The other day I was sitting with my maternal family when an eccentric knock disturbed our symposia, strangely it was my maternal cousin who had come after his tuitions. My maternal cousin, who is an only son of my only maternal uncle needless to say, is an apple of everyone’s eye. He after formal greetings put his bag on the ground not gently though.The bag which my eyes had caught earlier. The bag which I felt was no less than a cruelty of melancholies to be shouldered in the name of education, which they call is “an all-round development.”
I after a small hiatus tried to weigh the weight of the bag which was lying on the ground. To weigh it exactly, I held it snugly in my hand and hauled it harder than hard to assume the weight it carried, and what I felt was a weird tremor in the hand— And no sooner than that my contemplation pushed me to muse.
My little cousin, who is the student of 5th standard enrolled in one among the top private institutes of the valley is no strange example to be shoot of an exploitation which every next child of my valley is testimony of. The early dawn streets are demonstrations to be cited here as illustrations; when we encounter the budding kids carrying the gigantic bags on their shoulders as if they studying any ‘Rocket Science’ or any specialisation in the field of medical science.
Accept it as my bitter reality, when I accompany my cousin towards the bus stop during early hours, I get to see the perfect example of William Black’s Chimney Sweeper, wherein he discuss in few lines the plight of the kids who were being exploited by ecclesiastical groups in the name of religion, but the irony is, religious groups are not the exploiters here but the educational reformers who are at the helm of affairs framing the policies and charters in the name of education, the policies which are not student friendly but lethal and deadly. When the priority in entire framework is laid upon a student and he is treated no less than any ‘hallmark’ or with spatiality around whom the whole educational policies and frameworks revolve.
I reckon, pertinent to mention here that all the central schemes related to education have left a big question mark (?) at the reformers and the ground reality stands they have produced the results worth naught, citing few examples; Midday meals, RMSA, SSA NCF, have failed in producing their desired results.
In 2017, I was reading an article on a national newspaper where it had been highlighted that students of Government School in Punjab were unable to pronounce the English letters/Sounds exactly, the teacher while answering the scribe had said that she had tried her level best but had failed in her results.
I once had an interaction with J&K Bank manager, Mr Mohammad Ayub Bangroo, who in his prime youth hand made his feet into the last tier of Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS). Who while interacting seemed well versed with varieties to speak about. On getting cosy, he spoke about his son who had secured 70% marks in 6th Standard for which he was summoned by the school authorities; as 70% is considered now a day’s bad academic record? The bank manager further added that on reaching the said school he was stated that his son’s bad academic record was the result of his co-curricular actives, wherein he was more active than his concern subjects.
On hearing son’s active participation in co-curricular activism had made Mr Ayoub Bangroo, full of jubilance, and he had requested the school authorities including the principal not to worry much in his son’s bad academic performance.
On asking why did he do so? He replied in one sentence, “Because a sound mind lies in the sound body.” He further added in a manner of nostalgia while rewinding his own childhood days that he would spend most of his time in playing cricket at “Eidgah-Srinagar” and after sundown would return home unexcitingly though. Mr Bangroo, asked me “How many kids do we see these days with toys, cricket bats and balls in their hands?”
In our society we lack likes of Mr Ayoub Bangroo, who does not want to snatch the childhood from his children and is not after ‘rat-race’ ofpercentage which does nothing than increasing the index of Suicidal rates.
These days we see parents pressuring their children so much that it is landing them into the state of depression and void where form it seems before them easy to die than to live. Such parents cannot be called the care-takers but life-takers; who act not less than any exhibitionists and for meagre exhibition take the lives of their children. Even after knowing nature has made every individual different form the other.
What stands the irony, the followers of this rat-race are the ignorant ones but well versed, well-educated and who serve at the elite designations but leave no stone unturned to deteriorate and snatch the life of their kids in the name of education; who otherwise can easily make an omelette of their life.
Most of the think-tanks in the field of the education I have come across during my professional courses are adamant followers of ‘Nature’ and stress that nature being the best source of knowledge. They further accentuate that nature being the best educator through which one can achieve the best knowledge; be that M.K Gandhi, John Dewy even Rabindranath Tagore, who all were the followers of naturalism, while saying, “Nature being the best source of Knowledge”.
Even the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), while addressing his companions would cite examples from nature to make them understand the related topics.
When we talk of education it in no ways mean booming the books at the back or fetching the best grades, but it means developing problem solving aptitude which unfortunately is lacking in our sub-continent.
The day we shall understand this, that day suicidal index of our country will come down.
In 2016 MHRD passed a circular vide no. (F.DE.23 (548) Sch.Br.2016/1864)in favour of reducingthe weight of the school bags in Primary and Secondary School, where in it is mentioned from I to II the weight of the bags must be 1.5Kg, from III to V: 2.3 kg, from VI to VII: 4 Kg,from VII to IX: 4.5 Kg, for X it must be 5 Kg only.
(Author is RK Columnist and can be reached on: [email protected])
