Where are we sailing to ?

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.