How does one define merit?
Does getting the highest marks in an exam mean that one really has “merit”?
Our whole educational system needs to be revamped.
Everybody has a gift for something.
Applying a flat global benchmark of written rote memory exams is a very poor indicator of the actual gift that a person has.
As Albert Einstein said:
“Everybody is a genius.
But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree,
It will spend its whole life believing it is stupid.”
The current focus on “merit” is just on getting the highest marks, but it does not really indicate the ethics, attitude, competence, gifts, skills, character, patience and perseverance of a person which is true merit.
Merit is not hard to determine.
It only takes a few years of close observation to figure out the above attributes of a person.
Most people can fake it for a few weeks or maybe even months, but to fake it for a few years is really hard.
Merit should not just take into account the competence of the individual, but also the wake the person creates.
Does the person overrule empathy, morals, ethics and relationships to achieve results?
I think empathy, attitude, morals, ethics and relationships are more important than the results itself.
In fact the Bhagavad Gita sums it best