It is no secret that India’s education system needs a revolution. From a syllabus deficient in holistic development to the inability to train a majority of the teachers sufficiently, the problems are crucial. These problems got further aggravated during the pandemic, with online learning not being feasible for everyone. However, amidst it all, there was still one positive.
Before we get to that, let’s establish some context. At the core of India’s education problems is the fact that the system falls short to give real-life training and development. Rote – learning and exam pressure, the outcome of which are students who can score good marks and ranks, but seldom something noteworthy beyond it. Every student graduating from college and going out into the real world experiences a feeling of lacking worth. This is common across different streams. The student feels this way because he gets present to the fact that all that he/she has learned through their academic life is different from what the real world demands; it’s a different ballgame.
With this established context, let’s look at what happened to the traditional exam system in the pandemic. Across different boards and universities, exams were sometimes cancelled, postponed, or moved online. In whichever case, what this event managed to bring to light was the over-significance given to final exams. When the point of awarding results came, these boards declared that students should be awarded results on “past performance”. In my case, even though my exams had been completed pre-pandemic, the university decided to award the previous semester’s grades. Even though initially I was disappointed, I soon realized something very important.
It made me realize that the real world isn’t like school, where your work and efforts count only once or twice during your exams. Performance and excellence aren’t merely caused by year-end results but by everyday value input and consistent work. Students and parents who were faced with these situations must have surely realized internally that by betting their academics on final exams, they were neglecting real growth and experience. This event surely made students think about setting their priorities and focusing on mastering their academics through consistency. In conclusion, by being consistent, you can be sure of results in life, exam or not.
That being said, this particular event may have led one to realize the true essence of learning, consistency, and how true growth happens as a result of these virtues.