handling failures ~ analysing TN +2 results 2018

Old timers will recall that the First Public Examination for the students used to be at Class XI – those who passed would join PUC in College and those days, the State First used to secure a little over 400 out of 500 -  a time when securing more than 80% was considered the ultimate !! ..  Those were the times when Newspapers would roll out special editions containing the Roll No. of those Candidates who passed the Examination.  It was ‘all numbers’ and those Special Supplements would sell like hot cakes…….. students, parents, near and dear would be elated to see their Registration No. appearing on the newspaper – it was a time to celebrate and so they would buy toffees and distribute ! – simple life … and the elite few who got 400 and above and got State ranks – their names would appear on the newspaper – the greatest of honours indeed…  do you know that the State no longer publishes the toppers and has infact banned displaying the marks and merit list !!!

TN + results were announced yesterday .. .. .. .. there are success stories - when she lost her father to a road accident in Chromepet last December, a few months ahead of her plus-two exams, M M Sri Pavitha Preethi and her family were left devastated. From dropping her to school, to coaching her and giving tips to prepare for the civil services, her father was Pavitha’s biggest support.  The exam results announced on Wednesday brought back happiness to the family as Pavitha, scoring 1176, was among the topmost performers from Saidapet Corporation Girls Higher Secondary School.  She had to walk long extra miles !!  - “I travelled for 1.5 hours from Pammal to my school every day. My day began at 5.30am and after finishing special classes in the evening I reached home at 7.30pm,” Pavitha said. “I want to get enrolled in Ethiraj College or Stella Maris for BCom and join UPSC coaching,” she said.

Away, 8 students, including six girls, allegedly committed suicide in five districts of the state after the results of the Class 10 and 12 Madhya Pradesh board examinations were declared on Monday, police said. While four students were from Class 10, an equal number were those who had appeared for the Class 12 exams, they said, adding that two girls, who attempted suicide, are undergoing medical treatment. While some of these students failed to clear their examinations, others took the extreme step as they had not fared as per their expectations, officials said.

A couple of years ago, we had organized a talk session for the students of SYMA Growth – and the Police Inspector of D3 Triplicane PS Mr R Dhalavoisamy  made a powerful speech.  It was simple and touched the nerves – failures are not to be feared.  Quoting personal examples he urged the students that a failure in Public exam or elsewhere would not push one out of the society.  While most people would advise the gathering on how to get top marks seeing it as the gateway of success, this Officer neatly narrated that one should never get disheartened by the failures.  I felt very impressed.

This year there  has been a drop in performance of science stream students in the state board Class XII exams, the results declared on Wednesday showed, prompting experts to predict a one mark dip in engineering cut-off scores for students whose marks range between 200 and 195. For those who score between 180 and 195, the cut-off or eligibility scores, calculated on marks in physics, chemistry and mathematics, would drop by 1.5 to 2 marks from last year, the experts reckoned.  Nearly 1,500 students scored 185 or more last year and shared the same cut-off. This year, only 900 students will share each cut-off score, said educational analyst.

In an interesting data TOI reveals that those who secured above 1150 in 2017 were 7527 now dropping to 1841 a whopping drop by 75.5% - similarly those who secured above 1000 dropped from 65489 to 46255 by 29.3% !!!! ~ now read this interesting news also from TOI. 

In an unusual gesture, a man from Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district threw a party for his son who had flunked his Class X board exams on Monday because he wanted to “motivate” the teenager to perform better. Earlier in the day, the MP board of secondary education had declared the results for the exams and within a few hours at least seven students had committed suicide. Civil contractor Surendra Vyas invited his relatives and friends for the surprise bash and only after reaching the venue did they realise that he had thrown the party for his son Ashu, who was wearing a garland.

‘I want to tell kids boards are not last exam’ “I love my father and promise to study hard in this academic session so that I pass with flying colours,” Ashu, a student of Saraswati Shishu Mandir, told TOI. Though most of the neighbours were taken aback, Kumar was unfazed. “This is how I want to motivate my son. After failing in exams, children go into depression and some of them even take the extreme step of ending their lives. I want to tell such children that boards are not the last exam. There is much more in life,” Kumar said. “My son can reappear in the exam again next year and with hard work can get better marks,” he added.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

17^th May 2018.