But will it help in the real exam?

Jayanti Roy

With all the reports about the harmful impacts, distractions, wastage of time due to social media, we would expect our children to refrain from using it, at least during exam days. But I found that the probability of children on the device gets enhanced during preparatory holidays. Heated discussions were taking place on WhatsApp with chats, comments, messages and counter-responses from multiple persons and the smartphone was pinging non-stop all day.

Most of the messages consisted of frantic requests to send the question-answers of ‘Democracy and judiciary’ or the lists of ‘upsarg’ and ‘pratyaya’. It was clear that the students had not done their homework and had no content with them to prepare for the impending exams. They were therefore requesting friends to send them solved exercises. It seemed like a group of beggars pleading earnestly to be given this or that, with a lot of emojis of folded hands and sad or crying faces for effect. 

Sometimes, the children would ask for The Merchant of Venice or The School Boy straightaway — perhaps they wanted to meet them face-to-face. Sometimes, there was confusion whether Ozymandias was in the syllabus or the teacher had exempted them from learning it. 

Then there were kind souls, who would take the time out to click 13 pages of homework and posting them on the group. They would be showered with the choicest blessings and gratitude. Some others would send an easier diagram of the human ear or the digestive system for the benefit of their peers. 

And then confusion would prevail, with an odd student unleashing queries regarding science lessons when the next exam was that of Hindi! It would send a tremor of panic through the group by putting the seed of doubt in everybody’s mind. The student would then get a scolding from everybody about his indiscretion. To my utter dismay, the requests continued till late in the night, with the exam in the morning.

The queries, the language, the emojis, the messages and timings, if plotted on a graph, would have reflected a clear pattern of the state of mind of these vulnerable teenagers. 

It was quite clever of them to bypass the whole gamut of academic rigour, hard work and pain of learning, knowing confidently that mugging of the content the night before the exam would fetch them an equivalent reward, as would be obtained by working hard and absorbing knowledge throughout the year. 

The students have opted for an easy option, a shortcut because it was available to them for free, at the touch of a finger. I wish the smart application would be as helpful to them when they confront the difficult and intricate exam of life.