Do Exam Marks Define Men/Women of Character & Success?

In the Indian academic system, much emphasis is given on marks. Most often we see corners of cities are covered with boards displaying a number of students' photos with marks achieved in exams. It’s a trap which our institutions, parents and students got trapped into and seems we are keeping the trap alive. Seems we all are running after marks. Having an aim to achieve great marks in examinations is not bad but focusing solely on that aspect of education is not fruitful or effective in the long run.

Report cards in our education system often misses out reports in below qualities students:

• Courage - how to face a crisis situation and handle it without fear

• Compassionate - not be selfish and feel for other

• Collaboration - rather than competition, helping others and teaming up for better result

• Calm - Maintaining a sense of undisturbed state of mind instead of getting restless when faced with adverse situations.

With the advent and inclusion of new and newer technology in business and our daily life, disruption is happening in the market, business, organizations and society as a whole. The more time passes, this technological invasion in human space will be more prominent.

And in that case, more of the above human qualities will be demanded out of students coming out of their academic cocoon and joining the workforce to contribute to the society in different segments.

We all know about the world renowned personality called Swami Vivekananda and his contribution to the world. And we are aware of his famous Chicago speech a century ago.

I came across a very surprising fact about his student life in the book ‘ Ochena Ojana Vivekananda’ by Sankar.

Swami Vivekananda’s marks in examination were not that impressive aligning with his persona we are known about. He appeared in 3 academic examinations - Entrance, FA and BA.

Marks are as below:

Entrance:

Percentage: 51.5 %

FA:

Percentage: 45.8 %

BA:

Percentage: 52.2 %

Not a very promising marks! Right?

If examination marks were not reflective of Swami Vivekananda’s astounding world moving deeds and fame, then what contributed to his achievement in life: THE ACHIEVEMENT, we thrive for - though different for different persons.

In Swami Vivekananda’s words the contributing factor was his CHARACTER and DARE DEVIL COURAGE: All the credit he gives to the character building education he received from his mother from childhood and life transformation and character building adhyatmic (spiritual) teachings of his Guru Ramakrishna Paramhansa and his open mind to enquire everything and courage to accept and implement and follow truth.

With current education system, we often observe that children starts showing the symptom of - I know all and they don’t want to listen to their parents respectfully and have a false sense that parents know nothing. This symptom and trend is dangerous for those only who patronize it.

If we go by the above example of Swami Vivekananda, what is needed most in our education now-a-days (more relevant today) is -

• How to love and respect parents and

• Learn and imbibe character building and life sustaining lessons from parents and from their their daily life

Giving back respect to parents.

Education which builds CHARACTER and infuses a person with indomitable COURAGE.

Rest will follow.