COMPETITION in SCHOOLS

I was a student who never liked any kind of competition in the school. I remember showing my true nature and learning more when there was less or no competition at all. This is because my mind was free from any positive or negative thoughts and actions associated with the competition. 

Positive aspects of competition may outnumber the negative ones but we must not forget that one negative aspect can overtake 100s of positive ones.

Competition of small scale may be necessary but it should be healthy rather than students participating in a rat race. 

Aristotle said that educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all. If there is competition in the education system, will we be able to educate the hearts of the students? 

Competition is a situation in which people compete with one another for something that not everyone can have. In the end of the competition someone wins, but what happens to the others? Our answers will definitely be that they will be more motivated to try harder the next time. But the truth is that only a minority of the ones who did not win gets motivated. The rest of the majority falls off the track. Many of them will get stressed and depressed because they can’t face others. Simple example: Look at the face of the child who stood last in the weekly test, and the ones who are not seen in the social media with the teachers. Look at the face of the captain and the master whose house stood last in the weekly or monthly competition. Look at the face of the class teacher whose class stood last in the monthly/weekly competition of any kind. Can we consider that they didn’t do their best? It is just some one did better than them. It doesn’t mean they are unworthy or incapable. 

The parents, teachers and their own peers pressure them to win. Once they lose they can’t face them. 

Most of the losers and low achievers are bullied by the winners and brighter ones. Some teachers and parents even say “why can’t you when s/he can?” Would you personally like to be one of the losers? A less-than-best-result may affect the child’s emotion and confidence. Even the parents can be affected equally or more than that of the child. I have personal experiences on this. 

If a competition does not provide goals that are attainable for everyone, the activity becomes unbalanced with some jumping ahead and others ending up left in the dust. 

Everyone would do her/his best to protect his/her dignity in whatever method she/he can think of. The urge to win makes pupils forget their ethics. They even forget their own principles. 

Unless we want each child to be a winner in every competition, they will feel disappointed when they don’t win. Losing definitely is not easy! 

Competition builds up robots with full of knowledge and produces insensitive and heartless people to the society. Can we make a better society with people who don’t have a heart? What must we do in our education system to make every student equally talented? Can we encourage our students to step on one another and to become the best or the first of anything? We must simply encourage them to do their best. And we must teach them to enjoy the joy of simply doing well. 

A competition might help in various ways for the learning process. But still, is it necessary? I am not saying that we don’t need competition in our education system. I am just saying that it is not necessary. Can’t we educate students without any competition at all? Of course we can.