Let's talk Board Exams!

You must be wondering why I have named my blog 'Fifteenth Year'. Well, it is because I am fifteen years old and I intend to write about my life henceforward.

Since I am a student of Class X and will be giving my board exam this year, I wanted the first post to be about the cancellation of Xth Board Exams. A lot has been said in favour and against this decision. There is one group of people who say that Board Exams should not have been canceled because it served as a practice round for the Class XIIth Board Exams. They also say that the Board Exams made students serious about their education from Class X onwards. Some people believe that our score in the Class X Board Exam helps us understand our aptitude, and so, it helps us choose our stream (Science, Arts or Commerce).

There is this second group of people who say that it is good that there won't be any Board Exams from now on. Their arguments are quite simple. They feel that Board Exams cause unnecessary stress and unhealthy competition among students and their parents. There are some teachers who are of the opinion that Board Exams do not determine the aptitude of a person, because many students surprisingly end up scoring well in subjects they have never been good at. And of course, most students support this decision because no kid wants to slog five hours a day for a Board Exam.

There is this third group of people who think that they are just plain lucky. This group of people consists of all the students who are currently studying in Class X and will be the last batch to give the Board Exam. Had they been a year younger, they would not have had to give this monstrous Exam which claims thousands of pages in thousand of newspapers every year.

I must say that I belong to the second group. In fact, I support this new system of giving grades to the students. Many people are against the 'grading system' because they feel that giving the same grade to a person who scores 95% and a person who scores 99% is unfair. However, I am of the opinion that it is good that the same grade will be given to any student who scores within a certain range of marks. This is because I feel that Board Exams have never been fair in the first place.

Board Exams are conducted so that students know where they stand at a national level. But how is this fair when not all students appearing for the Exam do not have the same resources. It is obvious that a person who has spends tens of thousands of rupees on coaching classes so that they can study the same thing a million times and has well-educated parents and a good atmosphere for studying at home will score more than others. Not all students in India are so lucky. There are many students who are part of the first generation of their family to make it to Class X. They are just as bright and intelligent as their luckier counterparts, but they don't have the resources to score 99%. They cannot afford to go to expensive Coaching Classes and nobody in their family can help them with their studies.

So, is it fair to test the two types of students I have mentioned above on the same level? Clearly, intellect and hard-work are not the only deciders as far as scores are concerned. Resources matter just as much, especially since these coaching classes have a big hand in making their students memorize every page of the textbook so there are no room for mistakes, even if you write the exam with closed eyes.

Therefore, it is safe to say that a person who scores 95% with ample resources is on the same level as somebody who scores 85% without ample resources. So, why should they not be given the same grade.

Now, our score in the Board Exam determines what subjects we will study after Class X. But how is that fair, considering our papers our checked by exhausted teachers who have to check 35 papers per day? Can you imagine how these teachers must feel when they have to read the same thing five-hundred times? No wonder they mechanically give marks. Since these teachers are strangers to the students whose papers they are checking, they cannot take into account the caliber of the student, and for all these reasons, students sometimes do not get the marks they deserve.

Last but not the least, why should an Exam which we write at fifteen years of age have the power to determine our destiny? In fact, don't you think that it is wrong for fifteen year old children to be choosing what subject they want to study and in a way narrow down their career options at such a young age? There are just so many things that fifteen-year-olds are not allowed to do because they are considered too young, but how come they are allowed to choose what subject they want? In fact, I think it is much better if students get to choose out of a wide range of subjects and not just pick from the combinations of subjects offered to them by their school. For example, I think a student must be allowed to study History and Physics at the same time.

For all the above mentioned reasons, I am in favour of the cancellation of Board Exams. But this is just my opinion......