The average Indian tale is incomplete without equating marks with success. The formula where marks stand equally and exponentially proportional to success in life is something brown parents and teachers cannot stop obsessing over.
We have all heard things like, Board examinations can make or break your career, or entrance exams are your ultimate path to salvation. In a culture that serves nirvana on report cards, we bring you the story of a young man who as a living example has defied the rules of society.
Akhil Mehra was blessed with the opportunity to live the life of a professional footballer with Manchester United. He represented and trained with the team, but this golden dream wasn’t something people thought Mehra could achieve.
The average scorer discovered that he had dyslexia during his school days, which naturally affected his academia,
Growing up with an education system that thrives on rigours evaluation systems over knowledge, Akhil could barely find a way to truly learn at school.
“I know people who scored 95 per cent in school, who are sitting today at home without a job, and I an average scorer managed to live the life of my dreams”
Not being able to participate in the rat race of scorer over 90 is completely abnormal in our schooling systems. Naturally, Mehra was called for being a low scorer, or dumb. See that’s where we all got it wrong says, Mehra. “We end up equating one’s ability to memorize meaningless content with their general cognitive abilities”
While cramming and puking content in exams might be helping students get great progress reports, the fundamental question remains, are schools really teaching people what they should be learning?
The young footballer who is also the head of talent and Boxfit calls out how Indian evaluation systems leave little room to truly appreciate students who invest their time and energy into co-curricular activities and other things that genuinely help in the holistic development of individuals. “My marks, my co-curricular activities and the time I spent in the real world indulging in community service was something that foreign universities took into account.”
The annual college admission charade with universities offering seats to only the extra-ordinary scorers leaves a huge void for many average scorers who at a very young age are basically told by the society that they are likely to be failures the rest of their life.
How many success stories have we have actually come across where heroes weren’t university toppers or rank holders? From consistently being compared with high scorers to not being given opportunities in higher education, the standard ways of evaluating students and passing verdicts in their early lives can cause some excruciating damage to the otherwise bright futures of young people.
Akhil Mehra’s story is a refreshing example where success came to someone who managed to score high on life.
