With the State Board Examination Result have just been out, many candidates seem to be down with low self-esteem. Especially the ones who do not fare well in the exams and score below their expectation. They do not live up to the standard their parents and society expects of them. In that, parents and guardians seem to have given up hope and dropped moral support for their wards who got flunked in their exams. Pressurized by such common tendency rooted on the mindsets of our society, mediocre students are thrown into a middle of no where. They have been barely cheered up and given never- say -die pat on their back in times of failure. Instead they would make their child live life backward, not realizing that the exams is just another stage of trial for a student’s life. And it is not the end of the road.

Do not get me wrong . I'm not sounding too negative about the bad results and our society’s response. But the facts were (are) obvious. Our students may not be as coward as those 48 candidates in Kerala and 13 students in Delhi in 2002-2003(as per Times of India report) who had taken the suicide route after failing to get their expected results of the SSLC exams. But the steps our students who have failed in various exams in the past several years, usually took are more hazardous. Failure in exams has sucked many students into a low life. Hopelessly they get into a dreadful habit of drinking, doping drugs, living an undesirable life for solution to their problems and eventually become a spoilt brat. The data are untraceable, but its impacts can be very much seen and felt in the family and the society in general. Most of the students are tempted to opt for these sort of temporary cures to common deseases due to lack of proper guidance and counseling from the person concerned. Henceforth, positive remedies should be provided for unsuccessful candidates at the right time.

Exam is not everything. There is much more to life. It is wise of us if we could believe in God, ourselves and not get ourselves demoralized. After all bad results only shed light on our weaknesses. History is replete with instances of people who were not cowed down by failure:

1.Bill Gates, the world’s richest man is just a school dropout.
2.Thomas Edison, the inventor of electric bulb had just four-year schooling in his life.
3.And our own Khushwant Singh used to score only zero mark in mathematics in his school days. Seeing his hidden talent, a class master suggested him to be a writer. And he is now one of the best-selling writers.
They were all back-benchers who could hardly do well while schooling, but their talents could catapult them to the zenith in their own field.


Let us keep in mind Henry Ford’s words: “If you think you can or if you think you can’t, you are right”. So why can’t you and I, when Thomas Edison could at last invent electric bulb after he had tried 10,000 times. Why can’t you and I, when Abraham Lincoln could finally become the President of America, though he has been restraint by bankruptcy and failures in general elections for four times. Of course, we may not be a born genius or brainy enough, but each one of us has been talented in one way or the other only if we can unearth it.

Failures are natural and should be accepted gracefully. One failure does not make a man a man of failure. Parents should not corner their wards with peer pressure and warnings. Help him or her out of the trauma instead. The child should take remedial measures to succeed the next time just as one shallow does not make a summer, one failure is not a full- stop to life .It is just a stepping stone to success.

Therefore, the dire needs of the hour are proper counseling, understanding and affection for the students .So as to cope with any unforeseen aftermath of the bad results usually faced by the students, NGO’s, Psychologist, Psychiatrists,Teachers and volunteers must take up initiatives by conducting constructive workshops and seminars for counseling. And most importantly various help lines should be made available for students for moral assistance and opening doors to endless avenues.

Once again, good marks are no guarantee for success in life. Similarly, bad results are not permanent failures. Good or bad, one must make the most of the results. Learn from the mistakes and move on ahead in life.