I was indulging in some channel browsing today and I came across an interesting “discussion” in a section of the media (I frankly believe that discussions no more exist on news channels, it’s more of one upmanship that happens on these shows with the anchor taking center stage and hogging up most of the on-air minutes!!).It was based on the most recent right that has come into force in India-the right to education, wherein every child irrespective of social background/caste/creed is entitled to education and the so called private & public schools have to set aside a certain number of seats to accommodate them.
I was appalled at the way the principals and so called custodians of the so called “blue blood” public schools and high flying convents arguing as to how difficult it would be for children of the “lesser privileged” (we never run short of clichés do we? we have a name for anyone and everyone) people to blend in with the kids of the what do I call them-“more than privileged”?
My take on this is entirely different. Children are such innocent souls, it is the adults perceptions of things that puts in all the wrong ideas into their minds,(something we adults don’t even take responsibility of),I think rather than being paranoid as to how these kids would blend in with the other kids, the so called privileged kids might learn a lesson or two from these underprivileged kids, because the former grow up in such a protected and closed environment that there is hardly any scope for discovery or creativity, whereas the latter come from a strata of society that is so close to reality that they could actually teach the former a lesson or two in terms of humility, human behavior practical thinking & above all sensitivity-some of the qualities that are completely lacking in today’s urban kids.
Children can be innocently cruel and I think its best to leave children to deal with their problems on how they would adjust with each other. Somebody on the panel raised a point that these kids would find it difficult speaking the English language. It’s such a shame, that even after so much of education and exposure people in such high echelons still don’t understand what the basic purpose of a language is. A language is a tool or a medium to get the message across; as long as that purpose is served, everything else is secondary
Another aspect which I could think of is the homework angle, an additional effort must be put in by the teachers to see to it that these kids are not given a large amount of homework, as we need to bear in mind that the support system in terms of educated parents at home might be absent, so it might turn out that the children are not able to complete their homework which in turn makes them stop coming to class for fear of ridicule and which would ultimately result in dropout.
I think its just the will of the people in so called seats of powers, if they want to extend the power of education to one and every child, it can easily be done but like I feel, its all question of will and want and please don’t pit kids against kids in this effort.. With this wishing every child a happy and prosperous school life. Signing off
Life Again
