edison could at last invent electric bulb after he had tried
10,000 times. Why can’t you and I, when Abraham Lincoln could finally
become the President of America, though he has been restraint by bankruptcy
and failures in general elections for four times. Of course, we may not
be a born genius or brainy enough, but each one of us has been talented
in one way or the other only if we can unearth it.
Failures are natural and should be accepted gracefully. One
failure does not make a man a man of failure. Parents should not corner
their wards with peer pressure and warnings. Help him or her out of the
trauma instead. The child should take remedial measures to succeed the
next time just as one shallow does not make a summer, one failure is
not a full- stop to life .It is just a stepping stone to success.
Therefore, the dire needs of the hour are proper counseling,
understanding and affection for the students .So as to cope with any
unforeseen aftermath of the bad results usually faced by the students,
NGO’s, Psychologist, Psychiatrists,Teachers and volunteers must take up
initiatives by conducting constructive workshops and seminars for
counseling. And most importantly various help lines should be made available
for students for moral assistance and opening doors to endless avenues.
Once again, good marks are no guarantee for success in life.
Similarly, bad results are not permanent failures. Good or bad, one
must make the most of the results. Learn from the mistakes and move on
ahead in life.
This article was contributed by John Basho Pou, a Delhi-based free lance writer.
He can be reached at [email protected]
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