This is with reference to the news story “Letter grading system has made students careless, say experts” (THT, June 25, Page 2). Due to the grading system, schoolchildren do not give full attention to their studies.

There is a perception that the government has made the policy of “no-fail system” and they therefore need not worry about doing hard work. After the Secondary Education Exam (SEE) was introduced in 2016, schoolchildren seem to be less sincere about their studies compared to those who took exams in evaluation system in the School Leaving Certificate (SLC). In our time we used to be afraid of failing which made us laborious.

The three years’ experience has given us a lesson that we need to make improvement in grading system so that the schoolchildren focus on their studies. The very concept of grading system, it seems, has been ineffective in our context. Even after the grading system was introduced around 19 per cent of the students will not get admission in Grade XI. Then, what is the purpose of introducing the grading system?

It is therefore necessary to revamp in teaching-learning system. Making changes in curriculum and evaluation system will not improve education quality. Recent studies have revealed that most schoolchildren were found very weak in science, mathematics and language.

Abhishek Kunwar, Pokhara

Friend and foe

Once a bitch had given birth to puppies within a dry uncovered drain. Along with search of food for herself, she was keeping a sharp vigil to protect her puppies from a male dog. In contrast, the mother was lean and thin!

Now  as the male dog is seen to approach her puppies, she was challenging  him as fast as lightning with ferocious eyes and to my utmost surprise, I was noticing the male dog was fast retreating and escaping from the horizon only to reappear again and the process got repeated. One evening, dark clouds were threatening a very sharp shower. And the puppies are within that dry uncovered drain which is bound to get flooded endangering their lives. The menfolk decided to transfer the puppies from the drain to the covered verandah of an uninhabited bungalow.

The operation puppy-shifting got launched! Now the mother dog was sitting at a far distance. I got amazed to notice that far from charging at them, she was casually looking at the scene with utmost “philosophy” and indifference in her eyes. Whereas the very same mother was furiously chasing away her male counterpart when he approached to her puppies.

Despite being “merely” an animal, she fully succeeded in differentiating between an evil and a friend. She knew that the male dog can harm her puppies, but human beings are well-wishers of her little ones.

So there lies nothing to get perturbed about or chase when the puppies were being physically shifted. Will we try to imbibe the intelligence and enviable sense of the dogs to identify our true friend and enemies and save the society from meeting its doom?

Kajal Chatterjee, Kolkata