The NUMBERS rule

Whenever I think of exams a dialogue from the film “3 Idiots” pops up, “Life is a race … if you don’t run fast … you will be like a broken andaa.” Seriously, that’s become a fact. Marks scored in a 3-hour exam is given so much priority for career, all a student can think of are some two-digit numbers. What one is learning, nobody is bothered. All matters are some numbers, irrespective of the fact whether we are able to utilise what we are studying over the years in our desired careers. A person maybe very knowledgeable but could not stand-up well in life from career point of view. Why? Just because he got low marks in his final exams? How can a 3-hour test decide how able a man is with regard to a particular career? There is a proverb, “to err is human”; all humans make mistakes. Some might have been made during the exams. Our body is no less than a machine, it too wears down. A month before exams, we put ourselves through a lot of stress, so it’s natural to break down. That doesn’t mean we are incapable to do some work. People, who can mug-up things, get good marks and a good career and people who can’t, their dreams are shattered. This is so unfair! Is this called a competition? The society is making education a nasty competition instead of making it a healthy one to build up confidence and determination in youth to do something big in life.
Exams have become so marks-centric that students have become scared of it. Instead of a challenge, it has become a nightmare. What’s the result of this? Students are putting themselves more into mugging-up books, instead of understanding and installing in the brain for life what is being taught. Students are deviating themselves more and more away from extra-curricular activities. I have seen people giving up on their passion for dance, music, art or sports for studies. I myself had to give up because my parents thought I couldn’t balance curricular and extra-curricular activities. I always had a wish of taking dance lessons and make dance a hobby, a way to express my emotions. But I was made to quit after just 3 months. All because I couldn’t get a 80 or a 90 in exams? Why do these numbers have to matter? Are we in such a bad situation that some numbers which decide our fate? Our dreams and aspirations? Our goals in life?
These numbers have changed me drastically. People have instilled the importance of marks in life into my brain to such an extent, that now whenever I get low marks it feels I have committed some sin. Not only that, we are look down upon when we get low marks, as if there nothing other than marks in our lives. I used to be a carefree kid till around four years back. Now I have become a dejected one, a lost one. All because of some god-dammed freaking numbers.

    0 thoughts on “The NUMBERS rule

    1. What a thoughtful post Priya! I agree, people are going insane for this mad race of numbers! No one cares how much one really know. If I can’t score enough, I’m not good enough, irrespective of how talented or knowledgeable I really am… which I think is plain SAD 🙁

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