Bhaskar Ghose ("Determining excellence", June 30) has rightly focussed on the futility of taking examination marks as indicators of merit. While he pointed out the tragedy of a student missing higher education for want of 0.5% mark in an examination, I can quote several instances where non-achievers at school became great achievers in life.
A student who failed in S.S.L.C. public Examination later turned out to be a successful entrepreneur, employing hundreds of engineering graduates. But his classmate, who used to stand first in school, became a clerk in his establishment.
A Dalit student, conscious of his social status, shy and withdrawn, blossomed as a brilliant student when he joined a college 200 km away from his home and went on to earn an F.R.C.S. degree. Adolescence is not the best period to assess one's strengths and weaknesses.
S. S. Rajagopalan ChennaiPrice of reformsTHE Cover Story ("Challenging neoliberalism", June 30) exposed the ground realities of the neoliberal regime, which has undermined the principle of self-reliance.
Dr. Vitull K. Gupta Bhatinda, PunjabPalestineTHE article "Threat of civil war" (June 30) aptly describes the hypocrisy of the West, which seeks to punish the Palestinians for electing a government through a process declared by international observers as free, honest and fair. It has no scruples about remaining a mute spectator to Israel's indifference to umpteen U.N. resolutions and the International Court of Justice's ruling on the illegitimacy of the apartheid wall.
If the Palestinians were wrong in electing Hamas, which carried out a series of suicide bombings on Israeli kiosks and buses, the people of the United States, Britain and Israel did no less wrong in re-electing their respective governments that have caused untold miseries to humanity in the name of the "war on terror".
Syed Sultan Mohiddin Cuddapah, APAssessing youthAS Bhaskar Ghose says in his article "Determining excellence" (June 30), examinations are not the right way to evaluate a student's intelligence and talents. Students who excel in sports are so often denied the right opportunities because they do not do well in academics.
R. Akhil Ratheesh ThiruvananthapuramWE have not yet found a method of assessment other than examinations. Exams should be made format-free and there should not be marks specified for each question.
Questions should be framed in a way that would reward the student's understanding of the subject. A system of grading, rather than marks, might be a good idea.
Raghuram Ekambaram New DelhiSTUDENTS should be evaluated on the basis of their `intelligence' and not marks. The need of the hour is to grade students as teachers do in Oxford and Cambridge.
K.P. Gopa Kumar ThiruvananthapuramReservationTHIS has reference to Praful Bidwai's column ("The merit' fallacy", June 16). The author says the notion of `merit' is Brahminical in origin. How can such abstract notions be attributed to any community?
I support reservation for socially backward communities, but to label the opposition only as an assault by the urban elite and the upper castes amounts to negating the other political, social and economic reasons that contributed to the same opposition.
Also, in a situation where true `merit' cannot be measured directly, we have to rely on exams as indicators of merit. This does not in any way imply that our education system and its assessment mechanisms are all right. Nothing short of a revolution in the field will suffice.
Abhiram ThiruvananthapuramCORRECTIONTHE date of the launching of the People of India Project is October 2, 1985, and not October 2, 1895, as mentioned in the obituary of Kumar Suresh Singh ("Scholar of Society", June 30).
A.K. Dasgupta HyderabadANNOUNCEMENTLetters, whether by surface mail or e-mail, must carry the full postal address and the full name, or the name with initials.
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