De-Stressing Education

King of Pop, Michael Jackson Dies. History will never be same again. Fans Stunned!

Delhi reeling under acute power shortage. Major posh areas face blackout, for 10-12 hours. No water, No electricity. And scorching Sun. Delhites and Indians have a tough time this summer.

But the news that surprises me, the most is the much anticipated move to do away with 10th Board examination. Well, most of the students and parents are happy. But I firmly believe, 10th Board Exams should not be abolished. We all have already de-traumatized elementary education. Now, there is a counsellor in every private school, atleast. And this is the place, where most students gets stressed. We have put in easier formats of question paper. Given extra 15 mins for going through the question paper. Most of the questions, nowadays, are objective.

And CBSE, India's largest education board's syllabus is already the most easiest in the country. It has just the elementary, and basic things. Very much unlike ICSE, and IGCSE, and other state boards. Now, if this can create stress for any child. Let the child get stressed, so that he learns to stretches himself. Afterall, he must be around 15. He has to get acquainted with life.

Quite a number of us, who have studies through ICSE medium, where syllabus and exams, both are quite comprehensive, never felt much the stress. Just half an hour of regular study through out the year is good enough to get above 90%. And if a student can't study that much even, he should fail to pass again, to get the basics right again. Few people give the lame excuse of education being a mugging up business. Well, we need that at elementary level, combined with practical. Its only the higher education, where it should be done away with it entirely. I have been teaching students, for quite sometime now. Believe me, they do not study at all, even in this scenario. They all have PSP/XBOX, movies, internet, girl-friends and boy-friends in 7th std...if they all can bear stress of heartbreak at that age....so why not studies.

Elementary Education system has always been an inherent strength of India. Whereas, majority of them, even when they go to Universities abroad, they are taken as strengths...this has been due to the strong testing system.

I fondly remember, in my alma mater, in 10th std. first semester exams, just 3 of us passed in Physics, out of 60-odd students. And in Boards, none of us scored below 70. Infact, we all passed with 1st divison, and most of them, scoring above 80%.

And except for me, most of them have been selected for IIT's, NIT's, some best UNIVERSITIES abroad, India's best LAW and Management school. I strongly feel, this is all due to the strictness in education system, shown by our teachers. Mr. Martin, Mr. Cowell, Mr. Kim....!

Mr. Sibal, we are just going to get them more stressed, when all of a sudden in 12th std, they face Boards, entrance exams, that too the most toughest one.They would not be prepared to face everything at one go! WOuldn't it break them down, then????