Rupali S Banerjee

Success and Happiness – Story of Exams in India

Class 10th and 12th board exam results are out. Newspapers and internet are abuzz with toppers’ scores and their preparation strategies. Coaching centres and schools are flaunting their student’s results. Parents of toppers and high scorers are the talk of the town in peers and community. Children are scoring as high as 99% marks. With each year, the competition is increasing. This is creating a mixed impact. While best avenues for higher education and career growth open for the bright ones, it also creates immense pressure on students both mentally and physically.

Results and performance in board exams is a pure business for schools and coaching institutes today. Parents choose those schools and their admissions boom which give board toppers. Coaching institutes leave no stone unturned in marketing the results of their previous batch toppers.

The present age parents expect nothing less than 90% from their child. Expectations go on increasing. Relatives and friends may not wish birthdays and festivals but eagerly await board exam results and would never forget to call them on the result day. Cut throat competition and sky high expectation are leading to various physical, psychological and behavioral issues among students. There is tremendous pressure from both teaching institutions and families. Children are left with no leisure or recreational time for themselves.

Is it possible for every child to excel in academics? Every child performs according to his own abilities and interest. How far is it correct to keep pestering and pressurising the child to perform? If it is for his own good and future, then the future ofcourse is not dependent only on the result of the board exam, but on the contrary on the interest and aptitude of the child.

Good performance of a child is ofcourse a moment of pride for every parent and teacher but in life success and happiness are two very different things. Every child has his own potential, his own areas of interest. It is important to realise this.

A child may not perform well in his board exams but if proper direction and support is given he will still end up doing something which would make him happy in life. This is much more important than being successful any day !!!!

© Rupali 2019

43 comments

  2. And the irony is after so much hype about the boards it turns out it really doesn’t matter how you end up at boards. Beacuse it’s the college after that and then the jobs that matter.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. This is a great problem of education system that brainpage is not made in the classroom by using the dimensions of knowledge transfer. Therefore, business is running in schools and coaching institutes to prepare the smart brainpage of learning transfer for exams and high scores. Thanks for the writing

    Liked by 1 person

  4. The problem is the way of learning and teaching, we’re still mugging up stuff that isn’t really necessary? There are so many things that we need to remember that won’t be of any use in the future. The syllabus needs to be a bit more based on practical thinking and logical analysis, but then instead of doing this, all they’re doing is reducing the portion, and removing quite important topics, which isn’t really the solution to the problem here.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Understanding rather than mugging up helps long time. But pressurising children to perform is not serving any purpose. Their concepts are not clear which is much more required. Thank you for reading.

      Like

  6. Wow. This is nuts! When my husband and I lived in India, (2001-2005) things were changing then with the children and education and the caste system—and so much more…
    Competition everywhere. What to do?? Another blogger from India writes how kids hate school and it’s up to teachers to make them want to learn. How do you teach happiness? Do they teach the kids The Bhagavad Gita anymore?

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Thoughtful post dear! Completely agree with you.. Education has today become an option to make money than providing quality education to students!!

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Very well-written post. There is a fallacy in our education system, where marks are important, not the merit. It’s unfortunate that the craze for higher and higher marks is increasing and we are killing the thinking ability and curiosity of our next generation.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Exactly. It is important to develop the intellect of students rather than making them book worms. They should be given opportunity to relate their learnigs with the practical aspects of life. Thanks a lot for your appreciation.

      Liked by 1 person

  13. I feel there’s a need for the Indian Education to make a change and not just emphasise on grades and ranks but also on various co-curricular activities that could bring out the best in a child so that he knows his worth and doesn’t feel left out when not able to score well.

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.