Can TN board exams ever be difficult?

Last Wednesday, the daily Hindu carried news with a headline “Mathematics paper difficult, say students” and I guessed they were referring to the ongoing state board examinations. Indeed it was, and I, very surprised to read this since there is nothing you can associate as difficult when it comes to the exams conducted by the Tamil Nadu state board. Guess what they had to say about the question paper. It carried unexpected questions. Since when did question papers were made available prior to the exams for the students to prepare only those set of questions and ignore the syllabi.

The School teachers and the correspondents aren’t left behind in this chaos. One particular guy gave vent to his feelings. He had been conducting many revision tests for his students and this year’s paper has been a blinder. Poor fellow could not differentiate between imposition and revision. An office bearer in one of the prestigious schools was interviewed for his views and he has criticized the board for making the exams tough. I have never known state board exams to be tough which I can assuredly say for the last 15 years. There was at least an entrance examination for professional courses which pushed students to rely on the grey cells, has been discarded in the recent years thanks to political farce played by those in power.

If students can’t be tested on the knowledge they have gained and expect a rote learning, there is no point in having an education system. I have been doing my Masters with BITS through an offline work integrated program which requires me to write only exams and no classes are conducted. I liked their Examinations not because I cleared all the papers, but for the way it was modelled. I didn’t receive any outstanding marks, quite the contrary, average marks but all the questions were application of the concepts given in the syllabus. This kind of education, though I am not drawing any advantage from it, is what would be the best course to be followed across the country and specifically in Tamil Nadu where an obsession of scoring 499/500 or 1195/1200 is ever increasing.

Note: I was not a studious person in schools or college but an average student. But that doesn’t stop me from carrying notions as said above. This note is to pre-empt any question about my academic achievements if any.

So(a)phisticated Telly

                The moment I switched on the television yesterday, a promo of a new soap opera (mega serial) was in play. This was during another soap aired between the commercials. I realized that it had been a decade since this serial marked its debut. Gosh! Think of 5 days a week for full 10 years. The director should have been abundantly talented to have hooked the whole of one state and keep them engrossed. May be we should look at the flip side of that coin. People have been living a decadent life of excessive obsession on soaps J. This indicates their consent to be fooled, mocked by and enabling the television studios and directors to thrive on staple concepts to rake in the moolah.

One of the successful directors of soaps did try his hand in wielding the megaphone with barrage of reviews notwithstanding, packed the movie with verbiage and handing visitation to patrons of the movie, if there was ever one. His vicissitude deterred the aspiring directors riding on the small screen bandwagon to follow his footsteps thereby showering mercy to the celluloid.

Briefly put, the 1 liner of all soaps would be women empowerment and there could never be a bigger goof up. The characters sketched and portrayed would make the modern day women cringe. Thinking of serials, I could recall few ranting I was subjected to witness albeit I wasn’t interested. To list a few:

(a)    Having completed one of my class X board exams, I was duly welcomed home by my granny with abuses directed toward the “Fit for nothing” villain who could have easily stolen the “Worst actor of the year” award trying his best to emote. However he did get his acknowledgement for his performance from my granny.

(b)   It was during one of the festivities at the temple did I hear the rumbling of 2 old women comparing notes on how the artists were performing and the direction where the story was headed concluding that a status quo was being maintained for the last 6 months.. gaw........

(c)    A one soap experienced artist reprised a small role of hero’s sidekick in celluloid and a group of women in the theatre seated in the row in front started referring by his debut screen name and reiterated how bad he is. (Note: not was.)

                I can only wonder why these enactments are taken seriously and discussed/dissected and spoil the mood surrounding them. A word of caution to those portraying archetypical villainy, stay indoors and do not get caught in the midst of ever emotionally empathizing viewers of your own soaps for they are more virulent than you appear to be on screen and gleefully ostracize you.

                It hath been my own volition or rather men’s nature that we aren’t glued to these serials. Back from the past, I am fortunate enough that I haven’t been interacting with people who consume serials as elixir for the last few years but I promise I have no notion that the situation would have improved and we have 2500+ episodes to second my opinion. When would this era end? Possibly not for another decade I suppose.