Star Section

   "My son has been put in the Star Section," my sister called me up, one day, her voice beaming with pride and joy. "Now what's that ?" I asked. "Students who secure above 90% are put in the Star Section. Then comes the next section comprising of students who score between 90% to 80%, and so on and so forth, she explained. A little later, my friend came to me and sought counsel for her son who was getting demotivated for being brought down to the lower sections. He was a good student but due to some ill health and other minor problems, he could not perform well and hence the downfall. I later learnt that this segregation of students on the basis of grades is done to enable teachers to brighten up the already bright ones and to give special coaching to the weaker ones.    

                     Ridiculous!! thought I. Thank God, my son is into profession and there were no such systems during his academic career. If I am not wrong, this process of categorisation of students on the basis of marks started two decades ago. The ones in the Star sections are literally squeezed so that the majority of students can get good grades, a pride for the school and an increase in admissions in the following year. The students in the lower sections too are provided special coaching so that they can pass and not let down the image of the school. Unfortunately, even the educational system has not been spared of getting entangled in the intricate rat race.

Commercialism looming large in an area, where it must be conspicuously absent. It is comprehensible that the number of students has increased drastically but that doesn't mean the implementation of educational policies and teaching methods get diluted. There is no denying the fact, that education these days has become result-oriented and knowledge is taking a back seat. In the craze of competition, children are dragged or literally pushed towards multitasking and are being stressed to the optimum. Teachers and parents are not being spared in order to achieve all round development of the child. 

                      Earlier, a heterogeneity of pupils was prevalent in each section. The ones better in studies were seated next to the mediocre, the former assisting and guiding the latter whenever and wherever required. This inculcated a sense of co-operation and compassion within students. Children learnt to be helpful and friendly. The competition was healthy and not cut-throat. Education was value-based and moral ethics also gained ground. 

                       The glaring damage that is occurring due to section classification is that most of the students of the "Star Sections" are putting on airs, they are looking down upon their own friends in the other sections. Their attitudes reaching greater altitudes, most of them forgetting that "Pride goes before a fall". The ones in the lower sections often lose confidence. At times, due to certain unavoidable circumstances students may score less marks, as a result when they are brought down to the lower sections, they start feeling low, get demotivated and ultimately, this hampers their spirits. Friends get separated, and this fact keeps haunting the child. Some children are comfortable with their own friends and tend to learn better. However, comradeship and peer study gets washed away. Children are always under the constant pressure of remaining in the top sections. Does a mother show partiality amongst her children? Then why should students be compared, contrasted and categorized? Especially, the students between the IXth to XIIth classes can be correctly compared to pressure cookers, full of pressure. Earlier the education system was not this throttling however, students did fare well. Knowledge should be qualitative and not quantitative. Teachers, parents and students keep debating, discussing and complaining about the system but strangely all fall into the bandwagon. 

                       Parents send their children to schools not to receive them back with the same format but to see them become somebody better from the inside before their course completes. I sincerely request education policy makers to form norms which will bring about a holistic growth of a child. Some schools give so much impetuous to academics that other latent talents get dwarfed. A student needs to be groomed to be self-sufficient, to fend for himself, and to handle any kind of situation with confidence. It's time the system takes a complete revamp so that children have fun with learning. Let us ruminate what Rabindranath Tagore had said, "The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but keeps our life in harmony with all existence."