77.49%: This percentage on the board exam report card of a student, stands for one thing – a feeling of being lost. Being lost in a sea of lakhs of students who have scored above and below them. And this is true for those with 90.47%s and 53.91%s too. And what’s worse? These report cards are fixed. You can’t make your 50-something a 60%, neither your 80-something a 90%.
Dissatisfaction, envy, comparisons lurking around the corner make the already ‘not-so-good’ marks look worse.
A few days ago, the ICSE results were out and a friend said her performance was average. She wasn’t exactly happy and was “worried” because others in her class had scored more than her.
But there’s more to it… something that amplifies this distress.
A question struck me then: Why do results give us so much distress? And the answer was pretty simple: our system likes denying us from making progress – our report cards become the final and only testament to our worth as young individuals.
But what is a report card really? It is given to you by someone else – on which you cannot improve. It just makes no sense.
Our education system, unfortunately, hands out report cards to us, with precisely these two features. Who is someone else, even if a well-established system, to tell an individual how good they are at something, that the system decided they should be good at?
And till when can we keep blaming the system? Till when will we keep thinking that a sudden enlightenment shall bring about some change in the system?
What can we do to effect this change for the better of our own selves? Here is an answer. This short video here is a shout-out to everyone to ‘Make Your Own Report Card’ on the things you love; rate yourself, and rewrite your self-made report card every hour, every day, every week, every month and every year.
My HSC board results are on their way in a week, and I have already made my own report card:
Psychology: 25/100
Cooking: 5/100
Conversing with people: 30/100
Public Speaking: 35/100
Managing the 24 hours I get in a day most effectively: 15/100
I know it is a bad report card, but I don’t feel distressed. Because I know I’ll improve on this every day, every week.
If you feel making a report card of your own is a good idea, send me yours!
Instagram: @shahen_pardiwala