Merit list

We all are familiar with, 99.6%, 99.2%. 99.1%. 99%, 98.9% etc, these are magical scores of students in different board examination, we can even round off to 100%. The marks obtained in different subjects are aggregated, and merit list is created. More the aggregate, higher is the position up the merit list ladder. Getting closed to 100% score needs various skills like confidence, steadfastness and calmness, good health etc. apart from good knowledge of the subject.    

With the declaration of the results, book publishers, coaching centers come into the picture claiming that the students have scored good marks because they have studied from their publications, and many a times we have seen students even endorsing the same through TV advertisements. By doing so, publishers try to take the entire credit for their success rather than giving credit to the students who have scored good marks. I am still confused on what should be the credit share distribution among all the stakeholders for achieving a high score in any board examination! The contenders are many—student, publishers, tuition teacher, schools or parents etc. It also means that a student will perform, but credit will be distributed among all other parties – I can imagine the pressure and expectation being imposed on students to score good marks! This is a huge overhead for any student.

Do we have a correct method to measure the Merit of a student? Is it only scoring high marks in an examination? unfortunately it is “YES” as per our evaluation criteria. So, most of us are pressurizing our kids to score more in the examination, and thus many of us are forcing our kid to spend time with their books, and not allowing them to be creative, and applying their thought. We are giving them the flavour of Competition from a very tender age, instead of nurturing them to become creative.

Let me share a famous poem of Sukumar Roy,

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The English translation of the above poem is as follows:

An educated gentleman goes for a boat ride. He asks the boatman, “Can you tell me why the sun rises every day? Why does the moon grow and shrink in phases? Why do we have tides?” etc, he continued to ask many question and finally, he proved that three quarters of the life of the boatman is useless. After a while, there rose a storm, the waves puffed up in the river, and the said educated gentleman realized that the boat could sink any moment, and asked the boatman if he know swimming, and finally the boatman said the life of the said gentleman is totally in vain.

The purpose of the above example is, even though the educated gentleman knows a lot, but it was not sufficient for the dynamic change in the situation, where swimming was required as essential skills. He would not be able to survive in the new contextual situation or in the new demanding need. This is very much similar to the so called “merit list” . Things are changing very rapidly, what we are studying now, will no longer be available in the future or will become obsolete, a new set of skills and knowledge will be required. It does not matter how much percentage you have scored in the past; may be in current context those are old concepts and technologies and are obsolete as per the dynamic change in the situation.

Thus, “merit list” should ensure future adaptability of any student, future is changing very rapidly and bringing many dynamic need and context. To rule or survive in the future, we should have quick learning skills, so that even if the surrounding context is changed, we can learn quickly and adapt ourselves in the new situation or show new path. It is not possible for us to know everything, but quick learning skills needs to be built. We may not able to find guide or teacher always, so self-learning should be one of the critical skill we need to have, Future will be more of technology driven, many activities will be done automatically, ideation will be one of the future skills, so that we can adapt ourselves in the new situation. Strong determination, hardworking , self-motivated skills are also to be learnt by the students, 

But, unfortunately, most of us are forcing our kids to score good marks in the examination, and the kids are pressurized by every stakeholder to score good marks, whereas we are not teaching them to become a quick learner, self-learner or to become a creative on their own, or to become determined, or self-motivated or creative or to become hard working. Take the example of Famous singer “Arijit Sings”, he was not the winner of the reality show, but now he has won the heart of all, and the winners of the said reality show are not in the list. Thus, the so called “merit list” should not be created only based marks obtained in different subjects. The “metric list” should ensure future adaptability score of any student and ability to show new path for the future. Otherwise we are just killing their childhood and making struggling future without showing the path for the future and to become creative. Education is not a competition, and so called “merit list” is not a mechanism to evaluate student.