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08:29 PM
Bikram Vohra
JournalismPakistan.com
April 4, 2015
To fight the odds and be the victor, to strive and not to yield, that is what it is all about. You compete to win. That is why I do not understand the new system that is inveigling itself at the school level these days. The geniuses have worked out some new formula in which everyone is a winner.
This is becoming a global phenomenon and is predicated to the belief that children mustn’t feel like they have lost. Ostensibly, it is supposed to bolster the confidence of the lesser endowed. So, everyone in the race or competition gets a prize. Happened to a kid in our family. I can understand giving everyone a certificate for taking part. That is good. But you cannot give everybody the same trophy because at a young age you are conning them… Life is not equal, there are winners and losers at every stage. You should prepare them for losing and for winning, one with grace and the other with humility. To make them all equal is a deception.
One of the bizarre stories I heard was of a child being removed from the race because he was just too good and would have won easily. The school authorities said it was not fair on the other kids. And there is the whole family, grandparents and all, armed with cameras, totally bewildered by the absence of the child they had come to witness hopefully take the podium.
Then do the same in the classroom. Don’t give marks. Pass everyone.
The way I see it, there is no point in taking part if there are no winners.
(The writer is a Senior Editorial Advisor of Khaleej Times and the paper’s former Editor. He has also been the Editor of Gulf News, Gulf Today, Emirates Today and Bahrain Tribune)
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