Don’t stress the kids
Exam times are here. Students in their SSC, high school,
middle school and (in many cases) even primary school
are coping with their exams. At this time of the year,
its normal for students and their parents to feel stressed.
Everyone, naturally, wants their children to do the best they
possibly can.
But together with this urge for excellence come unrealistic
expectations. For one, not every child can be a topper. More
importantly, the strait-jacketed exam system we follow means
students need to cope with a fixed menu of subjects, whether
they like these subjects or not.
In recent years, Open Schools have entered Goa, offering
a wider choice of subjects. But only a very few students end
up in such institutions. Most go to the mainstream, whether
the Goa Board SSC or, increasingly, the ICSE model.
Unlike in real life — where we get the chance to focus on
those fields we are good at — the educational system in
school tells us to “study what you’re weak in”. This, together
with the parents’ pressures to excel, makes education a pain
for quite a few students.
Parents would do well not to pressurise their children;
excessive pressure can be lethal. Likewise, we need to
keep in mind that schools and colleges often end up
teaching a number of subjects which are, very often, not
at all related to the careers young people choose in life.
The challenge for educationists too is how to spur on the
imagination of young people, so that they can excel in
those fields they love. Students need to find ways of
earning from careers they enjoy, and subjects they are
good at; not made to feel a failure in life because they
don’t particularly like one or the other subject.
The Goa Board has been particularly inflexible in forcing
students to choose from a very limited number of subjects.
This needs to change.
In a world where a plethora of information easily available
via cyberspace, learning by rote is redundant. We need to
teach our children new strategies to navigate all the information
— useful and otherwise — floating around there.
AG’s fees
Controversy-courting campaigner Aires Rodrigues has
been consistently after the Goa advocate general, specially
over the fees being paid to him. Apparently, a
Right to Information dug out the huge sums being paid to
the AG, and new reports say the fees may be “reviewed”.
While this might be just a single case, it does seem that
the Goa government is paying extortionate amounts to
certain post holders. Scarce taxpayer resources must not be
squandered.
Going beyond just the AG, it is essential to have transparency
about how much the various functionaries of the government
are earning. These figures should not include just the basic
pay, but all the allowances and claims being so disbursed.
Infact, such information has to be mandatorily revealed under
the Central Right to Information Act, which applies to Goa too.
But a number of official departments have not come out with
their own statutory disclosures, making the act not effective in
letter and spirit. Some information is not available online too.
More than that, we need to keep a close watch on the expenses
of our politicians. Just the occasional assembly
question is not sufficient to keep track of this.
The use of the Right to Information Act to dig out such
information is commendable indeed. As intended, it could
lead to further transparency in the system, even if the reason
for finding this out was personal. More citizens should come
forward to use the RTI Act; but, importantly, they should
also share their information via the press, so that it could
have the maximum desired impact.
