Editor,
So far as the evolution and the growth of education are concerned, every individual has their own story to tell. As a member of this developing state, I believe that education is a tool with which the process of development could be smoothened.
In the past years, we have witnessed remarkable growth in terms of the gross enrollment ratio in our state, which implies that every learner has a dream to accomplish. Accordingly, the growth of competitiveness in the present day impacts the nature of learning and the learners.
Gone are the days when something called ‘healthy competition’ was in practice. Gone are the days when parents working in paddy fields gave the best life lessons and the children learned naturally. In recent times, very disturbing news have been appearing from time to time, ie, the APPSC paper leak, NEET 2024, NET June 2024, etc. It is devastating to learn the fact that the very institutions that provide security can lead us to mental trauma as such.
Can we assume that it is fuelled by corruption? Who is to be blamed? Who can be relied on? What implications would it bring to the genuine aspirants’ mental health? These are the questions we need to ponder on.
There was a time when discussions at the dinner table would revolve around the approaches and ways of acquiring wisdom. But now, more than the children, their parents are worried and sometimes go into mental trauma. They try their level best to ensure that their children do not lack anything, but the efforts remain undermined. In this process, sometimes the idea of healthy competition is crushed and the concept of overpower prevails. Right there the dreams of many genuine aspirants are crushed before their eyes.
As a concerned citizen, I earnestly pray to all the stakeholders to take genuine responsibility as individuals, as we are blindfolded in the name of corruption, bad political influences and the cruelty of nepotism in the present day, as in one of the famous poems written by Robert Frost, ‘The Road Not Taken’, he says: “I took the road less travelled by, which made all the difference.”
But in the case of the genuine aspirants, they took the road less travelled by, but that does not make any difference anymore.
Mama Patum,
Research scholar