Say No To Exams, Save Paper

“Say No To Exams And Save Paper.” Is this a mad and crazy idea? Can this be implemented? Ever!

May be not, as long as both the teachers and the students continue to test-n-splash their intelligence ON PAPER.

It is believed in all societies that the more examinations you pass-n-clear, the more knowledge you possess. The more degrees you have, the more ornamental does your name appear.

Is it so, actually?

M. K.Razdan, my C.E.O. who also happens to be the Editor-in-Chief of India’s premier news agency The Press Trust of India or PTI, however, is just a graduate. And he is at the helms for last 20 years, without clearing much examinations, without wasting much papers!

Isn’t he an example! If yes, learn to stop wasting papers and contribute in all out efforts to save our environment. Stop writing exams unnecessarily, otherwise trees are going to curse you for felling them and you’ll perform horribly and would get some damn results.

Hold on… I have right now, before me, my office house journal for October 2012 that informs me: “PTI wins award for technology innovation“. But I am not amused as the same journal also shares a ‘trivia‘, excerpts of which are reproduced below:

“Written tests given by PTI for recruitment at various levels provide an interesting insight into the (falling) standards of training institutes… …One of the aspirants was so exasperated that he was asked to write, and not provided a computer, to answer he scribbled – why is it that in these days of technology – we are asked to write with pen? I feel I am back in the school… The fellow, of course, did not pass. … Most of those who give the test…“

O My God… they failed the job seeker!!! I would be happy if my CEO reads this piece and decides to call the guy, praising him for writing his mind. Here, in this case, it is the examiner who needs to be failed because exams or tests are never given… they are taken or written. It is bad English to say, “…give the test…”.

Does this inspire you? Are you going to do away with the written tests? Do you promise to sit under a tree and not to cut it? Remember: Buddha got his enlightenment while sitting under a tree. Nowadays people don’t get enlightenment because they don’t sit under a tree. SMILE.

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Suggested Reading: Creative Minds Should Be Free From Any Limitations And Boundaries — We tend to learn what’s taught to us and in the process we forget to use our own imagination. We don’t realise we have a brain too. Life is full of surprises, the more you imagine the more you learn. One does not have to break any rules to imagine freely. [Click Here For The Link]

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In sync to the above idea I would like to share something:

Following is the excerpt from a book called “The Million Dollar Parrot: 25 Brief Stories for Big Breakthroughs-
By Gerald De Jaager, James Ericson”. One of the story consists of a great physicist named Richard Feynman.
The piece is as follows:
“Feyman would often explain his distinctive mental capabilities through an anecdote involving his father, Melvin. The father and the son would take long walks together, and Richard would ask a typical child’s questions. He remembered asking his father the name of a bird, and his father answering him-although his father had no idea of the bird’s actual name in any language-as follows:
Ïts a Spencer’s warbler…Well in Italian its a chutto Lapittida. In Portuguese, its a Bom da Peida. In Chinese, its a chung-long-tah, and in Japanese, its Katano Tekeda. You can know the name of that bird in all of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird.You’ll only about humans in other places, and what they call the bird. So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing-that’s what counts.
I learned very early, Feynman wrote, the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.”

What I am hinting at are the last few lines of the article by Mr. Bhusan, “Creative Minds Should Be Free From Any Limitations And Boundaries — We tend to learn what’s taught to us and in the process we forget to use our own imagination. We don’t realise we have a brain too. Life is full of surprises, the more you imagine the more you learn. One does not have to break any rules to imagine freely.”

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Neeraj Bhushan says:

November 15, 2012 at 11:59 pm

Thanks Nitin.

The last few lines are from a write-up by Ashish Kaul, that has been hyperlinked for ready reference. Thanks also for sharing such a good story.

Thanks again.

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