If I am not wrong, March is probably the most dreaded month in the life of a kid in India. While Nature heralds the onset of spring and flowers are all set to splash their myriad colours, happiness and life is sucked out of children who are about to appear for the final term or board exams. It's the time of the year when newspaper carry the death of student to my breakfast table.
Education is perhaps the most capable weapon Indian society has ever got to hut down children. A kid is hardly two when they are pushed in the never ending dungeon called education. It's the start of schools, books, tuitions and the fatal expectations of getting 100 or A in every subject. Watch a kid go school and you will find that the childhood is crushed somewhere between those heavy books, gasping for air.
Parental expectations and social pressure make for a fatal cocktail that never allows the kid to emerge from the hangover of books. You always need to perform better than the rest. You have to be the topper. If you are not, you are nothing. Parents wants their kids to be brilliant so that they can show off their performances in social gatherings while society looks down on normal performers as losers. No wonder, many succumb to the pressure and end their life.
My 6-year old niece was down with fever and could not prepare for her exams well. Although she scored 90%, here teacher labelled her a poor student. Reason: others had scored more than her. I was shocked and disgusted. I had no words to express myself. I just wished I could slap the teacher right away.
The society refuse to believe that there can only one who can top a class and not everyone. That you do not need to score 90% and above to show that you are intelligent. That education is not the only attribute that helps you succeed in life. That singing, dancing, music and sports too can be a career and not just engineering, medical and management. Education is important but success is not the slave of intelligent alone. Look around you and you will find that the most successful people have never been in the toppers in their class.
If you think I am being too romantic or idealist, think again. I have topped both my school and my college and I can say with conviction that at the end of the day, your soft skills and attitude are more important that your report card. Toppers hardly do anything spectacular.
More commit suicide each year because of fear of exams or from the shame of failure than those killed from bomb blasts across India cities last year. Life comes cheap in India and until the death is spectacular, it is hardly noticed.
Do we want our kids to end their life as a headline in newspaper? If not, its time that we break the inhuman social norms and let our kids live.
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