Terror of Examination

Whether it is parents, teachers or students, all academic and educational activity which involves all these people is ‘examination’ oriented. Parents send their children to school so that they do well in the exams. Teachers work hard through the year to help the students in doing well in the examinations. And for the same cause, the students are expected to work hard, take tuitions, do anything but score above 90% in their examinations!

The role of examinations in the educational system cannot be devalued. Examinations have their functions. They inspire, motivate and fix up a goal and thus direct the efforts of the assessing the progress of the students in concrete terms. In order to achieve success in exams a student’s study becomes book centric. Short cuts like cramming, consulting cheap notes etc. are adopted by the students to sail through the examinations.

No wonder, the examinations have become a ‘terror’ that starts haunting the students a few months before examinations. As the doomsday gets closer, the student loses his peace of mind, his appetite, his sleep and he tries to burn mid-night oil to be prepared for the examinations. The fear of not doing well makes them tense, nervous and worried. At times, they get so confused that they forget all that they have learnt and thus in spite of their hard work they end up doing badly in the exams.

After all, examinations do not get to measure what they claim to measure. Marks are no indication to one’s knowledge, intelligence or ability. But is there any better method available? A few steps to improve the system may be a hopeful sign. Whatever be the ill-effects, examinations have come to stay as a necessary evil.

Decreasing Number of Females in India

From time to time, surveys of various towns, villages and cities have been conducted to get at the truth about the girl child. A recent survey of sex ratio of Delhi reveals a horrifying fact that the number of female children has greatly declined since 1991 even in the capital of the country. The number is getting abysmally low also in various other states. It has been both shocking and disturbing to know that at most places in India, the birth of a girl child is still not welcome so much so that female infanticide is practised with no qualms whatsoever. Gender discrimination is at the root of this trend.

Be it south or north of India, the gender discrimination is rampant all over. Very often, a girl is discriminated against her more privileged brother by her mother at home. In school, she is treated as ‘weak’ by her male classmates. As she grows older and goes out for work, she suffers discrimination and harassment of all kinds. No doubt, the conditions in the country appear to have changed to a large extent. The constitution of free India has given protection woman’s rights thereby putting her at par with man politically, socially and economically. Education today gives her a place of some honour. In fact, women have excelled as doctors, artists, administrators,, engineers, scientists, sports personalities and so on…A girl, indeed, is no less capable as  a daughter than a son to her parents. It is the woman alone who can take on the double burden of work outside and work at home. There is no reason why a girl child should be treated as inferior or as a burden.

The change in the woman’s status is, however, superficial. Looking at the real picture, a girl in the family is still an unwanted burden and in some cases she is even denied the right to live.

What is most required is compulsory education of girls all over so that they develop into self-sufficient individuals. Urgent steps also need to be taken to make parents and society aware of the importance of girls everywhere. Laws, made to protect the rights of women, must be implemented with honesty and efficiency. Women have to rise as a force to defend the rights of a woman. Besides, the Government and Non-Government Organisations must tap their sources to correct the gender imbalance that still ails our society if we want our country to progress.