APJ Abdul Kalam: The ‘Extra’ Ordinary Man

Looking back at the life story of a man who was one of the most influential leaders of India in recent times, we realise something we all know but ignore. He had absolutely no financial backing. His father was not famous in the village. He was in minority and was also not a bright student in his school days. He was just “average” student even in college. He was warned in college that his scholarship would be stopped, eventually ended up doing a job he was not very keen to do, yet he became a top scientist of India.  So what was his secret?

We all know that as a President of India he was very humble, down to earth and a simple person. What we do not know that even when he was a president, he was hard working. At all levels in life he worked more than his peers and hence progressed more. As an average student he worked to distribute newspapers and still put in more work in his studies so he could get scholarship. In college he worked hard to get a good job. After he got a job we all know about his involvement in making helicopters, missiles, satellites, nuclear test, etc. Yes he was a genius, probably he always was gifted and the Indian school system couldn’t recognise that. However, more than being a genius he was extremely hardworking. This hard work has made him the leader our country is so proud of.

There is nothing called ‘lazy genius’. I have come across a lot of people who say I am so intelligent that I have to work hard. I am afraid that if you want to be successful in life, you have to work hard, irrespective of your level of intelligence. In fact APJ Abdul Kalam has proved that you can change your level of intelligence by putting your blood and sweat in your work. He was not from an extraordinary school, but the efforts he has put in his building his career and his country are so extraordinary that he has become a leader only on merit.

Hard work teaches you humility. I have had the opportunity to meet him twice and his humility and kindness were something that cannot be taught, only developed. In one of the speeches he mentioned that once he was sure of the project being successful as he and his team had worked very hard for 2 years. There were top people in the team with adequate resources, but it failed. He did not give up on hard work and 6 months later they were successful.

A simple person with absolutely no background has today left this world by creating a reputation which is unparalleled. He has proved that India with her share of one of the largest poor population in the world has the potential of producing the most brilliant scientists of the world. 

Waiting for an Iron Man

Most people would remember the Hollywood character when they read Iron Man. However I am talking about our own Sardar Patel, who made India by merging 565  princely states and creating a united country which today is all set to become the 3^rd largest economy in the world.

What primary and secondary education in India today needs is one such Iron Man who can unite the country’s multi-board system. India as of now has approximately 30 recognised boards. While most have difficulty in choosing which board is best for their child would have option to choose between :

1.      State Board

2.      CBSE

3.      ICSE

4.      IGCSE

5.      IB

However even more difficult is the college’s role where they are getting marksheets from 30 different boards who have different marking styles / different subjects / different dates of result. Then comes entrance exams – one by state govt and another by central govt. So in Ahmedabad if you want to get in to engineering you need to do GujCET for admission in to LD Engineering and JEE for  Nirma University. Not to mention for IIT you need to pass JEE – Advanced. So the child has to study for atleast 3 exams, board exam, state entrance test and central entrance test. It may seem that the curriculum is similar, but definitely the exam pattern is different.  

The government tried to do a common entrance test for across India and suggested that admissions to be done based on that results. However students stopped attending schools and focussed on getting score only in the exam.So the government has put a 40% to 60% weightage to board marks before giving admission. So that again puts us back to square one – how do you compare the different marksheets of different boards. Another system which has been made by colleges is allotting quota system. So they find a ratio of total students of the board who appeared for admission (or passed in the board exam) and make allocate their seats accordingly. However this does benefit boards in which there are students who wouldn’t want to pursue college education.

 To streamline these boards the National Curriculum Framework was setup in 2005 however till date not all boards have adopted it. What we require is a “National Assessment Framework” as eventually we should produce comparable marksheets. Then we will be able to decide who are the best brains in the country to get in to best colleges irrespective of the state he is studying in.

Doesn’t future of the country deserve a better way to get into colleges?

USA has implemented SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) since 1926 and even today most colleges use GPA (grade point average) allotted by school exam and SAT scores in combination to give admission to colleges. This also helps international students to sit at par with US students. This is how lot of Indian students get admitted in US, while face injustice in India. No doubt Indians spend about $13 billion for college education in US.  

We need one Iron Man – Sardar Patel to unite all the educational boards and colleges and make India one of the world’s best place to study.

Reward behaviour not Result

Reward is something which we associate with achievement. Most people think reward is only supposed to be given when a person tries AND achieve something. The fallacy of this thinking is that most people give up their journey towards the achievement because of losing of hope that they will ever reach there. For example I have to learn to walk for say 6 kms in  1 hour. At present I can walk for maximum 30 minutes and cover 2.5 kms. So a good trainer would give me a program which has several milestones which need to be achieved and say in a 3 month plan I can achieve the ultimate goal. A good trainer would give small rewards for small achievements and help the trainee to keep up the motivation all throughout the journey. These small rewards will increase the probability of achievement more than a one-time big reward.

This approach can be put in practice by teachers, parents, students and even managers. For example there is a students who has bad handwriting, lack of subject knowledge, no punctuality and somewhat disciplinary issue. Most parents and teachers would want the student to immediately change and give him an offer a big reward if his performance is like an average student. However for a student with several challenges the rewards should be broken up in small pieces and given for him maintaining a positive behaviour. A student is about a million times more probable to improve himself if he keeps on trying to do so every single day for years and years, than a student who does sporadic efforts. If we see that a students is struggling hard to improve, this alone calls for a small reward.

I love giving medals, prizes and rewards to final winners. However the futility of that exercise is proven when year on year we have the same winners. I think rewards should be for improvement with one self’s past performance. Rewards should be for each individuals battle against his own circumstances. Rewards should be for attitude rather than aptitude. Such rewards will build a character, a fighter, an individual- what a world really needs. Rather than merely a winner, which is a title reserved for one person.

Such kind of small rewards have to be “administered” by people close to the students, like parents, friends and teachers. A single metric cannot be established to give such a reward. For example a student who got a fractured foot and still getting the same marks as he got in previous exams, even when his classmates performance fell, deserves a reward. A computer generated rank list will not give importance to such a struggle.

Small rewards can be simple pleasures of life like giving an ice cream treat to the child which he/she has been yearning for, taking him to his/her favourite movie or sometimes just spending time with him to do what he/she likes. Positive words of encouragement and a simple pat on the back are also rewards for the strugglers.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate, reward the behaviour and not the result. A good result may come by good luck, but a good behaviour comes only with a positive attitude and persistent efforts.  Behaviour builds a solid foundation for the future which is more important in the long run than merely cracking an exam.  

Keep up the good work!