With regard to the report “Dammam school tops in quality and quantity” (May 27), it was heartening to note the outstanding results of the International Indian School, Dammam (IISD). I commend Saudi Gazette for giving wide coverage to the news of the results of all the Indian schools in the Kingdom and highlighting the achievement of the students. It is indeed a matter of pride that all of the Indian schools run under the Indian Embassy have produced excellent results despite the difficulties they have had in finding and recruiting teachers, especially for the higher grades. Sixty percent of IISD students earned distinction and around 40 percent of all the students who appeared for the exam scored over 80 percent. These are no mean achievements and the teachers and parents deserve appreciation for their efforts and endeavors. As the article rightly highlights, another striking feature of the results was that students in the commerce and humanities streams passed with distinction and scored over 95 percent overall. Six students scored 99 percent in marketing and other students scored 99 percent in home science and business studies subjects. However, the policy of IISD in setting percentages for admitting students into the science and commerce streams and forcing students scoring lower marks to study humanities needs to be changed. Students should be allowed to pursue studies in the subjects of their choice and students who lag behind or fail to score higher marks in secondary school should be given more attention instead of preventing them from studying the subjects of their choice, especially when the results have proven the higher capabilities of students who opted for humanities. There is another issue which concerns me and that is the testing of young children as a prerequisite for admission to kindergarten. As long as they are in the required age group, all children must be admitted without the need for any test of any sort. The world over, academicians and experts are urging that the testing and grading of children should not begin until the primary school levels. In fact, Finland, which is known for having one of the best education systems in the world, takes the lead in this respect and does not allow schools to test children until they are in the 8th grade. There is also a need, a great need indeed, to lessen the burden of school bags as children are made to bring all of their textbooks, notebooks and workbooks which makes their bags very heavy and difficult for some children to carry. Safi H. Jannaty, Dammam
