To score or not to score

At the very outset, I intend to make one thing clear. This post is only of academic interest. Any other frivolous interpretations of any words in the title shall be the readers' imagination and nothing else.

The recently declared CBSE Board exam results have left me in a daze. My mother, who teaches mathematics to class X, was dancing around, celebrating the four hundreds in her class. A hundred in maths has always been possible. However, I clearly remember an official from CBSE telling us students in a seminar that the answer script of the student who scores cent per cent is scrutinized thrice, in order to snatch away a mark on the slightest of pretexts. That habit of CBSE examiners does not seem to be the norm today. And the students are surely not complaining.

That is not all, my mom also tells me that the highest marks in the languages and Social Science are 97, while Science is a slightly dismal 95. One can't help but push the University cut-offs still higher. My sister, who scored 80 % in the commerce stream of class XII, is not even looking to do anything with her marks. Getting a distinction is no longer an achievement.

Spare a thought for the parents, what do they do in all this madness. Prepare their child to face the world, seek knowledge, acquire skills, etc. or join in the rat race that might not mean anything in the long run, but will surely get them an inch ahead of the rest. A concerned parent called up the other day asking if my mom would accept his son for maths tuition. On being enquired about how good he was at maths, the parent replied,'He is average, scores around 80%.'

I sometimes imagine what a chopper ride over all this tuition centres and coaching institutes would reveal. Students hunched over creaking desks busy scribbling away to a 90 or a 95 and the lone teacher crying out all formulae, equations, notes and the like.

Everyone whom I have spoken to in this regard has told me that it is always good to score high marks. And I have not been able to find a convincing counter. However, all these 90 plus scores might just come back to haunt the topper when he or she pompously parades her grade sheets in front of an interview panel. Given the capsule based approach that is ingrained in our educational system, it is indeed hard to retain knowledge (not information) over a few years. And if that is the case, then high scores can prove to be excess baggage.

To score or not to score, the verdict is still not out.