NEW DELHI: Prime Minister
Narendra Modi told
students not to fear exams while urging that one should not create pressure around students. Going beyond exam, the PM also said that the Covid-19 came as a life lesson for us.
Modi also advised parents not to unwittingly make children “instruments” of fulfilling their dreams and goals.
The 4th edition of the annual ‘Parikasha Pe Charcha’ programme was conducted virtually on Wednesday due to the pandemic and PM Modi rued that fact that he missed the opportunity to meet the students in person.
Replying to a question on whether he had given a thought on how the coronavirus situation has affected the students and how they should cope with the feeling that a whole year has gone to waste, PM Modi said that the pandemic has come as a lesson for all and students have suffered for no fault of theirs.
“This is a life lesson that many unimaginable events in life happens without any forewarning. The loss suffered by students due to
corona is huge. It won’t be easy to mitigate the loss… However, if we have lost many things in this period, we have also earned a lot as well. We have realised the importance of people and things whom we missed during this period and learnt to appreciate their role in our life. You realised that we should not take anyone or anything for granted, be it the physical activities in school, or our neighbourhood vegetable seller. Though Covid-19 forced us to maintain social distancing but it strengthened families' emotional bonding," he said.
The PM started the interaction by asking students not to fear exams but to see them as a test to improve themselves, and said social and family environment at times create pressure around students that is not desirable.
He said students sometimes become over conscious regarding exams and asked them to take them as a small destination in their long lives. “If external pressure is not created, then students will not feel pressure of exams and their confidence will also grow,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the students might have lost a year of their lives due to coronavirus pandemic but have also learnt the true value of essential things.
Modi, to a question on what should one do during free-time, said that he enjoys sitting on the swing during free time. Calling free-time a treasure, without which “life will be like a robot”, the PM said that one should involve in activities which increase curiosity during this time, activities which will express individuality and which “will take you far ahead of knowledge, to places where no one had reached.” He also advised that one should also know what to avoid in free-time, “else it will take up all the time.”
PM Modi summed up the interaction with a task to the students on the occasion of ‘Amrit Mahotsav’, the celebration of the 75th year of independence. Post exam, he asked the students to list the things one uses during the day at home in two categories –manufactured in India and abroad. The other task is to find out from their respective states 75 events/individuals related to freedom struggle and write about it in their mother tongue or in Hindi or English and make it a year-long project.