HRD Minister Kapil Sibal's idea of doing away with the Class X Board exams is a sweet nothing. It's music to the ears and it doesn't amount to much. He wants to ease the burden on children to score high in the Class X Boards. Had he asked students, parents and teachers, all them experts and committees, he'd know it's not so much the exams kids hate.

In fact, it's not the exam at all. It's the sheer paucity of opportunities thereafter. It's the puny scale and scope of Class XI and Class XII. It's the Size Zero scale and scope of college. Ironic as it is, it is a fact that the average Chintu went off to a Chicago uni because he didn't get through Khalsa. More and more students are going off to do all sorts of courses across the world. Melbourne beckons after Class XII because successive governments have failed them.

Sibal says, "The Indian education system is a source of trauma for both parents and children". No, sir. The education system is not the source of trauma. It's gaining access to the system at the nursery and college levels that's traumatic. It's coping with the dearth of options within the system that's traumatic. If his decision is based on the tragic instances of children committing suicide post poor results, it's not the education system, Mr Sibal. It's because their options close after that. Doors close. A child who is pushed to kill herself over low marks will blame herself for a low percentile as well. She's still left stranded.

For the average student, given the opportunity and access to educational resources of teachers, textbooks, libraries and peer-help, Class X is easy. It's not rocket science. There's satisfaction in achievement. Go around, minister, generally time-pass with kids right across the spectrum.

Ask them what they fear. The exam or the school's failure to ensure they get to do what they want in class XI?More seats, job-oriented vocational studies after Class X, more teachers, more of every damn educational resource is what we need.

And please give me a break that I must remember the poor rural Indians. Hah! They, more than anyone else, laugh that the government can't ensure opportunity for the rich city kids, what in heaven can it do for them?