HOW BAD IS 80%??

While walking down the Delhi University campus for admission the thought of what my future holds for me continues to strike my mind. Is my life limited 2 just the 85% that I scored? May 21^st morning I woke up to be shocked by marks which were way below my expectations. That was the saddest Friday of my life (as I have always considered Fridays lucky for me) but next morning was even worse when I read the TOI and HT first page which screamed loud that DU cut-offs likely to rise this year(it was Saturday…that anyway is unlucky for me). And I was like some colleges closed at 97% last year…how much will they increase this year???

Two years of hard work and students who have scored 90% will get into a good college but what about those who just fell short of it by few per cent? How bad is 80%? Bad because people console you by saying “80% is good enough for class XII” and irritating because you will go mad rushing from college to college checking your name in the cut off lists. You feel awful that “I can’t get through country’s best college just because I feel short by few %” Is it a crime you have committed by scoring 80%? Why is it that we study only for marks? The person who has got 80 is unhappy because he didn’t get a 85, one with 85 is upset of not entering the elite 90 club and the most shocking at times you wonder (what is he or she saying) “I got a 97…how is it possible…maine toh pura paper kiya tha…I expected a 100 yaar”.

Our dreams are only made of marks. Sometimes I wonder what all or what not we have studied in our school life? After all we have studied about Akbar, European colonialism and magnetism and periodic table all together till class 10. And when you reach class 11 where you are reminded in class “beta aapne science li hain, baaki sab chod do toh behtar hoga” (baaki sab includes everything other than studying). Your parents remind you that you are supposed to crack IIT and do your family proud. And students in arts and commerce are reminded about the cut-offs that the DU colleges closed their admissions in last session. And you in your classes take your pen completely apart and put it back together when bored.

Why is it that if you fall short of 5 marks of scoring 100 you are rejected by the country’s best college? By any chance if you had not known a 5 mark question in your board paper, does that make you less intelligent than one’s who knew it? Lack of seats in universities, reservations and peer pressure all are responsible for student life going waste. No wonder this peer pressure leads to students committing suicides and the increase in number of counselors in India. How can somebody be judged on what he or she will do in life with his class 12 marks? Jitesh Pillaai(editor of filmfare) had tweeted “news papers and channels should go and interview these 90 per centers after 12 years and see where they are”?

I really wish students had enjoyed studying for themselves and not for their parents, relatives and neighbors. Wish that every career and stream is granted equal respect. Wish people start realizing there’s life beyond being a doctor and engineer. It is high time that people realize education is way beyond marks on your report card. We need “An education which makes a child sad when the last bell is rung at the end of the day in the school”...........