Number of words: 207

Examinations create class consciousness. They are unnecessary for the rich. The power or affluence of the parents will see to it that their wards, no matter how unequal to the job of passing they happen to be, are well placed in life. The security of the parents will provide the counterpoint to their natural ineffectiveness. The poor, however, need these examinations, because it is through examinations that they can better their future and job prospects. Having little to look forward to in life in the way of material comforts, the improvement in their future assumes an importance which they are prepared to undertake no matter the hardship or hurdle.

The process of first standardizing a grade and then fitting a person into it is dehumanizing. It makes objects of most of us. Submerging us into a culture of silence. The young, poor or rich, perceive this new bondage, but while the rich have the wherewithal to break away from it, the poor generally succumb, since conformity to the system ensures at least a measure of respectability that has eluded them all their lives but they desperately need to live adequately in a class conscious society.

Excerpted from pages 28-29 of ‘Examinations: An Informative Update’ by M Mascarenhas.