Politician of India and the people who make policies seem to be the kind of people who believe, if all appearances are okay, all is fine. First the divide among the classes were forged in for posterity by giving a certain class the title of " Harijan" , as though the rest of us were devil's very flesh and blood and then the double whammy happened with the reservation policy implementation. Please read my blog: "Crippling Reservations". Now there is a new issue. Most people will not say anything against this out of politeness and to be politically correct. Suddenly, our politicians seem to think by allowing "poor" children, into rich schools, all will be set right.
I have several points to raise on this matter.
1. The class divide will become even more apparent and not solved by any far stretch of imagination. How is a child not be jealous or compete or even befriend leave alone feel equal to another child who owns play stations, x-box, laptop, goes abroad for his vacations, has hobbies like swimming, eats sushi, pasta, continental regularly. How is there going to be camaraderie if even the lingo and lifestyles are pole apart. I don't even want to go into details of personal hygiene, problems of lice, stealing, resentment, street language.How are the parents of those "poor" children supposed to be 3 thousand rupees every time the school takes the child is taken out for an excursion, some of them earn that much in a month perhaps a tad more. How is the child supposed to grasp the concepts of internet when he has never laid sight on a computer?
2. Why must the "haves", be constantly penalized by the government in the name of the "have nots". I fail to understand why even though we pay taxes through our noses, after our merge earnings after a lot of hard work and struggle, we now need to sponsor the education, stationery, uniform and other requirements when we can hardly afford the steep prices of our schools. With the exorbitant taxes why doesn't the government open school or pay teachers decent salary that they might want to come and teach in government schools? We have seen how well that worked out in the case of building homes for shanty dwellers. They moved into houses allotted to them, sold them or put them for rent and built brand new shanties!!!So much for good use of the taxes we pay.
3. Why doesn't the government come up with solutions to over all raise the economic state of this country. Why are they hoarding all the money in swizz accounts and not distributing out of their pockets to these "poor" people, if they care so much? Why aren't they creating job opportunities? Why not work to lift the living standards, the sanitation available and salaries for the parents of these children?
4. India is a democracy ( so they say in our Constitution but I don't think so any more), since when have we become a communist country? We are forced at every step to comply with stupid rules , written by prudes living in some 18th century, treating us like truant children an not adults. From being told what we can or cannot do in the privacy of our homes, to how long we can stay out, now we have to put up with our children being forced into the proximity of children (not their fault), whose education so far, is not at par with the children of these private schools, hence leading to a falling in the teaching standards .
The Solution :There are far better solutions to this problem. One of them was implemented way before these moronic laws were passed. In my school, we had the literacy league programme. Here we children would volunteer and teach street children, post our school hours. Not only that, this movement was so successful, our Principal started a school for them. Once we left school around 2:30, the second shift school was run. They got access to our classrooms, desks, benches, we donated books, stationery even clothes. This was a win-win situation. This makes far more sense. Soon the children would be at par, they studied well. They were given the opportunity they needed. We even cajoled their parents to allow them to attend school. We provided the infrastructure to lay a solid foundation for all the children, with harmony. Their was no resentment from either side, one for becoming aware of how much they lacked, and the other for being forced to do something against their will. I suggest all schools use this module and actually help every child to live with dignity, without facing bullying, ragging or teasing.
Equality is something that has to be created over time and it can never, ever be forced!!!!
I have several points to raise on this matter.
1. The class divide will become even more apparent and not solved by any far stretch of imagination. How is a child not be jealous or compete or even befriend leave alone feel equal to another child who owns play stations, x-box, laptop, goes abroad for his vacations, has hobbies like swimming, eats sushi, pasta, continental regularly. How is there going to be camaraderie if even the lingo and lifestyles are pole apart. I don't even want to go into details of personal hygiene, problems of lice, stealing, resentment, street language.How are the parents of those "poor" children supposed to be 3 thousand rupees every time the school takes the child is taken out for an excursion, some of them earn that much in a month perhaps a tad more. How is the child supposed to grasp the concepts of internet when he has never laid sight on a computer?
2. Why must the "haves", be constantly penalized by the government in the name of the "have nots". I fail to understand why even though we pay taxes through our noses, after our merge earnings after a lot of hard work and struggle, we now need to sponsor the education, stationery, uniform and other requirements when we can hardly afford the steep prices of our schools. With the exorbitant taxes why doesn't the government open school or pay teachers decent salary that they might want to come and teach in government schools? We have seen how well that worked out in the case of building homes for shanty dwellers. They moved into houses allotted to them, sold them or put them for rent and built brand new shanties!!!So much for good use of the taxes we pay.
3. Why doesn't the government come up with solutions to over all raise the economic state of this country. Why are they hoarding all the money in swizz accounts and not distributing out of their pockets to these "poor" people, if they care so much? Why aren't they creating job opportunities? Why not work to lift the living standards, the sanitation available and salaries for the parents of these children?
4. India is a democracy ( so they say in our Constitution but I don't think so any more), since when have we become a communist country? We are forced at every step to comply with stupid rules , written by prudes living in some 18th century, treating us like truant children an not adults. From being told what we can or cannot do in the privacy of our homes, to how long we can stay out, now we have to put up with our children being forced into the proximity of children (not their fault), whose education so far, is not at par with the children of these private schools, hence leading to a falling in the teaching standards .
The Solution :There are far better solutions to this problem. One of them was implemented way before these moronic laws were passed. In my school, we had the literacy league programme. Here we children would volunteer and teach street children, post our school hours. Not only that, this movement was so successful, our Principal started a school for them. Once we left school around 2:30, the second shift school was run. They got access to our classrooms, desks, benches, we donated books, stationery even clothes. This was a win-win situation. This makes far more sense. Soon the children would be at par, they studied well. They were given the opportunity they needed. We even cajoled their parents to allow them to attend school. We provided the infrastructure to lay a solid foundation for all the children, with harmony. Their was no resentment from either side, one for becoming aware of how much they lacked, and the other for being forced to do something against their will. I suggest all schools use this module and actually help every child to live with dignity, without facing bullying, ragging or teasing.
Equality is something that has to be created over time and it can never, ever be forced!!!!
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