LETTER | Life is about going the distance with dignity. The 1976 film “Rocky” is about an unknown boxer given a wild card opportunity to fight for the world heavyweight boxing championship title.

The story emphasises the fact that Rocky Balboa lasted the whole 15 rounds to prove himself as a worthy fighter despite losing on the score card result against the undefeated world champion.

The Education Ministry is cautious about reducing emphasis on the UPSR exams results, as students should be more well-rounded in extracurricular activities, as a local daily reported.

There is a stigma attached to comparisons and ranking, which demotivates and demoralises those who have less than perfect examination results, more so those who have done badly. Jealousy and envy is the result when those who have done well trumped their relative superiority.

The culture of some parents and teachers to humiliate a child due to poor academic results has its detrimental effects since from the child's perspective, the UPSR examination is an important milestone. What does this achieve except to potentially create feelings of inferiority complex?

Instead, the student need to be counselled and reassured that poor UPSR academic results are not the end but a wake-up call to re-evaluate how to go about doing better in secondary school.

After all, there are bigger examination milestones ahead such as PT3, SPM and pre-university examinations. Some students are better with their hands where such vocational undertaking should be explored and nurtured. The key is to discover what activities the child is interested and talented in.

This habit of directing a child's direction in life solely based on academic results by overbearing teachers and parents must stop. The stereotype of a student scoring straight “As” to only pursue medical course or studies that require high admission rankings has its physiological detrimental effects if the student is not interested.

Successful entrepreneurs like Vincent Tan, Syed Mokhtar Albukhary and R Doraisingam Pillai did not go far in their academic life yet succeeded in building a business empire.

Some like the late Lim Goh Tong only found great fortunesin his fifties when the Genting Highlands resort materialised in 1971.

Granted that venturing out in working life without a solid academic achievement is tougher, but it takes more than an academic qualifications to make it in a dog-eat-dog world with unlimited changing variables.

I should know, as despite getting book prizes during my college examinations, it was such a tough struggle during my initial working life where I had to continue learning to push myself to work better and smarter.

Yet I still encountered failures which took a lot out of me physically and mentally. The thoughts of just giving up did cross my mind at times, but I am glad to have faced the tough hurdles because I would not be able to live with myself now had I thrown in the towel.

It matters not if one encounters failure. What matters more is what is the reaction towards failure, moving forward and pushing back up. The sun always rises no matter what.

The Education Ministry should also consider limiting comparisons and ranking for PT3, SPM and STPM examination announcements because having less than good results does not mean the end of the road to success.

As Thomas A Edison once said, “Many of life's failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.”

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.