Guwahati: Board results have started knocking on doors and it is that stressful time of the year again! Students' hearts are pulsating hard and they are under immense pressure from parents, teachers, relatives, and well-wishers to score high marks. Failure to do so, they feel, is tantamount to doom.
Yes, many of us get judged for our inability to score good marks. Even our parents have been guilty of judging us for failure marks that are satisfactory. Needless to say, thousands upon thousands of students across the country are living in anxiety. They are afraid that they will be scolded by their parents if they fail to score good marks. They fear alienation from society.
With the tensions at an all-time high, IAS Officer Nitin Sangwan took to Twitter to share a very important message. He shared his old Class 12 CBSE mark sheet from 2002 when he had just cleared the pass mark in Chemistry with only 24 marks! Likewise, his marks in the other subjects were also not spectacular, to say the least.
"In my 12th exams, I got 24 marks in Chemistry - just 1 mark above passing marks. But that didn't decide what I wanted from my life. Don't bog down kids with the burden of marks. Life is much more than board results. Let results be an opportunity for introspection & not for criticism", the IAS officer wrote in a tweet.
The tweet quickly went viral and the officer was lauded by netizens for his attempt to make an important point: that board result marks do not define us. Rather, determination, willpower, and hard work are the qualities that make the difference.
"Yesterday itself only I was upset with my child thanks for your factuals which will help me to encourage my child you have proved where there is a will there is a way", wrote one twitter user, while another said, "Well said. Always encourage the students without pressuring them to high levels of stress. As Einstein quoted "Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
Despite scoring poor marks in his board exams, Sangwal did pretty well for himself and is now the Deputy Municipal Commissioner of Amdavad Municipal Corporation and the CEO of Smart City, Ahmedabad.