The system planned to cater to just few thousand students is still administered to several hundred thousand students without much procedural changes. A single yardstick believed to gauge the entire knowledge students acquire in 10 years of rigorous study is still considered workable and is not taken for granted by most of the parents and the teachers. The success in SLC is still considered life time achievement and celebrated in our society, though these days, the fanfare has receded thanks to the increasing percentage of SLC graduates—over 60 percent, compared to about 30 percent a decade ago.
I still remember the sleepless nights I had 25 years ago with rumors of result floating around. With a trend of more candidates failing than passing, those days one only hoped to pass the threshold irrespective of the percentage and or scores; though few of those, tagged as good performers by their teachers, relatives and well-wishers used to come under immense mental pressure to excel the test, not only for their career ahead, but also for satisfaction to their folks.
Not only the moment of ecstasy I passed through when I was declared Board First in 2041 BS, but also the lines of deep humiliation I saw in a competitor friend of mine who was the first to break the news and congratulate me, are still too fresh and loud in my memory.
The system planned to cater to just few thousand students is still administered to several hundred thousand students without much procedural changes.
A winner to win in fact needs many losers to lose. Is this competition which brings in more frustration than encouragement desirable at all in our education system? The question I ask myself every time after I unknowingly inquire my 5th grader daughter about her rank but not her score! Wish my neighbors and cousins who are upset about their kids not passing recently concluded SLC with distinctions understand the trauma their kids go through. Hats off to the examination board—the demerits have been well understood; lists of merits are no more published, which though is not helping much with reminisces of its legacy still alive. Thanks to our culture we still judge the quality of a school simply by the number of its students winning the merit list or by the number of distinction and first division holders. No wonder the mushrooming private schools claiming to have international affiliation get tempted to produce their own versions of merit lists to advertise their success but not of the student. Just for the sake of selling school as a mere “product”, they take liberty to compare each of its students publicly not only in local newspapers but also in popular national dailies. Imagine the sense of humiliation each of our kids go through, all except one will have at least one ahead of them being compared with -which in fact spoils the sense of real achievement and encouragement, which in turn, defeats the whole purpose of the test itself.
The syllabi which revolve around reciting definitions and memorizing names and dates of birth of inventors are still considered appropriate teaching methodology, probably because it “yields” more score to the satisfaction of majority of parents and schools. A fourth grader even in one of the best schools in the valley starts her first computer class memorizing the history of computer. I wonder whether I forgot to teach my daughter the history of wheel before teaching her how to ride a bicycle. I believe the trend we are accepting and adopting will certainly fill our children’s brains with data. However, the question is: Will the education system we have in place allow them to process those data for innovations and practical applications? Probably not!! Our persistence to have our kids get the highest percentage possible, and the unhealthy trend of schools competing with each other to prove themselves the best may in the end erode our kids’ creativity. If things are to continue the way they are, we better accept the reality that we will be producing more of assemblers than designers for globalizing world economy!! Does that mean we will continue to be the labor centers but not the market leaders in the world which is flattening every day? The time has come to seriously think about it, and do away with the unscientific SLC right away for our better future.
rajan_pradhan2001@yahoo.com
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