World of Exam Warriors

Context: The recent high cut-off admissions in the Delhi University (DU) are no reflection of standards, but a case of rote learning and hyper-competitiveness.

Problems with Exam System in India

• A Vicious cycle of rote learning and inflated marks: High marks does not mean the high quality of our school education.

•  On the other hand, it indicates the poverty of pedagogic imagination and highly mechanized process of entering the realm of higher education

• No correlation between marks and intellectual ability: For, E.g. It is possible for a student to score 100% in English without any fascination for poetry, short stories and novels.

• A fetish of quantification: Ours is a society that worships “success” and adores the “toppers” and Experience of wonder, the joy of learning and unlearning, or the spirit of enquiry have no role in this system

• Transformed a young learner to a parrot whose goal is to consume knowledge capsules and to replicate those capsules in the exam like a parrot.

• Students become exam warriors: She/he has no poetic wonder, no criticality of social science, and no enquiring spirit of science.

• Social Darwinism and hyper-competitiveness: showcased by tight bodies, heavily-loaded school bags, weekly tests, never-ending home assignments, constant performance anxiety, parental pressure and the urge to be a “topper.”

• Bound to create a toxic and violent society: Depression, loneliness and schizophrenia are bound to characterize the restless generation. 

• The pathology of success causing the stigma of failure: While the fact/centric and objective questions have become the new normal, the power of memorization have become the key to success.

• This has led to a situation where getting 80% marks is not so difficult, and those who are getting 95% are suffering from depression.

• Lack of guidance available to students for choosing subjects and colleges: due to –

• Hierarchized academic disciplines: Physics, Economics, Commerce, English literature and Psychology are considered prestigious, and students are often forced to choose them.

• Hierarchy of colleges and universities: Some students prefer the prestigious college rather than the subject of their liking

• The system functions like a soulless machine: It is more interested in eliminating people (you don’t have 99% in the board exam and hence, you cannot do Sociology at LSR). 

Conclusion: We should realize that one’s curiosity, aptitude and awakened intelligence cannot be measured through a pattern of examination that compels one to be a robotic performer rather than a creative wanderer.