The 10th board exams had been and should remain a significant milestone in a student's life. Most importantly because it gives him a reality check. Its a trailer of what he is going to face when he gets out of the extremely protective atmosphere of the school.
Take a simple example, a student who is doing really well in school, is a favourite of his teachers, his parents are proud of him, his friends hail him academically, in short he is getting all the attention he ever craved for, might start thinking that he is amongst the best of the lot whereas he is best simply because rest of his school is not. He probably has never met the bestest of best.
And if this is the mindset it needs to be corrected pretty soon in life. The way he fairs in 10th will give him a good idea of where he stands and then till 12th board he can work upon himself and target the universities better. Whereas if the 10th board exams are scrapped, a child sits for a nationwide exam in the 12th for the first time, with the above said mindset, and BOOM!! He suddenly finds that he has not faired well in the exams and he is not able to even apply for the universities he wanted just because he doesn't have the right percentage. This would really ruin his career as he will never get a second chance.
Having said that, it doesn't mean everything is perfect! Here are few things that come to my mind that could be changed
- First and foremost have a single regulatory board for all schools whether its a state, private or central school so that all the students compete onto the same platform. Standard myths like "ICSE board is tougher than CBSE and hence we cannot be compared" need to be corrected because ultimately it is not going to matter. I congratulate Mr. Sibal for boldly coming forward on this.
- Have the percentile systems both in 10th and 12th boards. While i'm not really sure how the pecentile system can be taken forward to universities, this can certainly be applied to 10th. We just need to know where a student stands compared to others and percentiles are perfect for this. Because your percentile may be low even when your percentage is good.
- In addition, I would like the board to publish subject wise percentiles also. This will tell a student his relative positions in different subjects and will help him to choose his 11th subjects better.
- There should be a compulsory counselling for students with teachers and parents in all the schools before admitting the student in 11th standard. Main purpose of this will be to educate the student and most importantly his parents about what he is strong and weak in, to have an idea where his interests lie, and what are his career options in a particular line so that he chooses a subject with a clear picture in mind and not simply because his parents want him to be a doctor or an engineer. And here the subject wise percentiles will play a crucial role. e.g. if a student with relatively low percentile in science wants to be a doctor he knows that he has to work hard over it in the next couple of years.
- Lastly, I would like the regulatory board to organise various online nationwide quiz programmes, similar to maths olympiads, which will
· be optional
· target the 11th and 12th students
· be nationwide
· be subjectwise
· help the students gauge their performances in their weak areas time to time.While this is not very important for higher education institutes which conduct their own entrances, it is really very important for those colleges and universities which admits on the basis of percentages.
Finally, i have a request for all the indian parents to please stop playing "my horse is bigger than yours". A child's education is not the matter of your pride but his own growth and learning. And his learning should pave his path for life and not your own expectations.
