Harsha Sarma
(harshasarma183@gmail.com)
Anyone can have a child and call themselves a parent. A real parent is someone who puts that child above their own selfish needs and wants—unknown. In other words, a true parent is one who does not allow his greed and selfishness to influence his children.
The Gauhati University marksheet scam is currently causing uproar across the state. The police have already arrested several people involved in the scam. The leakage of the question papers for the NEET and NET examinations has created furore in both Houses of Parliament of India. Protests continue outside Parliament and in various states over this issue. However, this is not the first time in India that question papers have been leaked and marks have been increased for money. Every year, the mainstream examination question papers are leaked somewhere and somehow. Not only in the NEET or NET examinations, but question paper leakage in various examinations has become a common occurrence today. The tendency to leak question papers or pay money to increase marks benefits some students who are weak in their studies and are brought up with dishonest clothes. It becomes a curse for students who study a lot or are gifted. Incidents like question paper leaks break the morale of gifted and study-hungry students. They eliminate faith in the testing system. Many students become frustrated. Some commit suicide because they cannot cope with the pressure. But who encourages students to pass examinations dishonestly? Surely some greedy and socially destructive minded teachers and parents.
We ourselves have been involved in the education profession for thirty years. We have had many bitter and sweet experiences during the examinations. Many parents beg their children to be labelled beside the bright students in the final examinations. Some parents want their children to help them with a few questions and answers inside the examination hall. They want to be relaxed rather than strictly invigilated in the examination hall. There are also requests that no punitive action be taken if they write answers to each other. Oversighted invigilators get invitation for feasts from the parents, and strict ones have to face reproach. We ourselves are the second type of teachers. We have many enemies because we have been trying to perform our duties according to the norms and rules of the examination. There is a huge difference between the inside situation of the examination centre of our day and the present day. In our time, when we turned our heads to ask something of others, the invigilator either wrote large W on the answer sheet or signed, sealed, and stamped it by subtracting the marks. As a result, the student was sure to fail the examination. And the externals! They entered the examination rooms, took out cheats, and expelled twenty or thirty students at each examination centre. The main reason for the failure to pass more than 20-30 percent in the final examinations was the strict rules and regulations in force in the examination system. However, at that time, everyone could conduct the examination freely without any pressure from anyone. But nowadays, the sanctity of examinations is being tarnished in the changed circumstances. Today, it is common for students to ask each other questions in our state examination board examinations. There is fierce competition among every educational institution—who can get a 100 percent passing result? Otherwise, educational institutions’ heads and teachers will be held accountable to the departmental authorities if the passing rate is low. So, the invigilators as well as the externals have to pretend to be blind to avoid show-cause from the concerned authority. As a result, there is a major challenge in producing quality students from the state boards. However, board exams like CBSE, ICSE, etc. have three or four sets of question papers. Each set of question papers has a different type of questions. And sometimes some questions are the same, but the serial numbers are different. There is almost zero opportunity for students to ask each other the answers in the examinations of these boards. Students must do whatever they answer on their own merits. Candidates of these boards naturally feel more integrated in All India examinations like NEET, NET, JEE, CUET, etc., and do better than candidates of state boards.
The primary and sole responsibility of parents and teachers is the holistic development of their children. The more involved parents are in their children’s education, the better the results will be. Parents must be able to make their children realise the importance of school and education. Parents should have realistic and reasonable expectations according to their child’s abilities. Every effort should be made from an early age to instill in children strong character, values, good behaviour, good thinking, and discipline. You need to spend quality time with your child. Since the modern education system is complex and challenging, an environment of self-learning should be created in school and at home by allowing children to do projects on various subjects. Children should be given positive encouragement for every good deed they do. You should be able to point out the bad things and make him feel it bad.
It is better to be careful not to accept all the demands of your children out of childish affection. Teachers should never make negative comments about their teaching and discipline with their children. Negative comments will create a sense of distrust in the minds of the children towards the teacher and the school. As a result, the interest in learning will decrease. But if teachers help students get higher marks in examinations by dishonest means without teaching these, and if parents do not judge their children’s intelligence and buy examination question papers for lakhs of rupees to make doctors, engineers, professors, etc., it would be like digging their own graves.
If parents are greedy and if teachers teach future generations the lessons of immorality, the country will soon go to the abyss. The miscreants, as well as the parents and teachers involved in the leakage nexus, are equally responsible for this heinous deed. Parents who buy NEET question papers for Rs. 20–30 lakh and encourage their children to become doctors in a distorted way should also be punished. There is no way to forgive those involved in unholy activities just because they have money. It would be wrong for society to expect good service from a doctor who does not pass the examination honestly and gets a medical seat only for money. It would also be an illusion to expect honesty and generosity from someone whose blood carries the notion of corruption. Somebody may personally benefit from building their children’s careers through dishonest means, but the common people will suffer a lot. Some students will study day and night but fail to get a seat to study medical science, and others will get a seat with the strength of money or dishonestly despite being lowly intelligent. This is an obvious injustice to meritorious poor students. Such unholiness of the teachers or the parents will not spare the sin of robbing the poor for hoarding elite food for themselves. They may escape by practicing the loopholes of the law; but one day they will have to stand in the dock of conscience or God. One should remember that good parenting gives headaches, but bad parenting gives heartaches.