Women Olympians

In a historic feat, the Indian women’s hockey team led by Rani Rampal entered the Olympic semifinals by beating favourites Australia. Discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur fell just short of bagging India’s first athletics medal, but Mirabai Chanu’s wrestling silver and PV Sindhu’s badminton bronze are in the kitty. Lovlina Borgohain has already secured a boxing bronze. In sports like boxing and weightlifting, the SAI scouts the country’s interiors for talented girls as well as boys. But why are women giving a better performance? One explanation is that Indian society makes it much harder for a woman to play a sport, those who fight through this have extra zest. Sports are a reflection of society. Ability needs to meet opportunity. Still, the tide is turning. Mary Kom inspired Lovlina, who will do the same for future players, as will Savita Punia’s wonderful goalkeeping or Vandana Katariya’s hat-trick in hockey. May their success be the source of inspiration for many more.

SANJAY CHOPRA, MOHALI

Olympic medals

While sports lovers are anxiously watching Indian athletes and players’ performance, we need to ponder why we are unable to get enough medals. To win in competitive sports like the Olympics, we need to give sufficient exposure to players in international matches. We have to set our sports priorities right from the school level itself. All village schools and stadiums should display king-size pictures/busts of internationally acclaimed sporting heroes of the village/district to motivate children to take to sports and excel. Textbooks must also include chapters on sportspersons. More inter-school tournaments should be encouraged. Preferential jobs should be given to sportspersons at the right time, which is missing in our country due to policy hurdles. Players get over-aged. There should be age relaxation for deserving players. Financial help should also be given to such families.

BRIJ B GOYAL, LUDHIANA

Real assessment

Refer to ‘Class XII results’; the New Education Policy 2020 brings in a transformational change by making board exams low stakes. NEP has not only split board exams in two half-yearly parts, but it also proposes to incorporate competency-based questions rather than rote-type questions. It will give an edge to intelligent students. Assessment will be more holistic as the new system is focused on skill learning and aims for overall personality development. It is a paradigm shift as the education system moves from being score oriented to being a tool for financial empowerment. It would mean empowering children from their formative years by equipping them with multiple languages, skills and multi-subject learning.

Mukta Agarwal, Faridabad

Class XII results

Apropos of ‘Class XII results’, the CBSE had laid out an elaborate, logical and systematic weightage of percentage to be allocated for each class. It was expected that brilliant students would be at loss for not being able to go beyond 95 per cent. However, it appears some schools have taken the CBSE policy guidelines for a ride to show ‘good results’. Result evaluation was spread over three years (classes X to XII) with percentage weightage. What you see all over is that the number of students scoring over 95 per cent has abnormally doubled from previous year. This unhealthy trend of being super generous will result in 100 per cent cut-offs for college admissions. The deserving candidates have got grouped with hundreds of undeserving ones.

Col RC Patial, by mail

Mockery of Parliament

Parliament session has been in progress since July, but sadly it has not functioned fully for even a day. There is commotion due to the Pegasus scandal and other matters. In the past seven decades, we have never witnessed such a pathetic situation, which the world, too, is watching. Instead of sitting and discussing the issues, the Opposition walks out, shouting slogans. Politicians have made a mockery of democracy. Crores of rupees collected by way of taxes are spent on these sessions which are of no use. All this money goes down the drain. We can deduce the progress of the House which cannot be called satisfactory by any stretch of imagination. The MPs have made the House an amphitheatre. They are unconcerned about the dignity of Parliament.

Raj Kumar Kapoor, ropar

Not so smart

This refers to ‘The shortcut of cut-copy-paste’. It is hurtful to see that the so-called smart generation of the 21st century is not so smart. This generation believes in browsing and not in brooding. To think creatively and effectively is a laborious task. They believe in saving time by spending hours on the Internet. Those who get 99.9% marks find it difficult to think original, and often resort to Google even for a small piece of writing. Though it may save time, in the long run, it makes them less active and more passive in terms of creativity and ingenuity of thoughts.

Archna, Mandi

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