All study and no play

While most paediatricians recommend plenty of air and exercise and age-old adages speak about how work should be tempered with fun and games, the newest SSC rules seem say otherwise. With just a few months to go for the March examinations, the state has revised the rules for awarding additional marks to those students who excel in arts and culture. Students can only earn up to 15 marks extra rather than 25. Besides, the state has done away with the 2 per cent reservations for students in first year junior college admissions for cultural quota.

The shift has most students and quite a few teachers enraged at the unfairness towards students who have worked hard in these fields. “I don’t think that it’s fair to students. Many students are good in these fields rather than academics and have worked really hard to take part in competitions,” says Omkar Parab, a 10th standard student at Swami Vivekanand Vidyalaya in Kurla. “I have myself played in several football matches on an interschool level and have brought back several trophies, but now that doesn’t matter. I think that the state should change the policy back to what it was.”

Omkar’s mother, Apurva Parab, is equally indignant about the change. “It’s not fair that my son and his fellow students are working so hard to bring back trophies for their school and they are no longer getting as much of appreciation for it in terms of marks. It’s not as if no work goes into it. So, really, this is a very unfair measure, especially cutting off the reservations. Just studies is not everything after all,” she asserts.

Coach Balmukund Tiwari from St Mary’s High School feels that his students got a raw end of the deal. “We have students training in different sports for one hour during the morning and then another hour in the evening. This obviously takes away from the time that they would spend studying,” he complains.

Reena Eapen, who teaches at Himalaya High School in Borivali, however, has no qualms about fewer marks being allotted. She feels that its only fair to the students who have academic qualifications and do not get admissions due to quotas. “I am fine with the 15 marks allotted since a lot of times, good students don’t end up getting admissions because of the arts and culture quota. Neither do I think a move like this will encourage mugging up since students have been passing only because of it. I think what’s ailing the SSC board is lack of interesting subjects. Maybe if students had an option to choose between Science or Maths from Class 9, it would help them a lot more,” she says.

Coach Tiwari however, points out that not every student is talented in academics, and those who aren’t shouldn’t be overlooked.  “Not every student has an academic bent of mind — there are plenty of those who are average or below average in their studies but excel in sports or extracurricular activities. For them, this is a rather unfair turn of events,” he concludes.