Girl power

Beyonce Knowles' song, “Who runs the world? Girls” might be a bit of poetic licence. However, when it comes to schools results in India, clearly girls reign all the way. One look at the CBSE Class XII results and anyone nursing any doubts about the enormous talent and merit of girl students ought to stand corrected.  In a country where gender prejudices run deep, girls are no less than boys, and it has been proven time and again. For the past several years they have through their dedication and hard work consistently outperformed their male classmates. Equally remarkable is that theirs is no flash-in-the-pan occurrence. Their singular achievements are not limited to one city or one board alone. 

It's not just in the tricity of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula that girls have left boys far behind and bagged three top positions in three streams — humanities, commerce and medical. Apart from bagging the top slot in the CBSE nationally, what’s even more heartening is that a girl from Haryana, a state not really known for treating its girls fairly, has stood third. That she belongs to Mahendragarh, a district with one of the worst child sex ratios, truly brings cheer. Her exemplary performance hopefully would go a long way in denting the feudal mindset that considers women inferior to men. A higher pass percentage among girl students too should open more doors for women who have been traditionally kept out of empowering positions.   

No doubt, school results are only stepping stones in the long journey called life that throws challenges far bigger and more onerous than school examinations. Does our education system prepare us to take on more daunting tasks is a question that begs to be asked, if not answered? In the frenzy over scoring hugely insane marks a thought ought to be spared for the ills that ail our education system. Rehauling it might be a tall order, but a system that allows children to score cent per cent marks in humanities where there are no absolutes does call for some re-evaluation.