FIRST DAY IN SCHOOL-DO WE NEED TO RUSH AT ALL?

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Around this time of the year, both parents and children go through anxious moments.  The result of the board examinations declared around this time of the year brings either relief or heartbreaks for parents. But, more than the result, the wait itself is always anxious.

After coming to terms with the reality of how the children fared in board examinations, another worry sets in.  Securing high marks cannot guarantee happiness or relief for the parents as they need to find resources to send their children to schools and colleges. Even with government supported scholarships, parents need to make substantial expenditures too.

For those parents whose children did not do well in the examination, the situation is even worse. Low marks means that they have to be sent to expensive private schools for further studies or drop school altogether. Both options are often hard to swallow.

And then it is time for new admissions for those children who upon acquiring the age of six get to go to schools for the first time.  Many complex issues arise during the time of new admissions. Parents need to produce some valid documents to prove that the child has attained the minimum age for enrollment.

From the time when parents bribed officials to exempt their children from going to school just a few decades back, parents now go to any extent to get their underage children admitted in schools. This is a drastic change in importance of school education between then and now. Today, many manage to submit fake documents but not all can do that. Most cases go unreported but, sometimes this issue come to light and serves as embarrassments to those involved at best.

While it would give temporary relief to get our children admitted in schools this unethical way, in doing so, we are also overburdening our children. This is something like exploitation in real sense. After a year or so, some parents manage to reconcile the tampered documents with correct ones but, others fail to correct them and hence become a thorny issue later.

When children are taken for the first time to schools, most children panic and will refuse to go to school unless a parent or a guardian is around. This goes on for few days for some, while it takes weeks for other children to get used to life in school. Children crying in school are a common thing. Most of us must have cried the first time we went to schools. At worst, the anxiety and stress makes these young children to pee and even defecate in the classrooms.

So it is important for parents to understand the mental state of a child.  We must let them attain proper age and mental development before we decide to send them to schools. Why deprive them their childhood by making them older fictitiously with tampered birth certificates? But, on the other hand, there must also be accommodating rules in admission criteria. For example, a child who is short of two or three months for admission age can best be allowed admission rather than make the child wait for another academic session by which time, this particular child is seven to eight months too old. Perhaps this kind of rigidity must be the reason why children are being admitted under aged with fake documents.

It is important for parents to understand that there is no need for us to rush our innocent children into shouldering responsibilities that they are not mentally and physically prepared to take. And let us not deprive them their right to childhood if we love them and yes, we all love our children right?

Gyembo Namgyal

February 25, 2015 11: 55 PM

THE HAIRY ISSUE

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It is school time yet again. And yet again another pressing and thorny issue will confront both schools and students and that is hair, especially the length of hair boys can maintain while the school is in session.

The reason, many boys come to school with less than desirable hair dos. The length, the colour and the general presentations fall short of many schools’ authorities’ desire. It is often the first admonishing students get from their teachers on. To the students, this is seen as excessive interference on what is essentially a non-issue. Many see it as a means for teachers to exert their authorities. Both the teachers on the one hand and, students on the other feel they are right in their own ways.

I don’t know which set is right and which is not but, there certainly seem to be something right and something wrong in the both stand according to what little comprehension abilities I have.

When I say teachers or school authorities are right in taking particular interest on having students abide by a set of rules and conduct, they are right. And maintaining an ideal length of hair by the students is not just good to look at but it shows the inculcation of discipline. Discipline is an essential part of growing up to be not just physically but mentally strong and responsible citizens of the country.

Having said that, I also think students may be right to some extent objecting to something personal like individual’s hair. Certainly, there are obviously more important things to promote and inculcate in schools than be obsessed by something like hair. But, while students must have the choice to maintain their hair at an acceptable length, it must not be taken as a licence to colour bizarrely or style it as the want like punks and hippies.

Herein is a need to maintain balance, follow middle path. Teachers must be little lenient and allow children to maintain manageable and acceptable length of hair instead of forcing children to cut their hair like conscripted army recruits. Length of hair must not be a way to exercise authorities over children. Let’s be little democratic now. We certainly need to bring out responsible and capable children and what good will a haircut, the army style do? I think we do not really need teachers carrying scissors in the assembly session and scare students to hide even in cupboards to escape from humiliation.

This post is about how hair has become a big issue in schools. For now, this post is about boys’ hair alone. What do you, readers think? Please share your thoughts.

Gyembo Namgyal

February 17,2015 10:50 PM  

JITTERY TIME FOR PARENTS

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February is a time when people in the villages have plenty of time to rest and relax.  It is a time to relax and have fun the village ways playing archery, Khuru and Doegor during the festive month. Not anymore.

Today, it is not a festive month. It has become a haunting month for parents who have children studying in classes ten and twelve. Although, the calendar’s most coveted festival; that of traditional New Year is overshadowed by the performances of children who appeared Bhutan’s common examinations.

So many dreams are broken this month and so many young souls are left crestfallen when the results of classes 10 and 12 were declared. Some are driven to drugs and alcohol from which they can never return to normality. Some are pushed to bankruptcy for which they will remain indebted for years to lenders.

The scenes are more of pain and frustrations than happiness. Parents are jittery looking for money to ensure the fulfillment of the desires of their children. Children are often oblivious of the reality. Already most parents have resorted to various means to have their children educated  by now.

Few are spared the need to worry of their children’s education. Some are exceptionally good at studies and handful are economically well off to be able to comfortably send their children to good government colleges and schools. For majority, it is still a painful time. Many farmers cannot send their children to private schools even when the desire for education still burns in those young souls.

T heir little land to avail education loan for their children. Already people are exploiting various means to make life easier for their children

Some have yielded to pressures from their children, parents and relatives, yet others have to go knocking o the doors of those who have.  For these categories of parents, to be freed from the shackles of the issue will remain not just a daunting task but one that will haunt for many years.

I saw many parents pour their frustrations. Some are being just casual of their high marks but most others are just the opposite. They toil, they work hard and the situation demands them to perform even better, not for their sake but, for the sake of their children.

Gyembo  Namgyal

February 12, 2015 11:58 PM