Remember those scary moments in the school when the very thought of teacher talking of Report Card sent shivers down the spine or the dreaded scene of teacher entering the classroom with a bunch of Report Cards turned the chirpy classroom into a moratorium. Report Cards used to be the true indicators of our all round performance in not only various subjects but also reported and graded other aspects like attendance, sports and overall conduct too. And the worst part being every student has to get their report card's duly reviewed and signed by their parents. Now it can't get any scarier than this? I still remember how hard I tried to evade such situations every time I perform miserably in any of my exams. At times I tried to convince my teacher by telling her my parents are out of town but my HITLEResque class teacher had all the time in the world and was ready to wait for ever, so eventually this ploy never worked. I even tried maneuvering my report card at times by changing those 3's (out of 10) into 8's or 1's into 7's and getting them signed by my parents in a rush, but poor me, I failed every time and rather made my life even more miserable. But those were really beautiful days, rather truly honest and transparent days. And Report Cards were a true and an honest representation of a student's all-round performance in various facets of life which are all equally important for his holistic growth and development.
I don't really know what value and importance Report Cards hold in present day school and college lives, I wish they still follow that beautiful tradition but certainly the manner in which our government is using the concept of Report Card has changed entirely. Recently the incumbent union government came up with a Report Card on completion of their 1 year at office and if one goes by what that Report Card actually reads than one might definitely jump to a conclusion that this has been by far the most efficient government not only in the history of Indian politics but may be in the world history. The Report Card boasts of all the wonderful things the government has done in past 1 year, it emphasizes on achievements like allocating Rs 36,000 crores for the basic services to urban poor and development of slums, approval of construction of around 1.5 million houses for the poor and slum dwellers, setting up of health and sanitation committees in over 36,000 villages, sustained improvement in disease control programmes specifically for tuberculosis, malaria and dengue, proposal for setting up of more high quality medical institutes like AIIMS, opening up of around 20,000 primary and upper primary schools,providing in service training to around 27 lakh teachers and providing free text books to around 10 crore students and approval of proposal for opening up of 6 new IIMs, 2 new IITs and 10 new NITs to list a few.
On the face of it, all these things seem so praise worthy and the report cards certainly seems to be of one of the most brilliant students of the class. But if we give a serious look at all these achievements, aren't these so called 'achievements' the bare minimums expected from any government? These basic amenities and services are the least which a citizen expects from its government, so categorizing them as achievements and patting their own backs is nothing less than making a mockery of themselves, its an indicator that even the government wasn't expecting that it will be able to do all this and when they have finally managed to achieve some of it they have classified it has 'achievements' . And for a change from the normal practice this Report Card holds only rosy aspects of the student (read government here), but where are those weaklings? Shouldn't the government's inability to check the rising prices also featured in their coveted Report Card? What about including their inability to handle the Maoist menace in the list of their 'achievements'? And how about enumerating the bravado's of those tainted corrupted ministers who are assimilating the public money for resurrecting their own empires? Or what about enriching the star studded Report Card by adding the government's shortsighted failed foreign policy and inability to still grab the main artisans in 26/11 terror strikes?
The government feels that it can once again be-fool the people of this country by hiding its failures through the means of these self proclaimed 'achievements', employing this new found prop of perennial Report Cards. But unfortunately every citizen of this nation is somehow aware that what needs to be done and what has been done, so by adopting these new tactics to mislead the people of this nation, government is only fastening the process of digging its own grave. But I truly wish that in my school days I had this choice of writing my own Report Card too, where I could proudly mention how many runs I scored last year playing for my division, how many girl friends I managed to woo in the last 12 months, how many injuries I successfully faked to escape a late comer punishment or how many classes I bunked to catch those SRK flicks and I can leave no room for those poor marks obtained in Maths test or Physics assignments.
I wish life was as beautiful as it used to be, but for these manipulative politicians!
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kin...
The memories of those time when we sat terrorized waiting for the class teacher to announce my roll number to hand over the report card will never blur in the minds of any student.
ReplyDeleteIt was a moment of pure unadulterated pleasure or pain depending on the result.
The scenarios have changes and so is the meaning too especially on the part of the govt with them listing their so called “achievement” without even contemplating that the people of India are not so naïve to believe that the achievement are for real.
An ideal situation of them would have been to list whatever they feel they have achieved and also listing down where they have failed. Atleast then it would have looked real to the eyes. Hiding the imperfection is not the best ways already. Rather accepting them and pledging to work by them is a better solution.