With exam season comes an intangible feeling of tension in the cities and villages of India. Students hunch over textbooks during late-night hours, parents linger anxiously, and coaching institutes buzz with activity. Some people celebrate when results are declared, while many others are left to grapple with feelings of inadequacy, shame, or despair. This destructive cycle, sustained by a toxic, outcome-focused education system, is so deeply ingrained in Indian society that its dangers are swept under the carpet or defended as the price of ambition. But the piling evidence reveals starkly: this endless pursuit of marks is not just short-changing our children-it is, in fact, harming them, and with them, the future of the nation.
The origins of the crisis run deep. Indian scholarship has been evaluated virtually solely on quantitative grounds for several decades, and narrow definitions of success are being identified with board exam scores, entrance exam ranking, and entry into a limited number of high schools. The prevalence of private coaching centers, especially in urban areas like Kota, has made education a high-stakes industry where the desire to succeed is relentless and unforgiving. Even kids aged ten years old are brought to coaching classes for engineering or medical entrance, their childhood being sacrificed at the altar of competition.
This craziness with grades is not simply a cultural oddity; it's institutionalized on all fronts. Schools, teachers, and districts are rated and rewarded collectively by scores. Parents themselves from the same system push the kids to go for grades as if it is the only way to security and respectability. It results in a generation socialized to think that education is a zero-sum game, where every lost mark is nearer to failure and every gained mark is a fleeting victory in an endless rat race.
The effect is disastrous. It has been researched and reported that Indian students are also experiencing a rising mental health crisis, in which the level of depression, anxiety, and even suicide is rising. It has become so grave that it steals away children's happiness and direction in pursuing their studies. Aspirations and dreams vanish for an exclusive concern with marks, leaving the students directionless and lost as soon as the examinations are over. The price is not only personal; it is societal, as we waste the many talents and abilities of our young for the sake of a narrow definition of success.
The damage goes far beyond mental health. The marks-based system kills creativity, critical thinking, and innovation-the very skills most needed in a changing world. Students are taught to memorize and regurgitate facts, but not to understand, question, or apply them. Original research, design thinking, and project-based learning are given a backseat to standardized testing and rote learning. As a result, even while India graduates millions of students annually, few of them are deemed employable, and our institutions of higher learning don't make an impact on the global level. The system, designed to produce "stereo-type products," is incapable of developing the active, inquiring, and adaptive minds that the future demands.
The social costs are also profound. The on-going competition for marks creates rivalry, envy, and bitterness, eroding the sense of fellowship and cooperation upon which sound development depends. Those who are talented in non-academic domains-arts, sports, business-are pushed to the sidelines or ignored, their talents scoffed at as the diversion from the "real" task of achieving high grades. The system perpetuates inequality, as those with access to resources-private tutoring, English language schools, family support-are more likely to succeed, and others lag behind. The result is a culture where value is measured by test scores, and human diversity is brutally suppressed.
The sources of this toxic culture are to be found in several factors. Mass testing under colonial legacy, the absence of quality higher education as an opportunity, and economic uncertainty necessitating parents to seek any advantage for their kids are some factors contributing to this. But perhaps the most insidious element is the expectation-shared by parents, educators, and policymakers alike-that marks represent an objective, meritocratic assessment of ability and potential. This belief persists in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Teachers and professionals have been warning for years that the marks-based system of assessment is outdated and perverse. It encourages unhealthy competition, encourages rote learning, and does not allow for the range of student abilities and interests. Even top scientists and business leaders have pushed for a shift towards measurement systems that emphasize intelligence quotient (IQ), emotional quotient (EQ), and project-based, experiential learning. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 acknowledges these shortages and proposes sweeping shifts like minimizing board exams from high-stakes to low-stakes, allowing students to choose subjects of their choice, and emphasizing core competencies instead of memorization.
Yet true change looks as elusive as ever. The multi-billion coaching business continues its merry way, continually nourished on parental anxieties and pressure from society. Boards and schools remain wedded to traditional styles of assessment, and the performance pressure shows no sign of loosening. Even good-faith efforts towards "all-round development" continue to turn out as yet another list of checkboxes, robbing children of time and energy to find out, imagine, or simply be a child.
Freeing our children from this toxic, outcome-driven culture will require more than incremental reforms; it requires a rethink of what education is for, and what success is. Most importantly, we must redefine success. Success is not measured by report card grades, but by the development of skills, character, and emotional intelligence. It should be a broader assessment that goes beyond grades to include tests of creativity, collaboration, resilience, and ability to solve problems that are applicable in real-world contexts. It will require the end of one-size-fits-all testing for the use of more general types of assessment-portfolio, project, peer assessment, and observation by teachers-which reflect on the whole range of student progress and potential.
Second, we need to provide space for actual learning and discovery. This would involve lightening the load of tests, as suggested by NEP 2020, and ending the culture of coaching, which puts a squeeze on the curriculum and kills curiosity. Students would be nudged towards a mix of subjects such as the arts, sports, and vocational skills, based on interest and aptitude. Board exams need to be restructured to assess basic competencies and comprehension instead of passive rote memory and to be held multiple times a year to eliminate the "all-or-nothing" nature of the stakes.
Thirdly, the teacher's role needs to be reshaped. Teachers need to be trained and empowered to act as mentors and facilitators, not content deliverers or disciplinarians. Professional growth must include preparing teachers to develop critical thinking, creativity, and emotional intelligence in their learners. Classrooms must be inquiring, experimentation, and cooperative learning environments, where errors are viewed as means of learning and not as errors to be sanctioned. Sadly, too frequently respect for harsh, even brutal, teachers prevails, and there are parents who sanction brutal chastisals in the name of "good education"-an attitude which must be combated and altered if complete reform is ever to occur.
Fourth, parents and the community have to be brought in as co-actors in this change. Parents need to be educated and educated to break out of their fixation on marks, and to identify and encourage their children's individual strengths and interests. Community involvement-through internships, projects for community service, and mentorship programs-can assist in placing learning in context and expanding students' perspectives.
Finally, policymakers have to support such change with long-term investment and political will. That is, additional resources for public education, equal provision of good schools, and holding institutions accountable not only for test scores, but for children's overall well-being and health. That is, taming the private tutoring racket, reducing exploitative behavior, and giving all children a chance to develop on their own terms.
National Education Policy 2020 provides a blue print for transformation, keeping in focus development in an all-rounded manner, multidisciplinary education, flexibility, integration of technology, teachers' empowerment, and assessment reforms. It tries to shift focus from rote learning and high-stakes examinations to competency-based assessment that will assess conceptual understanding, critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and experiential skills. The policy is also dedicated to equity and inclusion, offering access to quality education for all students, including the disadvantaged and students with disabilities.
But it will take more than policy. Change will need to come about through a revolution in societal attitudes and assumptions. It will need parents to value their children's well-being and happiness above their report cards. It will need teachers to define themselves as guides and mentors, rather than mark gatekeepers of entrance. It will be demanding students to be entrusted with the liberty of exploring, experimenting, and erasing errors without possibility of penalty or criticism. And it will be demanding that all of us view that the greatest end of schooling is not producing test-takers, but bringing up thinkers, artists, and caring citizens.
The implications can't be more profound. Since India is at the threshold of demographic transition and technological revolution, never in the past has there been a greater demand for an innovative, flexible, and strong workforce. The existing system, with its limited emphasis on marks and degrees, is not equipping our youth for the opportunities and challenges of the 21st century. The price isn't simply paid in lost potential, but in the muted grief of a generation that might have been otherwise.
It won't be simple. It will demand courage, creativity, and the will to challenge deeply entrenched assumptions and organized interests. But the payoff-an education system that educates the whole child, celebrates diversity, and equips all students to succeed-is well worth it. It's high time to end the dictatorship of marks, and establish an education system that reflects the needs and aspirations of our children and country. Only then can India harness the potential of its youth to the fullest, and construct a brighter and healthier tomorrow.
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