Culture of unfair means in exams : The call for a revolution
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Ashem Regina
Since the beginning of primary education our system seems to focus more on doing home work rather than balancing the needs of developing life skills. Parents during the PTM in some schools often complain of having an issue of whether homework given for the children was meant to learn in literal sense or just that it added an extra work for them to complete. From here starts the cycle of unrest in the psyche of the children that good education means doing homework and scoring A+ grade in the hierarchy of ranking.
This marked the initial stage of running behind perfection often forgetting to hunt down one’s own potential. The secondary education of our system normalized the culture of engaging in private tuition for each and every subject be it science, social science, mathematics or english. This is the stage where a student should be clear on which stream would be the most appropriate with respect to their interest accordingly to deal with in the future. Sometimes unable to do so or due to lack of guidance; students in higher education often complain that they should have chosen the right stream as per their ability instead of following the specific stream that emphasized herd mentality. Consequently, such anomalies lead to a factor of buying jobs or replacement in the end.
According to Gandhi, education means an all round drawing out of the best from the body, mind and spirit. Rather than mere literacy or academic knowledge, he emphasized character building, moral development and practical skills, often summarized through the principle of ‘Nai Talim’ or ‘learning by doing’. Unfortunately the pathways of education that we are engaging these days seemed to be crumbled and corroded since its foundation.
Everybody rushed for the popularity of getting good grades and better IQ but not so in building up a good character or considering community engagement that much important leading to week emotional intelligence.
Recently, the havoc on the first day of Higher Secondary Education Manipur (COHSEM) where the students tore and burned answer sheets at Wabagai Higher Secondary School exam centre at Kakching calls for the attention of every stakeholder. As per the sources when the officials were preparing to lock up the answer sheets in a chest, a group of students requested extra time fearing they would fail in the exam.
When the Officer-in-Charge responded that it was not in their power to grant as such the students vandalized the property of the room. After few days DESAM announced that three persons have been rounded up with answers to questions for Human Ecology and Family Science papers. Again news went widespread when two school teachers were caught with a van-full of electronic items including printers and laptops in order to aid the use of unfair means in the BOSEM examination.
While I was about to leave after buying some stationery items at Kwakeithel Bazar, a middle aged woman approached the shop owner and asked him to print some notes that are usually designed in small font size. In an irritated manner she exclaimed to the shop owner that the exam centre of her child was so strict so she decided to help her child by printing notes. She even started to abuse the teacher posted as an invigilator for keeping a sharp vigil throughout inside the examination hall of her ward.
What has gone so wrong in our society where students consider that they have the right to protest violently for extra time ? The act of supplying notes, leaking questions before the exam, teachers engaging in it openly, parents influencing their children to indulge in such act is a shame and should be addressed. Wherever possible it should be made a punishable offence. If the administrative system, parents, teachers and students do not tackle this issue than the societal ills that we are facing today- leaders without accountability, jobs tagged with price, lack of innovation and creativity, will continue.
After a few months the result of 10th and 12th will be declared. Quite a large number of parents will run after coaching institute for NEET/JEE exam while forgetting to sit down for a moment to enquire the child’s ability, potential, interest area or the aptitude for deciding its future. Some will disregard the streams which were lesser travelled by- painting, art and culture, music and film making, animation designing, travel and tourism, AI courses and the list goes on.
What we need to rectify is the culture of disrespecting profession, giving respect based on the type of profession that one withholds. From engineer to doctor to businessman to chef to artist to plumber each and every profession requires hard work and resilience to provide services to mankind. The Japanese concept of ‘Ikigai’ which translate into finding purpose of your life gave us a clear understanding for building a mindful life. This is a powerful Japanese concept of discovering your reason for being. It’s like solving a puzzle with four pieces- what you love, what you’re good at, what the worlds needs and how could you build a good living society.
If our education system imparted such kind of value system where each stakeholders- teachers, students, parents, administrative system collectively endorsed such a way of life then things might turn up differently or the pages of our education system could be rewritten again.
This year let’s call for a change- a change for ‘Oubaitori’ i.e, not comparing to others (Japanese concept). After the exam result is let our youth focus on their own journey, let the parents allow their young minds to foster their interest and let our society reduce the culture of comparison and let’s see whether we could change such a distorting system to aspire to live a more fulfilling life.
The writer is a Junior Research Fellow of University Grants Commission currently pursuing PhD at the Department of Political Science, Manipur University and can be reached at [email protected].
Since the beginning of primary education our system seems to focus more on doing home work rather than balancing the needs of developing life skills. Parents during the PTM in some schools often complain of having an issue of whether homework given for the children was meant to learn in literal sense or just that it added an extra work for them to complete. From here starts the cycle of unrest in the psyche of the children that good education means doing homework and scoring A+ grade in the hierarchy of ranking.
This marked the initial stage of running behind perfection often forgetting to hunt down one’s own potential. The secondary education of our system normalized the culture of engaging in private tuition for each and every subject be it science, social science, mathematics or english. This is the stage where a student should be clear on which stream would be the most appropriate with respect to their interest accordingly to deal with in the future. Sometimes unable to do so or due to lack of guidance; students in higher education often complain that they should have chosen the right stream as per their ability instead of following the specific stream that emphasized herd mentality. Consequently, such anomalies lead to a factor of buying jobs or replacement in the end.
According to Gandhi, education means an all round drawing out of the best from the body, mind and spirit. Rather than mere literacy or academic knowledge, he emphasized character building, moral development and practical skills, often summarized through the principle of ‘Nai Talim’ or ‘learning by doing’. Unfortunately the pathways of education that we are engaging these days seemed to be crumbled and corroded since its foundation.
Everybody rushed for the popularity of getting good grades and better IQ but not so in building up a good character or considering community engagement that much important leading to week emotional intelligence.
Recently, the havoc on the first day of Higher Secondary Education Manipur (COHSEM) where the students tore and burned answer sheets at Wabagai Higher Secondary School exam centre at Kakching calls for the attention of every stakeholder. As per the sources when the officials were preparing to lock up the answer sheets in a chest, a group of students requested extra time fearing they would fail in the exam.
When the Officer-in-Charge responded that it was not in their power to grant as such the students vandalized the property of the room. After few days DESAM announced that three persons have been rounded up with answers to questions for Human Ecology and Family Science papers. Again news went widespread when two school teachers were caught with a van-full of electronic items including printers and laptops in order to aid the use of unfair means in the BOSEM examination.
While I was about to leave after buying some stationery items at Kwakeithel Bazar, a middle aged woman approached the shop owner and asked him to print some notes that are usually designed in small font size. In an irritated manner she exclaimed to the shop owner that the exam centre of her child was so strict so she decided to help her child by printing notes. She even started to abuse the teacher posted as an invigilator for keeping a sharp vigil throughout inside the examination hall of her ward.
What has gone so wrong in our society where students consider that they have the right to protest violently for extra time ? The act of supplying notes, leaking questions before the exam, teachers engaging in it openly, parents influencing their children to indulge in such act is a shame and should be addressed. Wherever possible it should be made a punishable offence. If the administrative system, parents, teachers and students do not tackle this issue than the societal ills that we are facing today- leaders without accountability, jobs tagged with price, lack of innovation and creativity, will continue.
After a few months the result of 10th and 12th will be declared. Quite a large number of parents will run after coaching institute for NEET/JEE exam while forgetting to sit down for a moment to enquire the child’s ability, potential, interest area or the aptitude for deciding its future. Some will disregard the streams which were lesser travelled by- painting, art and culture, music and film making, animation designing, travel and tourism, AI courses and the list goes on.
What we need to rectify is the culture of disrespecting profession, giving respect based on the type of profession that one withholds. From engineer to doctor to businessman to chef to artist to plumber each and every profession requires hard work and resilience to provide services to mankind. The Japanese concept of ‘Ikigai’ which translate into finding purpose of your life gave us a clear understanding for building a mindful life. This is a powerful Japanese concept of discovering your reason for being. It’s like solving a puzzle with four pieces- what you love, what you’re good at, what the worlds needs and how could you build a good living society.
If our education system imparted such kind of value system where each stakeholders- teachers, students, parents, administrative system collectively endorsed such a way of life then things might turn up differently or the pages of our education system could be rewritten again.
This year let’s call for a change- a change for ‘Oubaitori’ i.e, not comparing to others (Japanese concept). After the exam result is let our youth focus on their own journey, let the parents allow their young minds to foster their interest and let our society reduce the culture of comparison and let’s see whether we could change such a distorting system to aspire to live a more fulfilling life.
The writer is a Junior Research Fellow of University Grants Commission currently pursuing PhD at the Department of Political Science, Manipur University and can be reached at [email protected].