The Day Of Results...

Finally the SSC results have been declared, while some are engulfed by attention from all corners (be it the media for the toppers or the parents and relatives of those who have scored rather well), we should not forget those who go unnoticed, those ‘average’ ones, the rest of the 16 lakh who have scraped through or have managed a fair score.
This year, like the past few years has thrown out into the limelight a few select ‘heroes’ (I should say, the SSC is nothing less than a battle…)

We have the state and divisional toppers who are the ‘heroes of the day’ without doubt.

There is the 20 yr-old Night-school topper Manojkumar Singh, who completed his SSC after missing out 4 years of school (because he was abducted)

We have Manali Naik the girl topper from Handicapped Category as well as overall city topper at second position.

We also get to read about the controversy surrounding the ‘Real’ topper Teena Andrade who received extra marks for participating in state level tournaments pushing her average above the other city toppers. (This claim was ignored by the Board saying the extra marks are for Admission purpose only)

This brings us to the central issue – Is academic excellence everything? While students who spent a whole year rote learning for the exam are awarded and applauded, students like Teena, who I think represent an All-Round Development in a student, are ignored.
Moreover how many students out of these understand and remember what they studied? The scoring pattern of our SSC and HSC exams do not ensure conceptual understanding of the subject and still depend on rote learning as the staple means of study, even after the syllabus has been revised. And this fact has been repeatedly proven by the difference in the marks scored by students in HSC (marks such as 88, 92, 98 Wow!) and the entrance tests (92, 98, 100…out of 200 – Oh! What the hell happened here?!?!)
When will our Education System improve??? I think that is one question that does not have an answer.