The pandemic is giving challenging situations to everyone from bread winners to students everyone has to make sacrifices. Among all these, the ones who suffered the most are the “under-graded students”. In England, 36% of entries had a lower grade than teachers predicted and 3% were down two grades, in results after exams were cancelled by the pandemic.
At top priority, many students got their scholarships cancelled. Not everyone can afford expensive study thus they had struggled hard for these scholarships. A good number of students were already enrolled into reputable universities on basis of their past results but now they are unable to meet the criteria of these universities. All this is causing a great impact on their career which is taken for granted by the examiners. Every 8 out of 10 students have been rewarded unfair grades.
The students are agonised by the inequity which is leading to great mental stress. In addition the pressure from society causes them to be suicidal. Not everyone is celebrating the result this year so the peer pressure is unbearable. A recent study published about Depression and Anxiety of more than 67,000 college students from more than 100 institutions, one in five students have thoughts of suicide, with 9% making an attempt.
Apart from self-harm, a lot of such students end up taking revenge from the society or giving up on struggling into studies when their hard work is not taken as read. A lot of bright students got bad grades; however, it was obvious if they could make it to the examination hall they would have achieved a lot more. Eventually they opt for a short cut and end up into robbery and killings to win bread.
This situation is an irony for students as well as their parents, but the parents need to play a more positive role here.
For instance, they need to support the child instead of getting mad. Getting good or bad grades turned out to be a game of chance this year. The child has no hand in getting grades thus he/she needs solace and acceptance. Parental support is the most important thing a child needs at such difficult times. According to science the most successful children have warm and accepting parents.
Secondly, children need to be destressed and motivated for their further studies. Instead of giving up on one bad result they need help to move on and struggle for making their results better. Aparna Balasundaram, Psychotherapist and Founder of LifeSkills Experts said, “It is important to remind children that exams are not the end of the world”. A child should be offered more opportunities by parents in order to help them pursue something good in future.
Lastly, the most important thing a parent can do for the child is to take stand. Parents should raise voice and demand justice for their children through each and every available platform, whether it’s social media or court. Instead of taking their child result for granted they should sign petitions for fair grading. This will not only help child achieve better grades but to fight for their own self too.
Government plays a very important role in this situation. All those student protests and petitions should not go in vain. The least a government could do is to provide financial support to students who got deprived of their scholarships. Additionally government should support the schools financially and morally to take stand for upgrading student’s results.
Moreover, government should ask universities to lower their criteria for the batch of 2020. Furthermore, schools should provide scholarships on the basis of co-curricular activities too. Pakistan was described as “among the world’s worst performing countries in education,” at the 2015 Oslo Summit on Education and Development. If students will be deprived of their scholarships and opportunities to get admissions at places worth their calibre; situation of the country’s education is going to be even worse.
Last but most important solution to this problem is that the board should now let students opt for next upcoming exams without paying any paper fee or grant them a discount. So that students can improve their grades without paying an arm and leg for paying twice for an exam.
The students going through this difficult time need to stay strong and hope for the best in future. Also they should struggle for getting their results upgraded and take a stand for themselves. “If you build the guts to do something, anything, then you better save enough to face the consequences”, said, Criss Jami, Killosophy. Parents, teachers, family members and friends are major support in this situation hence they should not pressurize the child rather should stand with them, not letting the student’s confidence to shake.
