Now that the festive air is over; Time to focus on examinations

The festive air of Christmas 2019 and New Year 2020 must be over and ideally these festivities should just be a break from the intensely high demand that this time of the year entails. Attention of all should now be on the coming HSLC examinations, which is scheduled to start from  February 17. A break, the festivals mentioned just above should be all about and focus of all should now be turned towards perhaps the first crucial step of the young students preparing to appear for the Class X examinations. Thankfully, this time the time table of the examination has been set in such a way that the coming Holi or Yaoshang festival will not come in the way of the said examination for it would be over by March 5 with the said festival scheduled to start from March 9. Obviously the Class X or Matric or HSLC examination cannot be the sole yardstick of how well an individual is placed later in life, but this is the first examination that a young student will be appearing, not only to pass but also to compete with her peers from other schools too. And in many ways the success in the said examination can go a long way in determining how seriously a young student places on the business of preparing for something which will stand her in good stead in the future. This is perhaps where the importance of the Class X examinations arises. The Board of Secondary Examination, Manipur too appears to have gone out of its way to ensure that all, including the young students and the parents, do not come under the belief that they have been dealt an unfair hand if the announcement of the Chairman of the Board that the answer keys would be uploaded on the relevant websites once the examination is over.
Preparation for life and the first stepping stone towards life-this is how the Class X examination should be seen. While competition amongst the meritorious students is understood and should be encouraged, it would also help for all parents, guardians and the young students themselves to come to the point that a score of 90 does not make them any lesser than a student who has secured 95. A difference in mark can make a difference in the ranking, no doubt, but this cannot and should not be seen to be the sole yardstick to decide the future of the young students. This should also serve as a wake up call for many of the top notched schools that equal opportunities are given to all the students who come seeking admissions. Acknowledging the good performance of the students is no doubt important but when this gets reduced to something like a rat race to attract the best by offering myriad of freebies may just fire back in the long run. It need not always be a case of winner takes all, for there is nothing to show that a student who scores 95 will always be better than a student who scores 90. Likewise the merit of a school may also be judged by different parameters-ensuring that a topper in the Class X examinations emerges the topper in the Class XII examinations may not take much but what matters more should be to see how a school manages to make a topper in the Class XII examinations out of a student who managed a 75 percent in the Class X examinations. Marks do matter but let it be clear that this should not necessarily translate into success or failure later in life, as the case may be.