A recent piece
of news caught my eye. The headlines screamed: Yachting champ barred from
taking grade ten exams. This is what the paper reported :
Chintan Chhatbar,
a class 10 student at Kendriya Vidyalaya no 3, Colaba, found himself lost at
sea when the school decided that he was not eligible to take his CBSE exams
this year. A member of the Mumbai Yacht club, Chintan has represented the
country in yachting championships since 2008 and has won many national and
international medals. Chintan and his family have been trying everything they
can, in the hope that he can, at least, take the re-exams, scheduled to begin
today. ................................................................................................................................................................ PRL Gupta, assistant commissioner of
KVS,Mumbai region, said ,"We had warned the parents months ago, telling
them that in class 10,one cannot afford to take so many leaves.
The opportunities for sports are so minimal in this country.
And when there is someone all set to fight the system and make a niche for himself,
what do we do? We push him down governmental procedures and ‘rules’!
That an educational body should behave such is a scathing
remark on our educational system. The CBSE prides itself in being a progressive
educational board and the Kendriya Vidyalayas are the flagship schools of the government
of India. It’s really sad that a student under two such prestigious organisations
in our country finds himself tied down
by bureaucracy .
We may talk of holistic development and new educational initiatives,
but till we are free from unreasonable rules
like these, we will never motivate our kids to do something different. The onus
of getting kids to do something beyond their regular schooling is always on the parent and not all
parents have the resources to get their kids to do more than what the system
offers them. Alternative educational systems come at high costs or are dependent
on the parents’ knowledge and aspirations. The common person who is dependent on
the schools to teach their kids to aspire doesn't seem to
have much choice here.
