My thoughts as a thread

Every action has a consequence (call it, say, Karma)

The choice of giving liberal marks in subjects which have subjective evaluation method, unfortunately, has ONLY bad consequences. Let me explain. https://twitter.com/swamy64/status/1283646799937449984

It sets expectations high. It tells, subtly or otherwise, that all systems are there to be broken, including subjectivity. In a deeper sense, it makes life a complete binary (in the expectation of the people who are brought up with such objectivity in subjective situations)

Unfortunately, in doing so, it doesn't prepare those students for real life. Having been brought up in binary situations, they approach life in a black-or-white, one-or-zero mentality.

As you can expect, it hits them with a 100-ton force!

They start believing they are entitled. They start believing that they are infallible. They start believing all things are possible if they push the system hard. And they try. They fail. They keep trying harder. They fail - because life is comprised of all shades of grey.

They can't come to terms with their failure. They feel defeated, defanged, enervated and give up on themselves. And considering themselves as failures (not really though - but who will tell them?) ... they divert their raw energy into stuff more devastating.

Today's education system sucks. We can't change it overnight. The competitive scenario has made it worse. The misery is compounded when everyone, his second cousin and their friends' circle all of them are considered 100% scorers ... has intelligence gone up so much?

Has knowledge been made so easily measurable? Have applications of knowledge been tested with such precision? Has creative leverage of what was taught in school been so objectively evaluated?

I doubt if many of us would agree wholeheartedly with a YES to the above questions.

We have to take small steps but definitive ones to make sure that the withdrawal from such a scenario of marks inflation is accomplished. In another generation, we can possibly come back to a semblance of normalcy.

This gen is a wash-out and they are going to be problem children

... unless, at least in college, they are taught what reality is and how quickly their expectation bubble is burst.

IN many corporates, the normal curve is still in vogue. Some "liberal/forward looking" corporates still won't address that (as an elephant in the room)

... but use that in exalted circles and make it sound as if the Normal Curve has been discarded for practical use.

I am not convinced. I believe that when data is aggregated, a population naturally distributes itself into a normal curve.

The normal curve tells us that there are a variety of people - not all of them can be 100% scorers (in school or in college or in office - even in society)

Resorting to & staying with marks inflation is, IMHO, the most disservice we have done to our children.

We keep talking of सब्र का फल मीठा होता हैं ... but we don't teach them what is सब्र !!

We also need to teach them the value of hard-work, and most importantly, excelling in a subject or in an exam doesn't naturally makes on meritorious.

Life's journey takes you to unseen, unknown, unforeseen destinations. Life skills differentiate between the meritorious versus the also-rans. Marks do not. I have seen people from simpler backgrounds doing better than people from privileged backgrounds.

I have also seen people from privileged backgrounds doing superbly compared to people from simpler backgrounds. Evidence abounds for both cases of success (in varying definitions for the word)

SO a background isn't a true indicator, but the individual's skill-will ..

... capability-willingness, potential-performance matrix matters. Getting that right should be the goal of our education system. Hopefully there are serious observers in our upper echelons and they put together a pathway that propels our nation forward by proper investment ..

... in the skill-building of our upcoming generations.

And not everyone will become an Ambani (the surname). We know than even an Anil won't stay an Ambani (the import of the surname is relevant here)

But there is no harm in anyone trying to become the next Ambani. We need to create an ecosystem that will help recognize failures in our lives as mere speed-breakers than stoppages. For that, we need to start at schools - where low-scorers needn't be failures.

Probably their calling is elsewhere. Someone, was it Edison or Einstein, famously said: evaluating a fish on its tree-climbing skills will make it feel like a failure for life.

We should create a system that will channelize the individual's calling, rather than dumbing it down & making it a mindless, impotent rat-race using a cookie-cutter approach.

<End of my rant>