The Lost Childhood

..and you better start swimming
Or you will sink like a stone
For the times they are a changin’

-Bob Dylan-

Recently while talking to my aunt, she complained about my cousin not paying attention to his studies. ‘He is just studying ten hours a day, can you believe it. His friends will all get 90 percent and he will be left jobless.’

Before I could intervene that this same cousin had stood second in his class three times in a row, she carried on, ‘His friends are studying fifteen hours a day; they even carry their books to the bathroom!’ I knew I had lost her by then.

Being a product of the Indian education system and now being a part of the British education system I can definitely agree that the Indian education board puts undue strain and pressure on its students, but I still don’t see the system so rigorous that it requires anyone to study fifteen hours everyday!

I remember during my time we used to study just before the exam and be happy if we secured anything between 75 to 80 percent (not that I am encouraging cramming but trust me we were a happy bunch) However as Dylan puts it so bluntly times definitely are changing. The universities are struggling with admission. They have too many ‘excellent students applying’ and the scale to determine their eligibility have jumped manifold. I still remember a colleague of mine who scored 91.5 percent in his School final examination being turned down by a prestigious college in Kolkata because the cut off was 91.6 that year.

All this has started putting undue stress on the kids and somehow in this process they seem to have forgotten what childhood is all about. From a very young age, parents start telling their children that they have to be the best. There is no place for coming second in this scenario. It’s not just the kids who are under pressure. Even parents seem to have become a part of this rat race.

It is not uncommon to hear the topic of conversation in any gathering is about the child’s education and how much he has scored in the exam. The matter worsens when relatives join this motley crowd and suddenly the kid has to live up to the expectations of not just himself or his parents but of all the other countless people around him.

The recent case of a 12th grader committing suicide on the day before his examination confirms that something is not right. Counselors have been encouraging parents to let their children understand his or her own capacity and work in his or her own pace. One counselor says that the school and parents have to work in conjunction to encourage children to take things slowly and maybe then they can experience the childhood they never had.