Schools
Posted in Friends on 09/05/2009 11:00 am by anvesha
School schools
It was raining dogs and cats in fact it was raining elephants and dinosaurs out. I was glad I wrapped myself up warmly in that thick blanket. But somebody was ruining my comfort by knocking the door. I cursed that somebody and went to open the door. I opened the door in the foulest of moods to yell at that somebody and saw my sister standing there.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"I want a dress" she said
"What dress? I don't have any of your dresses, go and search in your room" I was about to close the door when she bounced in and said '
"I want your dress, that blue one, if you don't let me get in and take that dress by myself, I will end up getting late to school"
"Isn't it Sunday?" I asked her
"Yes, it is, you have great knowledge about week days especially about Sundays, don't doubt your knowledge for sake of our special classes"
"On Sunday?" I asked
"What's wrong with you, you know we have special classes on Sunday, even you had when you were in 10th" she said.
Yes she is rite; I did attend special classes when I was in 10th standard. In fact holiday classes which our school people used to conduct on every holiday from 9am to 1.00 pm. I always wonder what they teach in these 3 to 4 hours which they can't on weekdays for 7 hours and another 2 hours of evening special classes. I myself attended all these special classes when I was in 10th standard and am still unable to make out what I was being taught during those special classes which I was not during the weekdays. I remember those Sunday and holiday special classes as an opportunity to wear something other than our school uniform and show off in front of other students. These special classes used to make us exhausted. If parents ask school authorities to stop conducting these special classes, they used to compliment themselves that this is the way of teaching and this is how students study. As if our parents didn't complete their 10th standard and directly secured their Graduation. Its not even like the students emerge as state toppers after attending these classes, I didn't come out with a 99% marks memo, neither did any of my batch mates, and this applies to every other batch, my seniors, super seniors, juniors .
My sister will be so exhausted after she gets back home that she don't even eat properly after all that 16 hours of hard work or rather torture. She wakes up at 5.30 am and gets ready for school. Her bus waala comes at 6.45 am and starts yelling out. She stops eating whatever she is eating and leaves with her bag which weighs around 15 kgs. Now-a-days my mom has started stuffing food into her mouth when she is half asleep. After making-her-eat mission is accomplished by mom, my sister puts her brains to work till late at night. She goes to school every day, without any break, without any holiday and without any sick leave.
Last week my dad got a call that my sister has fainted in the school. My dad immediately sent my uncle along with an auto to pick her from the school. But what literally startled me was that it was my sister's friend who called my dad to inform about my sis. Isn't it a school administration's responsibility to inform parents that their daughter fainted in school??
When my dad called up the principal, he got to know that principal was too occupied with a marriage. Fine everybody has their own social life, but shouldn't other teacher or sir call and inform us about it. Is this a way???
It's not only my sister who goes through all this mess, every student in the city goes through this. There are many schools out there who believe in making students life hell so that the school can boast about good academic results. Earlier these accusations were only against some corporate schools and colleges, but now, every school has turned like this. So we can't even ignore a school on the basis that it's a corporate school and they squeeze their students, every school does the same.
The other day when we had a family gathering on the eve of my grand father's barsi; my uncle got a call from his daughter's school authority who were inquiring about his daughter's already-informed-through-leave-letter absence. His daughter is in 6th standard. Now what is this all about???
Does studying an answer a million times since morning to evening is called as preparing for exams?? Don't students stand a least chance of being aware of the concept behind that answer? When all these education institutions say that students should absorb and not simply study, why they themselves are making students mug up the syllabus??? Don't you all think there must be an end to all this???
I was lost in thoughts when my sister patted my hand and asked-
"Don't you think these blue baalis goes down well with this blue dress?"
"Aah you and your matching business, I'm glad I don't have a blue lipstick and blue mascara"
I said and went back to sleep.
Girls are girls
And I can't sacrifice my sleep.
Anvesha .$