Jatin Sharkar speaks to DOT :
Merely hearing about PEC and JSC boils my blood. There’s no need to celebrate these results so much. The country’s top academics have all suggested scrapping PSC and JSC. And instead, these are being celebrated. I reject this practice of obsessing over passing percentage, which board did best, etc.
I also reject PEC and JSC exams.
We also studied. When we were young, we didn’t focus on exams every now and then. Did we learn anything less? Rather, we got to enjoy life alongside our studies – something that today’s children seem to be deprived of. It’s quite sad that kids no older than 5 or 6 are shoved off to school with heavy bag packs. So when is their free time? When will they enjoy life? Is studying everything? Can children handle such pressure? I do not believe so. As a result, we are seeing an increase in suicides and accidents. Both parents and teachers are culprits – they pit their wards against each other in ‘races’. Join coaching centers, study under private tutors, go to school – why so much studying? Why so much pressure? In my youth I read many novels and stories and books. Students nowadays don’t even have that opportunity.
They can’t even handle their textbooks, how can they novels and storybooks? There is no more enjoyment in learning, and because of this children are getting themselves mixed with various illegal activities. I’m not saying that PEC and JSC are the only culprits for pushing kids towards crimes, but such exams are the source of the problem. Instead of celebrating exam results, let us try to reject these sorts of exams. If the culture of exam-worshipping is scrapped, education costs will plummet and the ‘coaching business’ will fall. The interviewee is a professor and educationalist Interview by Khairul Alam
Translated by Abrar Hussain
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