Why marking, grading and Rating system is wrong in India?

I still remember how one parent pulled up his daughter for getting 94% marks in grade 12th in Delhi and saying, it will be difficult getting admission in the “prestigious colleges” in Delhi university as the cut-off for the “prestigious programs” is almost 100%.

I was shocked and surprised and the kid was left speechless and almost in tears as she has put her best efforts and was feeling that everyone will praise her for what she achieved. This is the worst thing to hurt anyone’s self-worth and self-esteem.

The way examination and marking system has been evolving over last 20-25 years have been very hurting and painful and the assumption is that any intelligence of child is directly related to the marks he/she gets. The expectations of people in society is anything less than 95% is not worth and anything less than 90% marks is just an average performance. 

The whole system is so bad that students, parents, teachers and society at large is just running a race to get 100%. This is totally wrong as “perfect” is not right and possible and there is always scope for improvement and learning. The assumption is that the kids who get 100% are perfect. This creates a sense of either superiority or inferiority complex in children and also creates FEAR among many of them, rather than having a desire to learn and apply learning. 

The focus has been increasingly on bookish knowledge than application of knowledge or skill building. So anyone great in arts, sports or culinary arts etc. is looked upon as not-intelligent or a weak student. The real challenge is that even teachers are fed-up with this system and there are so many teachers and school leaders who make changes at their own levels but then parents force them to change to the “typical exam and marks based system”. 

This is so ingrained in the society that even the rating system of services provided by many companies including UBER, Zomato etc expect that the best rating of 5 should be given to all providers and anything like 3 or 4 is a problem. The assumption is 5 is perfect – again there is immense scope of improvement possible in the services and there is nothing perfect. 

I asked my friends in Europe and they shared that they hardly find any Uber driver with more than 3.7-3.8 rating as the normal rating for anyone doing their job as per define criteria is 3 and someone going extra-mile is rated as 4 and the rating of 5 is rare.

In India, every driver or Zomato delivery person will request you for a rating of 5. I have personally seen some drivers rated as 4.95 and the service has been extremely sad. When I rate them as 3 or 4 – Uber asks; was there a problem??? 

Many times the problem is of UBER or Zomato or other service providers and here you can’t rate them or raise complaints easily. Reaching out to Uber and many other service providers for raising a complaint is extremely difficult. The process is so complex that you get fed-up. So they just want that every driver or delivery person should be rated 5 but no rating for these companies. This is extremely stress and fear driven system and must be stopped.

The reason I wrote this note is to highlight how much pseudo-fear we are creating in everyone for marks and ratings and grades. The exact definition of intelligence or excellence is so skewed that the society is being created of either 100% or Rated 5 and below that is a problem area. The whole focus is on a herd mentality. No one realizes that each one is unique and special with some qualities and that should be nurtured.

The real herd mentality can be seen by so many Edu-tech unicorns who are valued in billions of dollars in India and who are just focusing on “getting you perfect marks”. They are adding fuel to a Fire – which is engulfing India’s talent and society negatively.

I really wish and hope that we “TRANSFORM” education fully – not just by making small changes as suggested in the New education policy.

Please let each child live, learn and enjoy their unique gifts and strengths and lead a happy life and remove FEAR as the only motivator of performance. FEAR is the most dangerous factor in a society

May God bless us all and remove the FEAR!

Jalebi & Life....

The thought that MY building lift is better than the other one I had gone to a friend’s house – triggered many more thoughts…

What is this all MY – MINE about and what all affinity to things. When me, myself is a temporary creature on this earth. So in a way I am not owner of anything; I am just a traveler.

Although, I have never (never is a strong word, should be carefully used) felt attracted to things (or to say for last 15-16 years or so). As I had great desires of buying good phones and may be cars before 2006.  

So do I become a saint if now I like experiences better than things or I like doing things for others and making a difference to others’ life and that gives me more happiness than buying “stuff” for me.

I do like traveling and that’s one thing where I like to spend money. Ok..Ok – yes I like Jalebis too.

The learning of last 15-16 years has been immense. The journey is full of amazing and outstanding experiences of meeting some great people – these include age of 3 years to 90 years; people from all walks of life; people in different continents; some great leaders; some great teachers; some great players; some great entrepreneurs; some great drivers; some great handy-men and many many more kids from who I learnt everything about life. This learning is so enriched that it gives me ability to work with any age or any person from a child to a CEO or a head of a state.

In these many years I also assessed and coached many leaders (including 100 of CXOs) and the surprising part was I was the learner in this whole process whereas the assessee and coachee felt that they are learning a lot. What a double edge sword it is- learn while you earn.

The crisis of Corona (Covid) has transformed every one globally – the impact is still happening and will continue for some more time. The only thing which can help right now are the “positive relationships” we have around us and how we are able to contribute meaningfully to others (keeping ourselves safe and healthy). I speak to almost 4-5 people on average as a practice for many months now. The reason is that people are not having anyone to talk to..or to share feelings with. The conversations could be with anyone – clients, team, driver, watchman, shopkeeper, auto guy, amazon deliver person, zomato guy, my favourite Jalebi wala, friends, relatives ;-) 

I feel we all have come to earth to do our karma and we do it to best of our abilities. In addition, if we can do anything meaningful for someone else and bring little happiness and smile to them, we have made some difference to humanity. 

One more thing, I find is that I never feel I am very busy as I always tell everyone I am always free. I feel its all in the mind and may be God helps me to find time.. The only gift we can give to others is TIME. It DOES NOT always cost money to help others.

There are challenges and many of us have much more than others. However, most of the people reading this are blessed as we have a house, food, internet, mobile/laptop to read. There are so many, many more whose challenges are much bigger than us. Just think !

So if I don’t eat Jalebis in one week – how I can help someone with their basic food needs.

The difference of needs and want ; necessity and sufficiency; greed vs need.

So enough of gyaan… either you find a good jalebi wala and eat it or help someone ! 

Its up to us how we want to reflect back on our life at an old age – Either saying..Yeah I tried or I wish I could have! 

God bless you all, those who made an effort to read..my sweet (Jalebi thoughts). Love you all !

 

India - Needing Transformational Change

 

The focus of my life has always been on creating positivity and positive changes and helping myself and others to believe and practice it.

I always felt India and we Indians need to transform for the better and have been writing about the same for last 12-13 years. Many times it is construed by others as not liking own country and highlighting negatives.

It was felt and assumed that this crisis of Corona will bring positive changes to society and people and there will be transformational changes, not only in India but globally. However....

However, largely we Indians have short memory and we are back to becoming greedy and selfish as soon as things are little better. Being selfish is not wrong for a short-while; however just thinking about Self does not transform societies. When we speak about such behaviors its not claimed and assumed that goodness does not exist in India. Due to the goodness of the positive forces, society is still sustaining itself – otherwise it would have crashed much earlier.

The basic life challenge of AIR, CLEAN WATER and HYGIENIC FOOD has been highlighted earlier in many of my writings and many of experts. Its still not available in NORMAL times in India and the struggle is now much more in CORONA times. Where almost there is civil war to get basic oxygen. This is level 1 of Maslow and we in India have continuous and regular struggle for level 1.

However, during Normal times also – air is one of the most polluted in the world and clean water is luxury of few (someone said next world-war would be for Water) and food is so widely spoilt by chemicals and fertilizers, that more than half of it is at the dangerous level of creating health hazards. These are basic need of human life.

So if development is making more buildings and creating wealth for few and then saying that “India is shining” then it is OK for few more years before which a social revolution will come. Greed of many has been impacting people, society and nation.

We are creating a nation where basic TRUST is lacking between people – farmers do not trust government; common people do not trust each other and government and the overall society has a FEAR of getting more and more for self. TRUST is the basic foundation of any relationship and society and that is lacking and is going down over the years. The basic structure of society is still a challenge.

The people who are our rulers are creating divide and fear among people. The population is ever increasing – adding pressure to infrastructure (health, food etc). However, it’s a vote-bank for the political system, so no action can be taken. The difference between Haves and Have-nots is increasing at a faster pace...

EMPATHY – again a must for a positive society – hardly exists in India. We have lot of sympathy but rarely empathy.

Societal transformation in any country begins with the intent and then planned actions. Despite being an optimist, I do not feel that there will be a great deal of transformation in India at societal or national level. Even the disasters like Corona have been showing the basic structure of Indian societal system.

What we can do – is to do our Karma and keep making small changes in the society around us- beginning with our home and helping our children and children & youth around us to motivate to “make a difference” to others (being selfish to an extent and then helping others).

At this moment, I really wish that everyone is healthy and and is able to make positive change in self and others and GOD help us in this journey.

Positive Society needs:

1. Human Connect and Empathy

2. TRUST

3. LOVE

4. People doing their own Karma well

5. Compassion

6. Belief in self and others

7. Empathy

8. A desire to make better future for next generations - Sustainability

God bless everyone !