CBSE Paper Leak: Our Education System in Perspective

It’s been more than a week that our news channels are going all gaga over the #CBSEpaperleak and #CBSEsham etc. etc. hash tags. Our school students are sloganeering out on the streets in protest and from school teachers & principals to CBSE chairperson & HRD Minister, nobody is spared. While everyone is sympathizing with the poor class 10 & class 12 students who would have to once again go through the traumatizing exam fear for seemingly no fault of their own, and elaborate diatribes are being launched by the opposition parties fuelled by extensive media coverage, I am still trying to make head & tail out of this whole imbroglio.

Yes, the question papers were circulated via emails and whatsapp groups and also that the CBSE has decided to re-conduct the examination is all clear to me, but what bamboozles my mind is the reckless TRP-hogging disquisitions on our news channels. What are they exactly trying to conclude? From high ranking political spokespersons, relentlessly mudslinging at each other irrespective of the agenda on the table, to regular school students, wearing their angst on their sleeves, what largely remains absent is a legitimate conclusion, without which any debate or discussion remains incomplete.

Exam paper leak-out is a reality in our country, however grim it may be, but it has been there since decades and will be there for many more to come. Days, even in some cases a night before the exam, question papers are sold to desperate students in prices ranging from a few hundreds to many thousands. Universities are as such notorious for paper leakages, and now the CBSE board too has been accused of this malfeasance. Parents association has moved Supreme Court against the re-exam, students are all up in arms, political parties are asking for the HRD Minister to resign, the media, as usual, is fanning the flames, and between all this hullabaloo the real agenda has gone down the drain- Our Education System.

Our education system is far from perfect, true. But that doesn’t mean countries with more comprehensive systems don’t face such wickedness. But the reason why these are increasingly becoming rampant in India is two-fold. The primary reason being our education set-up which spuriously promotes rote learning than practical knowledge, and the ancillary reason, which cannot be ignored with respect to the current scenario, is the level of pressure exerted by parents on their wards. CBSE chairman Anita Karwal may have said that marks do not define a person, but ironically the very institution she heads has failed to vindicate her claim.

Because of rising pressure on students to get a perfect score in the examination such malpractices are being resorted to. Parents keep nagging their kids right from a tender age up to their 12th boards to score better & higher, and it is this fad of ‘high marks’ that allows the manifestation of such people who, by exploiting loopholes in our system, are able to slither out such devious schemes.

While the foibles in our education system cannot be denied and indubitably remain for the government to amend, I personally feel that we as society are too responsible for this. And because we will not accept anything less than a 90 or 95%, the coaching institutes are able to cash-on on our fancies. They charge exorbitant amounts as fees in return for a guaranteed best result, and then to keep their reputation they run such rackets. They ostensibly circulate the question papers among their students as ‘worksheets’ or ‘expected questions’ and thus the student does not even know that he/she is inconspicuously becoming a part of the sham. As for the outsiders, the leaked papers are sold directly. Many a time’s parents are aware of it and often a party to it.

Because we run amok blindly after ‘marks’ and NOT after education, these rackets are able to flourish.

A re-exam cannot, of course, cure us from this malaise and neither can the resignation of our ministers. The government is taking the necessary steps it should in the matter and its time we too start doing the same by changing our outlook towards education and examination.

Do share your views and let me know your take on our education system.

Instagram id: sanjana_the_thinker

Maverick

I am no chip of the old block & so happily I proclaim,

I do love my parents though, but a desire to be like them,

I so disdain!

They are people of another time and of another world I will never know,

But to step in their shoes, do what they do,

Eh! Is a thought I have to forego.

Let me tell you how proud I am to have come from them,

From so rich a heritage & great culture no less;

From the Lands of Gods my ancestors rise,

And also they are known for their feats & mights!

I am happy indeed to hear so high of them,

But I am the black sheep in my pack’s den.

I cannot tread the road they trot on so long ago,

For the wilderness is different now than what ’twas

In the years they grew.

My direction is divergent and so are my thoughts,

I cannot help but find my own path.

I follow my heart, I follow my mind,

Like them I cannot stop & say it is fine.

I wish to see the world and witness its wonder,

Lie beneath the blue sky & see it thunder.

I wish to go away at dusk & come back at dawn,

When the suns an orange red & the warmth has gone.

No matter how much I yell & I cry,

You, I cannot convince, that I am no fry.

With wolves, foxes and hyenas, yes, it is filled;

But I am no deer mother, that you upbring.

You care too much, and that is your trait,

Afterall, you thought, only a lamb can come from a sheep so straight!