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!

Diary of a jetsetter!!

A busy hi-fly executive – drawing hefty salary (not me) started his day with a great hope that “today I am going to crack the big deal with my clients.” He got up early at 5 am and got ready to reach the airport by 7 am; which he did (as the flight was at 8 am). On reaching the Delhi airport, he found that his flight is delayed by 15 mins. As he is a “busy executive” – his company has booked him in best of the airlines and not so called “low cost” airlines and he is very proud of this fact.

He felt whole of the city is at the airport when he reached the Check-in counter and it took him almost 25 min to checkin. He was told that now the flight is delayed by 25mins. He thought its ok as his first meeting in Mumbai is at 11.30 am; so no hurry. So he moved to the security area and was surprised to see again such a long queue. He was frustrated to see the speed of work there, but was helpless (as he saw his Louis Philippe jacket being kept in a tray with his laptop and scanned).

So having cleared all the security; he was all set to board the flight. Now he was slightly hungry too as it was already almost 8 am by the time he cleared security. He thought in any case I will get a good breakfast in the aircraft so it’s better to wait. He patiently waited till 830am and soon started to feel why there is no announcement to board his flight. He inquired from the airlines representative; who mentioned let me just check and he never returned (what an idiot he thought!). He again asked a beautiful girl from airlines, who assured him that she will definitely find out and let him know. She smilingly informed, Sir we will announce boarding soon and it actually happened at 845am when they were taken for boarding and he reached his seat in the aircraft exactly at 858am as the aircraft was parked at a distance.

Now seated and everyone on board at 914 am he was happy that he will still make it (what a positive attitude!). The doors were closed and plane was still not starting. On enquiring, he was told the last of the baggage is being loaded. Then exactly at 929 am the pilot announced that sorry for this delay and they are ready to move but they are 14^th in the take-off sequence and it will take atleast 20 mins. Now his patience was soon getting over and he was regularly looking at his watch for take-off (as this meeting in Mumbai was very important for him). Meanwhile he sent a small sms to client that he might be delayed by 30 mins (nice approach to keep client informed:-)

The flight finally took off at 10.01 am; and he was really very hungry and frustrated why he chose this airlines or why things are not improved in this country…..

So he got the breakfast – he preferred Veg and got a small meal (south Indian) which he soon felt was not enough and too light! On checking with the beautiful airhostess – he was told that now a days everyone is cutting cost Sir. He thought low cost airlines are better as you can buy as much food as you want!!

Pilot announced that we are flying over Baroda and soon will start our descent to Mumbai; but soon that also changed as he again mentioned that we are 7^th in landing sequence as one runway in Mumbai is closed for some repairs. Now our friend was very frustrated and angry as it will really get late for him to reach the 1^st client at 1130am and next meetings are at 2.30 pm and 5pm (one in Colaba and other one at 5pm at Bandra – closer to airport as he has to take the 8pm flight back home)

The plane finally landed at 1235pm and he came out of the airport at 1253 pm (as he did not have checkin luggage). He got into the pre-paid taxi at 1.08pm and shouted Worli – as fast as possible as I have a meeting; driver looked at him surprisingly and then our friend added – PLEASE…. I will give you extra. He called up client and said I will reach by 130-145pm as the flight was delayed and client was cooperative. So he was relaxed and closed his eyes.

When he opened he found he has reached Bandra only; he thought he slept for long and checked and he was right it was already 132 pm. He asked what is happening and was told – Sir today is big rally of a party celebrating success so traffic jam L

He finally landed at clients place at 2.03 pm and again felt sorry. He was worried about 230pm meeting as that client was a tough client. So he sent him an sms telling that he will reach by 3pm as flight was delayed. Soon he realized that the important decision maker for the Worli client had left after waiting for long and the decision will not be taken now.

He left the Worli client to reach at Colaba at 345pm and the tough client at Colaba had also left after waiting for him (with a message that be on time next time). Now he did not want to miss the last client at Bandra at 5pm; so he got himself a burger from Colaba as there was no time for proper lunch. He did reach the clients office exactly at 456pm and was very happy that atleast he can meet this client on time. On enquiring he was told that the client is now stuck in jam and will reach in 15 mins; which he reached in 46 mins. As our friend had to catch the 8pm flight at Mumbai airport; he has to leave Bandra atleast at 630pm to reach airport by 7pm; so the meeting with Bandra client was also inconclusive.

He sat in an AC taxi; thinking that he could not finish any of his work and he is going without any deal (he did not stay back in Mumbai as clients were out of station from tomorrow)

On reaching airport he was told the flight is on time (atleast one good thing in the day today- he thought). Flight took off exactly at 812pm and they reached near Delhi at 952pm; but were told that they are again 8^th in landing sequence. Finally aircraft touched the ground at 1023pm (that too on the new runway – which took 22min for taxi). He was finally out at 11.01pm and got into the taxi and headed towards his home in Gurgaon. He was surprised to see the traffic on NH-8; where there were trucks all-over; in all lanes and no traffic policeman around. It was really scary to see trucks being driven so fast and in all lanes. On reaching toll-plaza he found that trucks are there in ALL the lanes and it took them 18 mins to cross the toll-plaza. Finally he reached his home at 1158pm (2 minute before mid-night).

He thought to himself that he spent almost 18.5 hours on road/air without any result and no proper food – what a waste!!

Is this called Development?? When we will improve as a country??

Lot of noble thoughts – but next day is again a busy day as I am expecting important partners !!