‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’: Compete with yourself, not others says PM Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday cautioned parents against treating their children's report cards as their own visiting card, while asserting that it is crucial to instill resilience in children to help them cope with pressures and parents and teachers should collectively address challenges faced by them. Interacting with students, parents and teachers during his annual "Pariksha Pe Charcha" programme, the Prime Minister suggested that students should compete with themselves and not others and parents should never sow the seeds of competition and rivalry between siblings.

"It is crucial to instill resilience in our children and help them cope with pressures... We cannot just switch off and the pressure is gone.

One must become capable of bearing any kind of pressure. They should believe that pressure keeps on building and one has to prepare oneself," he said during the two-hour interaction.

Modi suggested students to "always make friends who are more intelligent and work harder". "You must be inspired by such friends. Don't let the pressure of studies and examinations overpower you," he said. He said that even though competition and challenges act as inspirations, competition must be healthy.

"A lot of parents keep on giving examples of other children to their children. Parents should avoid doing these things... never sow the seeds of rivalry and competition among students," he said.

"We have also seen that those parents who have not been very successful in their lives have nothing to say or want to tell the world about their successes and achievements, make the report card of their children their visiting card.

"Whenever they meet someone, they will tell them the story of their children," he said at the seventh episode of his outreach programme with students ahead of examinations.

The Prime Minister explained that the stress faced by students is of three types - induced by peer pressure, by parents and self-induced. "At times, children take pressure on themselves that they are not performing up to the mark. I suggest that you should set small goals during preparation and gradually improve your performance, this way you will be completely ready before exams," he said.

"We have to make ourselves capable of facing any sort of pressure. Students need to make themselves ready to go through any condition. If we visit any cold place, we make up our minds, and accordingly, we keep ourselves ready... (in the) same way you have to be ready for exams," Modi said. The Prime Minister said the challenges faced by students must be addressed collectively by parents and teachers. He also encouraged teachers to forge strong connections with their students. "The bond between educators and learners is the foundation for a bright future. If teachers start working on building a relationship with their students from the first day of the year, there won't be any question of tension building up among students at the time of examinations," he said.

"Teachers must expand their connections with students much beyond their subject syllabus so that students can reach out to their teachers even for the smallest of problems. Music teachers can not only help their own students deal with tensions, they can do so for students of the entire school," Modi said.