Dharmendra Pradhan
As Pariksha Pe Charchaunfolds this year, it marks a quiet yet decisive shift in Bharat’s educational journey. Conceived under the leadership of the Hon’ble Prime Minister, this initiative which began as a single annual interaction in 2018 has today organically evolved into a Jan Andolan. It’s now a nationwide collective effort that places students’ holistic well-being at the centre, with parents and teachers as active stakeholders in this shared responsibility.
The scale of engagement this year underscores the depth of this initiative. With over 4.5 crore registrations, surpassing the previous Guinness World Record, Pariksha Pe Charcha has crossed a critical threshold, from outreach to ownership. This unprecedented participation reflects a collective resolve to create an enabling environment in which every young mind can learn, grow, and truly flourish.
Demonstration of Prime Minister’s Motivational Leadership
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s engagement with students on issues of education, learning, and examination stress reflects a distinctive blend of empathy, pragmatism, and motivational leadership. His personality-marked by simplicity, discipline, optimism, and deep faith in human potential-has made a formidable impact on millions of young minds. What sets the Prime Minister apart is his innate ability to seamlessly connect with students as a mentor, guide, and well-wisher, beyond the maze of official protocol. His conversational, anecdotal, and relatable style makes students feel heard and understood. He speaks with warmth, humor and authenticity, often drawing from his own life experiences to convey larger lessons about perseverance, focus, and resilience. This personal touch has helped demystify the pressures associated with exams, creating a reassuring environment for learners.
Recognizing Every Child as Unique
At the heart of this effort lies a simple yet powerful truth: every child is unique. Each learns differently, grows at her own pace, and carries talents that cannot be reduced to a single score or rank.
Examinations, by design, capture only a narrow slice of a child’s potential. True creativity and excellence emerge through holistic development. One child may display mathematical brilliance, another artistic imagination, and yet another the empathy to become a compassionate healer. These differences are not deficiencies; they are the foundations of a diverse, resilient, and innovative society.
Reflection of the Philosophy of National Education Policy – 2020
This philosophy lies at the core of the National Education Policy – 2020. Under its framework, pedagogy, curricula, and assessment systems are being reshaped around a genuinely child-centric approach with emphasis on nurturing creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, physical well-being, and ethical values alongside academic learning. Its focus on play-based learning in the early years recognises curiosity and joy as the strongest foundations for lifelong learning.
Mother-tongue instruction in the foundational stages is intended to enable a child grasp concepts better, while emphasis on multilingualism seeks to nurture a generation that is confident in its cultural and linguistic roots and capable of advancing Indian knowledge systems on the global stage.
Assessment reforms reflect the same intent. For the first time, the 10th Board examinations will now be conducted twice a year, giving students greater flexibility to improve performance and easing the pressure associated with a single high-stakes test. 360-degree Holistic Progress Cards have been introduced to track not only academic outcomes, but also a child’s socio-emotional and physical development.Recognising that well-being is integral to learning, socio-emotional counsellors are mandated in every CBSE school, offering students day-to-day support in managing academic and emotional stress. Ultimately, the responsibility before us is clear: not to force children into a single mould, but to recognise, support, and strengthen each child’s unique strengths.
Holistic Learning – a Key Focus
Education today is no longer confined to textbooks, examinations and rote learning. There is a discernible focus on holistic learning. It is clearly understood that academic excellence alone does not prepare students for the challenges of 21st century. Children cannot learn meaningfully under the weight of anxiety, fear, or emotional stress. India’s civilisational traditions offer enduring tools to address this through mindfulness, pranayama, and yoga. These practices help children understand their emotions better, building focus, calm, and resilience. Besides helping in examination preparation, they build life skills that extend far beyond the classroom to cultivate emotional wisdom, a sense of balance with nature, and inner awareness alongside academic knowledge.
Challenges to Address
Yet we must confront a distinctly modern challenge that faces us today: excessive digital consumption and screen time. Prolonged exposure erodes attention spans, disrupts sleep and strains mental and physical health. The pressures of constant connectivity, online comparison, and digital overstimulation often amplify examination stress and undermine the very mindfulness we seek to cultivate among children. This is where parents and educators must act together. By setting healthy boundaries around device-use and encouraging alternatives such as physical activity, creative pursuits, and family interaction, we can restore balance.
Children as Harbingers of Progress
A Viksit Bharat needs excellence across all fields. When children are free to discover and develop their unique strengths, the nation advances through creativity, inclusion, and collective progress.
In the age of artificial intelligence, the distance between curiosity and problem-solving has narrowed. Our role as educators, parents, and guardians is to enable this exploration. This requires ensuring consistent guidance and support by providing children with the right tools, clear safeguards, and the freedom to experiment, innovate, and even fail.
Today’s students are the harbingers of Viksit Bharat 2047. Children who learn without fear, innovate with confidence, and engage with the world while remaining rooted in their cultural heritage are shaping Viksit Bharat in the present. They must be supported by an education systemdesigned for the head, the heart, and the hands-one that celebrates potential, nurtures purpose, and prepares them for meaningful lives. This is the spirit of Pariksha Pe Charcha: freeing young minds from fear and preparing confident citizens for India@2047.
(The author is Union Minister of Education)
