Beyond exams

Beyond exams

Apropos of ‘Above board and beyond’, the learning and mastery of knowledge of different subjects is a must, but the cultivation of empathy, perseverance and creative consciousness is required to make the world a better place. The modern education system, with its emphasis on cramming and competition, has given a new definition to values and virtues. The pandemic is a wake-up call for us that now we need a more value-based grooming of children, for which parents will have to play a vital role along with the teachers and strive to create a generation which is honest and empathetic.

Manjit Ghuman, Ludhiana

Financial literacy

In reference to ‘Above board and beyond’; the most important quality students need to cultivate in the real-life exam is financial literacy, which unfortunately in our Indian education system is not taught, that’s why our country’s financial literacy stands at only 27%. Schools teach students to make them work for money but financial knowledge is the only thing which will make money work for them. This subject should be included in schools to make our country on a par with the most financially literate country, Denmark (71%).

Gurshan Singh sidhu, Mohali

Academic growth

Reference to ‘Above board and beyond’; it is the prime responsibility of a teacher to show students the path of empathy, sympathy and strive to inculcate in them social, moral and ethical values. Success will follow because a student will be able to cope with the challenges of the world and will be able to live a meaningful life. Therefore, it becomes imperative for us as parents, teachers and educators to prepare our youngsters to face the real examination of their life so they can think about problems before the world such as hunger, poverty, crime, terrorism, social disharmony. As far as cognitive styles are concerned, the students should learn through every aspect of life, not only by using verbal imagery dimensions, but also by using dimensions of cognitive styles.

SURINDER SINGH KUNDU, SIRSA

Glitches in tax portal

Even a week after the new e-filing portal launched by the IT department went live, users are facing technical glitches such as usage of logging time and inability to respond to notices. The department must take care of two things to make this new portal successful. First, all the technical flaws of the portal should be removed expeditiously, and second, arrangements should be made to keep the speed of the portal always right and its server never down. Like chartered accountants, the portal should also have a facility for income tax advocates to file ITR on behalf of their assessee clients.

Shakti Singh, Karnal

G7 should do more

World would turn into a utopian society if the wealthier and privileged class pursued more magnanimity towards their poor counterparts. A pledge of donating one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine to poor nations by G7 countries is a welcome step, though a very small initiative. Developed nations are already ahead in the race of inoculating their population and are about to attain herd immunity. It becomes the moral responsibility of these richer nations to help poor nations so that entire humankind could be protected from this contagious virus.

Amandeep Bains, Kurukshetra

Mad rush, again

There are serpentine queues of cars jostling to somehow reach Shimla, Mussoorie, Hardwar etc, and there is complete chaos on roads everywhere. Even the police at state barriers are taken aback with this sudden surge of tourists. We are aware that there's very little parking facilities and these small hill stations can't accommodate so many tourists in one go. The pandemic is still looming. The governments should impose conditions to check the spread of the impending third wave in time. Saving lives is more important than venturing out for fun.

RAMESH GUPTA, NARWANA

Charity heroes

‘Lalaji to Balaji, the link of kindness’ portrays the role of compassion and empathy in life. Only humans are bestowed with the trait to help needy fellow beings. Helping strangers financially to make something of their life is the noblest karma. The mantra ‘more charity, more prosperity’ is proved beyond doubt by heroes like Mark Zuckerberg, Azim Premji, Narayana Murthy, the Tatas, Sonu Sood and hundreds of others.

VK Anand, Chandigarh

Current Preamble

With reference to ‘Sedition & the State through prism of law’; the writer has aptly described sedition. The picture is of the original Preamble, when the Constitution was adopted in 1949. The current Preamble, amended in 1976, reads: ‘We the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic...’

Kiran Kalra, by mail

---

Letters to the Editor, typed in double space, should not exceed the 200-word limit. These should be cogently written and can be sent by e-mail to: [email protected]