Wake up daughter, it’s 4:30 am!”, “Son, it’s SLC, why aren’t you serious?” These are the most popular dialogues for the past few months among the family of SLC appearing students. You wake up early in the morning, study, have breakfast, study, eat lunch, back to study, sit for dinner, again study till mid-night and when you finally get to bed, trust me, you find yourself studying even in dreams! It’s good that we study, isn’t it? But the most important question lies here, “Why do you study? To pass the SLC? To get through the so called ‘Iron Gate’? To get more than 90 percent? Yeah, truth to be told, these are the real answers.
It surely is the most important step of the journey of our life. But, what if the base itself doesn’t have a strong foundation? Even a simple observation today can explain the condition of 10th standard students. They are supposed to chew, swallow and digest each paragraphs, formulas, notes till every cell of their brain and body get used to it. There are pressures from parents, relatives and teachers as well. Parents pressurise because they believe SLC decides their children’s future, relatives because they’ll get something to gossip about and schools because they need to leave an impression among outsiders. I do not mean to offend anyone but let’s face the reality.
Students are scolded, spanked and threatened to get distinctions or first divisions. They themselves think an avalanche would bury them down if they don’t stand up to the expectations of people around them. So, they knuckle and buckle up their best to score good marks. Some get broad smiles when handed over the mark sheets while others curse their luck for their low marks.
After SLC, when they go for college, it’s real hard to level up. Mostly the distinction holders are forced to go to science field. And when they give their terminal papers, the result turns out to be a disaster. Those who scored 90 percent in SLC get 60 in the terminal exams. And there goes one more student under depression. In the present context of Nepal, you have to score good marks, because the potentiality of a student is judged by his/her mark sheet. So studying hard is very important. But the emphasis should be given to knowledge, not just to the lessons referred in the book. You can wake up early and study till mid night, but do it to learn not for the sake of mark sheets. Then there might be a future ahead of you, which you can rely upon.
I feel lucky to be a daughter of those parents who give value to my studies rather than to my grades. I am glad to be a student of those teachers who do not glare at me when I get low marks, but praise me for my morals. So, while I am trying to wrap up this article of mine, I would like to share a small quotation of Albert Einstein that my father once shared to me, “Try not to be man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” Last but not the least, my best wishes to all the SLC appearing students throughout the country, not only for SLC but for a future after SLC as well.
By: Isha Poudel, Class: 10, SOS HSS, Sanothimi
(Source: The Kathmandu Post)
(Source: The Kathmandu Post)
