Student suicides raise question about exams

It's only a week since the Boards began and exam stress has already claimed four lives in Delhi. Should the killer exam be scrapped? Tragic as these deaths are, doing away with exams is not the answer.
If farmers commit suicide because they are unable to repay the loan, you don't stop giving loans. Why blame exams when studies show poor problem solving skills and parental expectations to be at the root of such tragedies.
Helplines and counselling, not just for students, but parents as well, are required. Examinations are an integral part of a student's training.
But nowhere else do you hear of students killing themselves because they can't cope with exam stress. The fault lies with the way our exams are structured and assessed.
Elsewhere the attempt is to ensure that what is learnt will be value for the individual's further development. In our system the purpose of exams is to find out not what the student knows but what he does not know.
Instead of doing away with exams we need to reform the system, treating it as a necessary tool for assessment and improvement, nothing more and nothing less. For this, society needs to change its outlook on success and failure.
The premium ought to be on acquiring life skills rather than marks. There is no way you can do away with examinations in today's competitive world.
The kind of competencies needed for a successful life in the 21st century are far more complex than earlier. One has to prove oneself at every stage: To get into college, to land a job, to find a life-partner.
The sooner one learns to deal with competition and put up disappointments, the better. The Board is only one of the many exams one will face in life. What is important is faith in one's abilities.
Parents have a big role to play in building a child's self-esteem. Just because a child doesn't score well in exams, doesn't mean she is stupid.
She may not have the aptitude for that subject or her talents may lie elsewhere. Once we realise this, our attitude to exams will change and students will stop killing themselves over it.