It absolutely was the first day on the new school year. The morning assembly was on the verge of begin and I saw among my former classmates moaping fervidly while surrounded by a small grouping of students. Upon inquiry I ran across that she had failed the entire year and was repeating the last grade. This heartbreaking scene is forever etched in my memory.
During my college years, the most dreaded word you can imagine was the concept ‘fail’.
No matter how confident I is at my performance there had been still this unconquerable fear of hearing or seeing the term ‘fail’ on the evening of results. The amusing thing is, my parents were always encouraging and not strict – they were never overbearing when it located my performance in assessments. They did not pressurise me or my siblings to exclusively feature inside the top three or acquire straight A’s. In spite on the relaxed environment we hailed by, we still managed to do very well.
During my college years, the most dreaded word you can imagine was the concept ‘fail’.
No matter how confident I is at my performance there had been still this unconquerable fear of hearing or seeing the term ‘fail’ on the evening of results. The amusing thing is, my parents were always encouraging and not strict – they were never overbearing when it located my performance in assessments. They did not pressurise me or my siblings to exclusively feature inside the top three or acquire straight A’s. In spite on the relaxed environment we hailed by, we still managed to do very well.
Unfortunately parents like mine form a little demo-graphic on Pak. Placing enormous on their children to do exceedingly well, or achieve the highest rank or grade is usually a common behaviour found practically in most families.
This brings us towards growing trend of student suicides which can be raving in Pakistan. There have been quite a lot of them this year by students who succumbed towards pressure of exams or failure included.
A sixth-grader allegedly fully commited suicide inside his household in Nazimabad in May this season. The officer said he / she apparently committed suicide by hanging himself through the ceiling fan out of fear of his parents as he had failed at school.
Throughout Abbottabad, a teenage girl committed suicide in Kaghan Nest in June after unable her Secondary School Qualification (SSC) examinations. Mehvish had appeared inside the SSC exam for the entire year 2012. However, when she discovered that she had failed, she became so dejected in which she locked herself within her bedroom and shot herself inside the head with her father’s gun.
Since failure signifies losing self-esteem, cessation of cultural connections and unfulfilled objectives, it is perceived like a lifelong and extremely stigmatising predicament by young minds.
Sad to say, the exam system within Pakistan may be to blame for the phenomenon.
The structure is such that most students will likely ‘take it easy’ all year around after which it study intensively before his or her finals. This puts too much pressure for a single given time and if one considers uncontrollable factors for instance illness and environmental constraints whereby a student will not be able to do well inside the final paper, then which is not yielding an exact and fair result.
In western countries such as Canada and US, the device of assessment is employed.
Assessment, which encompasses testing along with evaluation, is an on-going course of action, a year long observation of an student and his abilities including extracurricular activities and class participation. The year around assessment system operates using month by month tests, observation to classroom participation & their behaviour, peer to peer their relationships, individual skills and when it comes to the senior students just like secondary students, a year-end essay or paper to be handed in. This arrangement encompasses an extensive performance by an person student and thus may prove to be more pertinent and lucid.
Moreover, in the United States or American educational system, the tradition of encouragement & the motivation, in form of month by month certificates, awards along with prizes is common. The strengths are highlighted while weaknesses are gently broached. Often awards are tailor-made to accommodate individual students; a practice I observed in the secondary schools in my city.
In the US, there are hardly any suicides caused by pressure of grades or failing, (maybe because not a soul really fails) but rather caused by bullying or other sorts of discrimination or racism. Contrarily, the students in Pakistan possess resorted to ending their lives due to immense burden on the crooks to achieve results they feel there're incapable of or from the stigma attached to unable.
Some may argue until this relaxed atmosphere and cutting down of parental demands could cause the students to come to be lax concerning their scientific studies; parents must be associated with each step of his or her child’s education.
However, you will discover other ways of reinforcing accomplishment; motivation, encouragement, personal time and studying together are some strategies that will help do that. Self-esteem and confidence have to be pursued for the kid as higher self-esteem has seen to bring in better final results.
I have come across several friends have been always worried about obtaining the ‘first position’, or ‘highest percentage’. One even informed me that her parents declared which it must be the very first position and nothing different. She was under quite a bit of stress.
I do believe parent’s intentions are in good faith when they put the responsibility of such expectations on their child to make them perform their absolute best. However, in the case of seriously naive kids, it may have disastrous consequences, or produce personality defects for instance low self-esteem and depressive disorders.
It would also help when the education system of Pakistan adopts the device of year-round assessment. It will go a considerable ways in solving the dilemma of student anxiety along with trauma; since they will be judged from a variety of factors and angles instead of from one earth-quavering, ground-breaking doomsday like the ‘final’ exam.
