Is "Competition" in children good? Shall we reward Meritocracy?

Shall we award anyone first rank, just because they scored highest marks!!

Or possibly scold them for making other children feel bad.

I think we should encourage the first, and I am hopeful that most of the readers will agree. As an individual, I appreciate the philosophy of reducing the number of formal tests and percentage marks in junior classes as suggested by our educational system. However, I fear that many of my educational peers and many parents (especially in villages), are misjudging this as an excuse for under-performance or complacence. There is a threat of further slackening in educational standards if external monitoring and guidance systems are not in place.

If it was not for 8^th and 10^th boards results, we will never know the criminally inadequate education in many public & private schools.

Hence, I disagree with abolition of exams and shifting to grade system to reduce the pressure in children and their parents. I think a movie like “Three Idiots” does a better job at making children / parents aware, that every child has her own strong points and interest. Develop these talents and you will find the “Rancho”, “Raju” or “Farhan” in your wards.

Treating the disease, rather than the symptom

If you fail despite your honest efforts, it is the “SYSTEM” that failed, not you. It failed to identify the talent in you, groom you, and then judge you accordingly. It is the same mistake as we made in farming some 30 years back, spray a “Kill-all” pesticide for pest control, and in the process, we killed the friendly pests and butterflies in the process.

Improve and expand the system to enable judging students for creative thinking, sports, music, art, innovation and grade them on all these talents. However, if somebody has a great aptitude for science or commerce and tops in class, don’t penalize them saying other children will feel bad so we shift to grading system.

Keep Competition alive – Make it more Healthy

Help children to perceive competition in a positive way. Competition helps you become better than what you are today. It forces you to keep learning, improving and finding better ways of doing things. Don’t kill the sense of competition and the zeal to excel, help children understand their own strength and help them develop these skills further and try and compete to become better.

In Summary

Expand the horizons of education beyond textbooks, Science and Maths. Create more winners and performers in far greater number of disciplines. Just make sure that no one who is willing to work hard, shall remain a looser.

Visiting the parents (of my children)

A positive Change

Sounds funny, but it fits in, when I tell you that I run a school. J

We started a school in rural India last year and I wanted to meet the parents in small groups and know there feedback on school and the studies so far. I met people in four villages and ironically, the ones who came had very good things to say about us. Typically, we expect people with grievance and complaints to turn up for such meetings.

I witnessed an interesting change in the outlook of parents on education vis-à-vis my last years interactions. I wish the credit had gone to us, but i think credit is due to “Three Idiots” an excellent creation and enactment by our little master (Amir Khan). Though, I wish my village friends had also appreciated “Tare Zameen Par” as much or even more. I place it above “Three Idiots” any day, especially for young children, where parents and teachers play a significant role in their development.

The parents whose main focus in life used to be, for child to be able to speak in English in front of guests, were talking of “education” to necessarily include games, sports and teaching children good manners (read value-system).

I would like to thank “Three Idiots” team for having delivered a positive message penetrating even the rural community. I hope more such brilliantly entertaining and message movies come out from Bollywood.