Wednesday, March 26, 2008

After a while...

Damn its been a long long time. I cant believe I got through 11th!!! I mean, it was a very realistic possibility that I might fail this year... I managed a 60+, im shocked as hell... pleasantly shocked :P not complaining!

Taking a whole new approach to 12th... wont repeat the same mistakes (will make new ones! hehe) I've dropped maths tuition - waking up at 6 in the morning is the most counter-productive thing I have ever done in my life... also dropped chemistry tuition - i anyway never used parab sir's notes, why the hell should i continue, i used to use those two hours to catch up on sleep... Since its board year, I'm planning on being completely dependent on the textbooks, and if I have any sort of problem I plan to get behind KK and Zim sirs for the solutions... they'r the teachers, and I have decided to totally exploit the school resources...

In theory it should work. Practically? Lets give it a month or two and see :)

You know what? Seems like 4 people have been detained in 11th. I mean, alright, they didnt get the required 33% pass percentage... but what sort of a school kicks out its students??! And one of them couldnt make the cut by just 3 marks. Come on, doesnt the school have some sort of a social responsibility?? Its not doing us a favour by giving us an education, it must realize that hey, Anandalaya is by far NOT the best school around... attending it is merely a locational necessity. Just as it is our responsibility to always be at our best, to be well-turned-out Anandalaya students, isnt it also the school's responsibility to make least bit of effort to ensure that it happens? That we become "well-turned-out Anandalaya students"??

I liked something my father said : private schools run on money. Every student is financially important to them, so they do their best to make sure every seat is filled and no student ever faces a detainments situation. On the other hand, government schools can be questioned by the judiciary. Theirs is the greatest social responsibility, and they are under pressure for being answerable for whatever happens to any student. So basically, in one, money talks, and in the other, power talks.
But my school? Anandalaya the great is neither here nor there. To put it simply in hindi, sirf management ki manmani chalti hai. One of my friends said, ya, neither money nor power talks, but hey, in Anandalaya, marks talk. The criteria are clear : if you dont make the cut, you're out.
I think that is such a farce. I mean, whats the point of failing a child in 11th? At the end of the year, is it right that the school is asking a student to leave??

There is an option for students to give board exams as private candidates. But, for this, it is required for the student to have class 12 education on certificate.
Every school anyway conducts prelims before the board exams. In fact, Anandalaya conducts two rounds of prelims, a system I strongly advocate for. So if a student does not manage to do well, or fetch even 40% marks in the prelims, the school could suggest that he/she write the boards as a private candidate. Wouldnt that be the best option, for both the student as well as the school? I know the school only worries about its result, I would be surprised if they cared about the student individually, its only the overall result of every successive batch that counts in the long run. So it would be a win-win situation, wouldnt it? The school wouldnt have to worry about its results, and the student faces no insult, family trauma or the stigma of failing, which, lets admit, is made worse than it actually is, by society.

But hell, who would think about it.

Another question is; why am I bothering at all? I've managed to pass quite acceptably, so why create such a ruckus about those who havent? Its not about who has been detained; its not because some of them happen to be very close friends. It is only because its upto me, its upto us, those who have managed to pass, to put the point across. The fairest king has always been the one whose courtiers have been varied in their opinions; the advantaged must speak for the disadvantaged. Its the same principle that applies when we take it as social responsibility to speak out against poverty, pollution, exploitaiton...

Aargh. Just my thoughts. Too complex?