Skill or discipline – part 2
“Bhupathi and
Bopanna axed from Davis Cup” – we wrote a blog starting with the above line.
The story is yet fresh and another one breaks out. This one is very similar in
spirit, but involving a winner. While Bhupathi and Bopanna carried the nation’s
hopes and could not get us a medal, most of us had not heard of Unmukt Chand,
the captain of the U-19 world cup winning Indian team. In fact, not many were
following the U-19 world cup tournament till our boys reached the semi-finals.
The space allotted by media to these cricketers before the world cup paled in
comparison to the space allotted to the great Tennis tamasha played off court.
Now suddenly,
Unmukt is in news for wrong reasons. He was not allowed to appear for his examination
since his attendance was less than what is allowed for sportspersons – 33.33%.
Well, for cricketing reasons, Unmukt could not (in fact, did not) attend even
1/3rd of the classes.
Now the matter
has been taken up very seriously and even the Union HRD Minister has jumped to
help the young lad. Are we getting our priorities wrong?
While nobody
can deny the feat achieved by this guy. His knock in the final was worth more
than Dhoni’s 97 in ICC World Cup final in 2011. Unmukt single-handedly played
an inning of his life. If we look at India’s victory against Sri Lanka in
WC-2011 final, we had a collapse – both Sehwag and Tendulkar got out very
early. Gambhir and Kohli’s partnership set a foundation for a late charge by
Dhoni. In the junior world cup finals too, India lost two quick wickets. Then,
with the help of Baba Aparajith, Unmukt set the foundation and after that in
the company of Smit Patel, he charged like Dhoni.
Well, we can
write in Chand’s praises, for what he did was an exhibition of focus, determination,
execution of a plan … In the end, he lifted the trophy.
But, what has
this to do with his studies? All these happened towards the fag end of his
academic year. What was he doing for the rest of the year? Well, may be he was
preparing hard for the World Cup and his efforts paid off. In that case, he
should be conferred Bachelors of Cricket (Honors), but in order to get any
other educational qualification, he must study that particular subject.
Allowing him
to skip classes in one subject because he is very good at another is not the
right thing to do. By the way, the sportspersons are already given a concession
– the required attendance for them is only 33.33%.
What needs to be done
Mr. Sibal and
other wise men should not press the DU much for allowing Chand to write the
exams for any other subjects. Instead, there is a need to introduce courses
that add the subject of sports in the curriculum. That will be a great service
the sports. Also, there is need to ensure that after studying such courses
there are enough employment opportunities to the sportspersons. Sports in our
country does not get it’s due since the life of a sportsperson ends by 35 or 40
and then one wonders what to do. The jobs available currently are not glamorous
at all. Parents are not comfortable (although the trend is changing) taking the
risks of allowing their kids to build career in sports.
A certain
Unmukt Chand must finish studying Engineering, Science, Commerce, Arts,
Medicine, Architecture, etc. in order to survive after he is no longer able to
play cricket – that is the problem that the HRD Minister should try solving.
Without that India will not be able to produce world-class players in large
numbers.
The other
thing the HRD Minister needs to do is to enforce the rules that someone has
already been framed. It is important to have sensible rules, but it is equally
sensible to follow the rules that exist. Exceptions and discretionary powers
lead to corruption. In case a rule is found to be incorrect, the rule may be
revised, but not following an existing rule does not make any sense.
Third need is
to review the overall system of education. We focus too much on marks in the
exam and not so much in knowledge. I have met many friends who want to recruit
freshers in their organisations. There are so many fresh graduates, who look
for jobs. This gap will continue to exist as long as the employers do not find
the fresh graduates employable. Employability and examination marks have no
link, it seems. The education system seems to be looking for ways to fail a
student. A regular evaluation, already adopted by few schools and colleges,
allows the teachers to find out areas where the student is weak and where she
is strong. This gives the educational institution an opportunity to work on
both the strength and weakness of th student.
We will have a
large number of kids in the employment age due to the demographic profile of
the country. Ensuring they are employable is a huge responsibility.
These are some
areas in which work needs to be done. The future of India is bright.
