Success in life is not easy.

Why do bleeding hearts write such tosh? One Disha Nawani, Associate Professor, School of Education in Mumbai has written that school children should not be failed in exams and asked to repeat the same class. It is called ' detention ' in India which sounds like punishment. Why not change the name? Call it reeducation, or retraining or reinforcement and the shame of ' failure ' will disappear. Education is to equip children to get good jobs so as to earn a respectable living. What is the use of a child going through 12 years of school if he has learnt nothing. In the US 32 million adults cannot read, that is 14% of the population. About 21% of adults read below 5th grade and 19% of high school grads cannot read. A small number of children may suffer from dyslexia and may need special teaching. Others may just refuse to learn. Should teachers waste their time trying to cajole these children to learn? The world is harsh. Once the children leave school they will suddenly find that they are unwanted. How will they cope with that? Technology is changing fast and workers need retraining to learn new skills. The writer is a believer in assessment. Surely, exams are a form of assessment? She thinks that " where learning is to ' memorising ' content without reflecting on it " is a waste of time. ".... the assessment system should not restrict itself to testing memorising content alone but must facilitate the process whereby the child connects between what's been done in school and what she experiences outside school. The government should direct its efforts towards ensuring that children learn meaningfully rather than detaining them in class,' she writes. Subjects such as maths and physics need to be understood but if you do not know the tables you cannot count your change when you shop. The writer is unaware that medical education involves a lot of memorising. Unless you memorise that the calcaneus is in the foot and the carotid is in the head you will surely put your foot in it. It is for teachers to devise school curriculum and ways to engage our children. Finland is introducing ' phenomenon based ' teaching in middle schools. To do that teachers must be highly trained themselves which is not the case in government schools in India. To promote a child to a higher class when she has failed her exams may give her the impression that studies are unimportant, especially if her parents are illiterate. On the other hand, nothing is to be gained from humiliating a child. Should there be separate schools for bright children and those who are weak, like grammar schools in the UK? After all, there are entrance tests for college places once children leave school. We fear that the bleeding hearts will resist such a scheme. Will the author support passing medical students who fail repeatedly, as demanded by the vice-chancellor of a university in Lucknow? Exams are essential. Perhaps failure early in life will protect children from failure later on.