Mokokchung | June 3
It is irrefutable that the psychosis for scoring high marks has been and is still prevalent in our society. Today, after the result declaration of HSLC and HSSLC by NBSE, various schools and institutions are seen admitting students based on the marks and percentages a student has scored.
For this matter, parents are often seen forcing their children to score higher and higher marks, irrespective of whether the child has the aptitude for every subject. They go beyond their means to get them enrolled into tuition classes and top schools just to ensure high marks. And it feels obligated for the parents to do so as the existing system compels them to.
But in the midst of all the pressure, the chaos and the competition, the nucleus of the subject is the students’ attainment of education. And as a society, the question on our mind is, whether marks can really be converted into knowledge, skills and productivity or whether a student is exposed thoroughly enough regarding the various opportunities they can decide for the career they want.
Dhurba Sen, a mathematics teacher who has been teaching in Queen Mary Higher Secondary School, Mokokchung for the past 13 years, believes that marks do not define what a student is learning.
“Marks sometimes fool us because there are times when the students scoring 80 or 90+% in class 10 often struggle to catch up as compared to an average student as they begin their standard 11,” he said.
“I believe there can be other criteria such as an entrance test etc. to assess the student’s knowledge rather than just the marks or percentage scored,” he added.
As an educator, he admitted how education is beginning to grow in a small town like Mokokchung and highlighted the urgent need for guidance by real experts.
Dhurba, who is also the administrator of SESHAT TUTORIALS, suggested students’ organization, parents, teachers and various NGOs to participate in taking the education forward by mitigating the issues of lacking awareness regarding options, opportunities and career guidance.
“I am from a science background so I can only speak for science students. But things just simply do not stop in engineering and medicine. If you do not get through JEE/NEET it is not the end of the road. Science students can pursue their studies in PURE Science or Applied Sciences, Architecture through NATA, BPharma, B.Sc. IT. And after graduation there are important entrance examinations like IIT JAM, JEST, GATE etc.
You can get exposed to many other opportunities such as going abroad and so on which definitely widens one’s scope. I really believe that Career counseling by real experts has been neglected for a very long time,” he said.
“It will be nice to have an All School General Counseling session where all the higher secondary classes’ students of all the school come together and be counseled about their career and the bigger perspective in life by real experts. The student body or the NGOs can put more effort in bringing quality resource persons from outside the states and let our students be exposed to what is the trend outside,” he suggested.
“I remember one of my students, Imcharenba, who is now a student of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University who said that after going there, his whole perspective has changed and the difference in the mindset of people when it comes to education after 12th Science,” he added.
In conclusion, he said that a student needs motivation from all spheres of life including the society at large, various organizations and the parents and hoped that they will support the teachers in molding their children to attain quality education.
Talking to Mokokchung Times, Bendangtemsu Ozukum, an environmental education teacher at Government High School, Chuchuyimpang shared his view that although marks alone should not be the judging factor, he is of the opinion that there seems to be very few alternatives to it.
“The options are limited in the present scenario. We need to understand that not all students are equally intelligent, but as education is the base to venture one’s passion, we should not limit academically weaker pupils from attaining their desired level of education.
As such there is an urgent need to come up with more inclusive educational institutions, whereby the students without any distinction stand a chance to gain higher basic education,” said Bendang who has been working as a teacher for 11 years.
He also added that there is a misconception among the people, that only the brighter students take up science stream, and for that matter even commerce stream; and the remaining students are left with no option but to take up Arts.
“According to me, things are the other way round. If one is a bright brilliant student, then he or she should take up Arts, because one has to learn everything under the sun, while dealing with the disciplines of Arts. On the other hand, Science and commerce should be taken up by hard working students. In short, pupils who can devote time and study on a daily basis should engage themselves in science and commerce.”
Replying to the kind of a direction he wishes Nagaland’s education system would follow, he pointed out that the education system should go hand in hand with other spheres of life, like social, religious, economic and even political.
“If we try to ape the western model of education without uplift of other spheres of life, then I think there will be clashes in numerous areas,” he said.
In addition to that, he stressed on the need for society and the parents in particular to accept that all children will not be equally good in academics and also to do away with the concept of government job.
“This will lift off the pressure and expectations from their children and at the same time stop suffocating the less bright students and give them the chance to engage in what they can do best. This will also open up their children to excel in their passion, because with the advent of science and technology, the arena to earn and live a decent life has enormously expanded,” he added.
“I feel that it is a little too early for a state like ours to focus on vocational subjects in the traditional aged old institutions. Students wanting to opt for vocational courses should approach institutions such as the SAI in Dimapur, and the numerous musical schools and ITI institutions spread across the state.
Clubbing of vocational courses in our traditional schools could produce students who are neither academic degree holders nor outstanding sportsmen or musicians, I fear,” he concluded.
Ayim Jamir, proprietor of Modern abcd tutorials firmly believes that marks should not be the deciding factor to enroll a student.
“I have had students who had dreams and passions but after receiving their mark sheet, their dreams absolutely crashed in front of my eyes because they failed to reach a certain percentage.
That is heartbreaking,” he shared, and added that a student’s interest in a subject is more important than the marks scored.
“Once a student develops his interest, curiosity seeps in and with curiosity, you achieve things beyond your imagination,” he shared.
Much similar to Dhurba’s view, he believes that an entrance test or an interview in getting to know the quality of the student would be more appropriate than marks and percentages alone.
He further stressed on the importance of the role of organizations like Ao KaketshirMungdang (AKM), which is second to NSF for the Ao community, to take up more active role in assessing the quality of education imparted and to organize timely seminars on career counseling by bringing in experts from various fields.