The crucial three hour period : Marks and more marks
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 07, 2013 -

A rat race. And blind, if one may add.

Merit solely equated with what one scores in the examination and clearly the pressure mounted on the young students to prepare for the crucial three hours, read the examination, can only be imagined.

This is what the final examinations in any institution, especially the Class X and Class XII board/council examinations have come to mean down the years.

Marks are no doubt important, for as the system goes it is marks which will decide the next step of the young students, but yet at the same time, it should also be clear to all that in the rush to score marks and more marks, the danger that merit may just have been sacrificed is uncomfortably real.

Obsession with marks may just kill the joy of learning which will in turn affect merit.

Learning by rote can fetch fantastic grades at any exam, but will this really equip the youngsters with the skills needed for the future ?

It is the system which demands marks, but yet at the same time it also stands true that more often than not it is the parents and guardians who have pushed the envelop to new and absurd boundaries.

Preparing well in advance for the future is no doubt very important, for this is all about preparing for life.

Yet when parents start rushing to the hottest tutorial centres even before the exams are over, choose the career options of their children without understanding their aptitude and what they would like to do with their life, line up for private tuitions, then this may amount to taking things a little too far.

This is what has been happening in Manipur for the last many years and while the keen interest demonstrated by the elders is encouraging, it is the obsessive trend that needs a relook and fast at that.

Machines, the young students certainly are not. But in the mad rush for marks and more marks, all educational institutions have been reduced to the status of manufacturing units, ably aided by the tutorial centres and the growing necessity of hiring private tutors.

Competition, this is what keeps the wheels of excellence churning.

But does the rush for marks, at any cost, really underline the finer understanding of competition and hence excellence ?

There may be no black and white answer to this question and there certainly would be overlapping points but judging the merit or otherwise of a student on the basis of his or her performance during the three hour period, known as examination, would certainly be far removed from the universal understanding of what education stands for.

Time to look at education beyond the marks scored and the three hour period known as examination.

Given the mental conditioning of everyone, starting from those charting the course of the system to teachers and parents, this may be too tough a call to take but take a stand, everyone should.

It is this mindset again, which has refused to look beyond the conventional career options, stoically refusing to acknowledge that in today's world, running a kitchen does not necessarily make one a cook but a chef, cutting and stitching clothes may not only mean tailoring but fashion designing.

A pressure cooker situation is not the way of getting the best out of the young students.

But who cares ? Certainly not the parents, not the teachers and not the system. Life may be a race, especially for those who are at that point of stepping into the next stage of life, but a race is conducted under certain guidelines.

The race to which the youngsters of today have been subjected to comes closer to a case of a mad scramble.