A CBSE circular of February 10, 2011, describes the School-based Assessment card. It reports a student’s performance “in scholastic as well as given co-scholastic areas in terms of grades.” The co-scholastic areas include Life Skills and Attitudes and Values.
The CBSE manual names what is assessed: “attitude towards Teachers, Schoolmates, School Programmes and Environment.” The class teacher grades it “after a period of observation over one year.”
In March 2017 the CBSE told schools how to grade discipline in classes 6 to 8. The grade “will be based on the factors like attendance, sincerity, behaviour, values, tidiness, respectfulness for rules and regulations.” It has three levels: A for Outstanding, B for Very Good and C for Fair.
A pupil who leaves an Indian school receives a transfer certificate. The format of the Rukmani Birla Modern High School in Jaipur lists “General Conduct” as item 19. On a filled-in certificate from another school, the entry reads “Good.”
The Annual Performance Appraisal Report for Group A officers, in the format published by the National Institute of Technology Mizoram, has a section for the “assessment of personal attributes.” It carries a weight of 30 percent. Each item is graded on a scale of 1 to 10.
The items include “Attitude to work,” “Sense of responsibility,” “Maintenance of Discipline,” “Inter-personal relations” and “Overall bearing and personality.” A separate item reads: “Please comment on the integrity of the Officer.”
Sachin Tendulkar has told how, as a boy, he skipped his own match to watch and cheer the senior team. His coach was Ramakant Achrekar. “I got a tight slap on my face. The tiffin box in my hand flew and all its contents spread across,” Tendulkar said in 2018.
Achrekar’s words are reported in two versions. One is “You don’t need to clap for others. You focus on your cricket and do something so that others clap for you.” The other is “Play in such a way that others cheer you.” Tendulkar said: “That was the biggest lesson of my life. After that I never missed a match.”
In November 2013, as he retired from international cricket, Sachin Tendulkar told reporters that his childhood coach Ramakant Achrekar had finally praised him. “Sir till now had never told me well played.”
Shabash: well done. The Rekhta dictionary describes it in Hindi as a word of praise that encourages and raises courage. Its example: Shabash, bete, tumne itna achchha match khela ki aaj ji khush kar diya. Well done, son. You played such a good match that you made me happy today.
Mehnati: hardworking. Rekhta gives “hard worker, hard-working, laborious, industrious, diligent.”
The motto of IIT Kharagpur, the first Indian Institute of Technology, is yogah karmasu kaushalam. Yoga is skill in action. The line is from the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 2, verse 50.
In the film Chak De! India, the coach Kabir Khan, played by Shah Rukh Khan, speaks to the national women’s hockey team: Aaj tum achha khelo, ya bura, yeh sattar minute tumhein zindagi bhar yaad rahenge. Whether you play well or badly today, these seventy minutes will stay with you all your life.
In another scene he tells the players: Mujhe states ke naam na sunayi dete hain na dikhayi dete hain, sirf ek mulk ka naam sunayi deta hai, I-N-D-I-A. I neither hear nor see the names of states. I hear only the name of one country, India.
Theivaththaan aagaa theninum muyarchidhan meyvaruththak kooli tharum. Even when fate does not allow success, effort pays the wages of the body’s labor. This is couplet 619 of the Thirukkural, in its chapter on perseverance.