Do High Marks Alone Assure Success?

Generally parents and teachers do not actively encourage students to

participate in extra-curricular activities under mistaken notion that this

will affect the academic performance of their wards. They believe that

high academic performance assure high success and good jobs! Very few

parents and teachers recognize the importance of extra-curricular

activities in overall development and success of their wards.

Recently, ‘The Times of India’ a newspaper in India conducted a all India

competetion named ‘Times Scholars’. Under this competetion, the paper

set aside a sum of INR 10 million to be distributed amongst twenty

students as scholarship for graduate studies. About 45,000 students

applied for this scholarship. Rigrous written exams and interviews were

held all over India and twenty students were selected after this rigrous

elimination process.

The profiles of these twent students make an interesting study. The brief

profiles of these students are given below:

1. Akhila Jayram

School: St. Joseph Boy’s High School, Bangalore

Extra Curricular Activities: School Compeer, volunteers at an NG, has interned at Nimhans

2. Anmol Sahoo

School: RN Podar School, Mumbai

Extra Curricular Activities: Plays the Bass Guitar, Designs video games

3. Anshul Gupta

School: The Shri Ram School, Gurgaon

Extra Curricular Activities: Won best -Singapore's Nan yang Tech Universities' Model UN, Has applied for a patent for his invention to cut emissions from car exhausts

4. Annay Kulshretha

School: DPS, Dwarka, Delhi

Extra Curricular Activities: Has won over 10 debate competitions,Heads School's Quiz & Maths Clubs

5. Aruj Shah

School: Navrachana Higher Secondary School- Vadodara

Extra Curricular Activities: Winner of State Level Chess Tournaments, plays the tabla, has directed a short film

6. Athith Krishna

School: Shri Kumar Children's Home, Bangalore

Extra Curricular Activities: Karate champion, quizzer, guitarist ,has won laurels at Model UN meets

7. Ayush Chaudhari

School: Meridian School for Boys & Girls, Hyderabad

Extra Curricular Activities: Compeer, poet, debater, editor of School's Magazine

8. Barun Patra

School: DPS RK Puram- Delhi

Extra Curricular Activities: Plays cricket, plays football, plays basketbal, heads School's Computer Lab

9. Gurrein Madan

School: DPS -Amritsar

Extra Curricular Activities: Tennis layer, has won awards for her oratorical skills, plays the violin

10. Mamta Menon

School: Deogiri College- Aurangabad

Extra Curricular Activities: State level Archer, the Bharatnatyam Dance, a keen debater

11. Mangesh Sonawane

School: Kendriya Vidyalaya; INS Mandovi Verem, Goa

Extra Curricular Activities: Pursues martial arts, plays TT, has participated in global science fairs of Google & NASA

12. Manu Chopra

School: GD Goenka School, Rohini- Delhi

Extra Curricular Activities: Passionate about debating & theatre, holds a patent for inventing anti-molestation device for women

13. Nandini Bhardwaj

School: National Hill View Public School; Bangalore

Extra Curricular Activities: Learns Bharatnatayam, loves footbal, is a winning sprinter, has won awards in academics, sports, elocution & dance

14. Shounak Ghosh

School: DPS Ruby Park; Kolkata

Extra Curricular Activities: President of School's Interact Club, seeks a career in academics

15. Shreya Vardhan

School: DPS, RK Puram Delhi

Extra Curricular Activities: Writer, school Head Girl, tennis champ, has written for leading papers, taught software development at a special school

16. Sneha Nandi

School: R N Poddar School, Santakruz-Mumbai

Extra Curricular Activities: Has won Silver Medal at a Young Scientist's Exhibition, has also won debates

17. Ujwal Dahuja

School: The Doon School, Dehradun

Extra Curricular Activities: Plays chess at national level, captain of SchoolCricket Team

18. Vaishnavi Ramaswamy

School: in Chennai

Extra Curricular Activities: Artist, passionate about designing posters, has won many debates

19. Vibhaalaxmi Sivaraman

School: DAV Girls High School- Chennai

Extra Curricular Activities: Captain of school basketball team, proficient Bharatnatayam Dancer, plays chess & TT School (vice captain) School magazine editor

20. Vibhu Parcha

School: St. Joseph Academy -Dehradun

Extra Curricular Activities: keen quizzer, has also won several debatingcompetitions

These are 20 Best Class 12 Students selected by ‘The Times of India’ from45,000 contestants from all over India after many written tests & interviews! Interestingly, there are almost equal number of boys and girls in this list and many of the winners are from small or medium size cities and not from metros ao large cities having much better infrastructure.

Now, I will not give my views about these twenty students. Instead, I will just ask the reader to ask herself/himself these questions:

1. Did extra-curricular activities of these students affect their studies?

2. Will they get better jobs than their friends who are just academically good?

3. Will these students be more successful then others in their lives as compared to their counerparts who are just academically good or even better than these students?

Just think about this!

By

Sarwan Singh

Sarwansingh6644@gmail.com