I had been to my sister-in-law’s place and generally asked about the results of her daughter Smriti who was studying in Class 9. Her face suddenly turned pale and she stared at me for a few seconds. I asked her if something was wrong; for a moment I thought the little girl had flunked. She slowly said the results had indeed come a couple of days ago but her daughter had scored “just” 89 per cent “only”; she thought it was not worth telling anyone. She even said she was ashamed of her daughter that she had scored so “less”.
Just then her neighbour walked in, and since she was an acquaintance I asked how her daughter Neha was doing. Her face too paled. She said her daughter had not fared well and had scored “just” 92 per cent. She perhaps did not want to continue the conversation and left abruptly. Both girls studied in the same school in the small class.
My sister-in-law said she was unhappy her daughter did not score more than her neighbour’s daughter Neha, and apparently Neha’s mother had complained her daughter did not score more than her co-sister’s daughter who had scored 94 per cent. I was stunned at the attitude of these parents.
The season of results The months of April and May can be dedicated to examination results and the discussion in every household will revolve around percentages scored by their children and those of their peers; it is not about pass or fail any more. Parents love to brag about their child’s percentage, but when they hear someone whose child had scored more than theirs, they turn pale and get into a shell; they start feeling ashamed of meeting anyone and discussing the results. Then the child starts getting sermons day in and day out of how they had put them in such shameful situation. Poor kids of the 21 century.
What is this obsession with percentages, I have always wondered. Okay, over the next 10 years or so what would they become? The CEO of Google? The CEO of Apple? The CEO of Facebook? Jack Ma? What? No parent seems to be actually aware of this; all that the parents want is for their children to score 100 out of 100 throughout their educational career. And ironically, most of the CEOs are not highly educated. And interestingly, there are even school dropouts among them!
After being a witness to parents who are obsessed with the percentages of their children I have realised that they do not have any long-term plans about their children as to what they might become. All they want in the short-term is that the percentages should be more than someone else in their family, neighbourhood and so on because. Their benchmark is set to competing with someone.
Yes, there are issues plaguing the education system as well. Schools and colleges are equally obsessed with percentages, offering admission only to “bright” students. Those who have scored below 80 per cent or 85 per cent are put in the non-intelligent category. Who made this rule? Who is overseeing this norm? What happens to those who have not scored 80 per cent and above? Are they not fit to be educated further?
Should the blame for the obsession with percentages be put on the parents, or on the educational institutions that have made this a norm and are running their institutions without being pulled up or questioned?
Should make sense If the cut-off for admissions is 80 per cent, then why is 35 per cent or 40 per cent set as the pass mark? Let the pass marks be made 80 per cent — at least children will start preparing accordingly. It does not make sense at all. The day may not be far when a revolt happens and the whole rationale is questioned. Until then, sorry young folks, if you have scored below 80 per cent you are unfit to continue your education. After all, your parents were right!
balajiraodg@gmail.com
